Number of coronavirus cases in Illinois eclipses 100,000 as 146 new deaths announced

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 2,388 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 146 more people have died statewide.

Illinois has seen a total of 4,525 deaths across the state during the pandemic, officials reported Wednesday. A total of 100,418 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

An additional 21,065 have been tested for the virus, bringing the total number of administered tests to 642,713, IDPH said in a news release.

The latest IDPH metrics showed that Southern Illinois is on track to start Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois plan at the end of the current stay-at-home order on May 30. Phase 3 includes the reopening of manufacturing, offices, retail, barbershops and salons with proper safety precautions and groups of 10 or fewer will be allowed.

The requirements to reopen under Phase 3 are:

• At or under a 20 percent positivity rate of all COVID-19 tests and increasing no more than 10% over a 14-day period,
• No overall increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-like illness for 28 days, and
• Available surge capacity of at least 14 percent of ICU beds, medical and surgical beds and ventilators.

As of Wednesday, Southern Illinois was on pace on all three metrics:

• A positivity rate of 6 percent and a decrease of 5.4 percentage points over a 14-day period
• A 71.5 percent decrease in hospital admissions for COVID-like illness since May 1
• A surge capacity of 37 percent of ICU beds, 46.8 percent of medical and surgical beds and 77.1 percent of ventilators.