CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The state of Illinois has recently and repeatedly broken its daily record of new coronavirus cases, and Tuesday was no exception: State health officials reported a whopping 12,636 cases of COVID over the latest 24-hour tallying period.
It comes as the state — and the nation — is dealing with a second wave of coronavirus and as COVID-related hospitalizations here threaten to overwhelm medical centers.
Illinois regions are under increasingly strict mitigation measures that have impacted businesses, especially the restaurant industry. Gov. JB Pritzker again said he has not ruled out sweeping restrictions that hark back to the state’s stay-at-home order earlier this year.
“Additional statewide action is possible,” he said.
The state also reported 79 additional deaths from coronavirus.
Meantime, Illinois reached a benchmark of testing. Pritzker said under the state’s coordinated efforts, more than 100,000 coronavirus tests were administered within a 24-hour period — a far cry from months ago, when Illinois was working to hit a minimum of 10,000 tests daily.
The Illinois statewide positivity rate — the percentage of tests that come back positive, for coronavirus — is just over 13%. Pritzker noted some neighboring states are worse off; Iowa is at nearly 50%, he said.
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