Illinois passes 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths since start of the pandemic

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 1,111 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 160 more people have died statewide as of Wednesday.

The announcement brings the number of deaths due to coronavirus to more than 5,000 since the pandemic began.

Overall, Illinois has now seen a total of 5,083 deaths across the state during the pandemic, officials reported. A total of 114,306 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

An additional 17,179 have been tested for the virus, bringing the total number of administered tests to 803,973, the agency 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 May 29. 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% 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% of ICU beds, medical and surgical beds and ventilators.

As of Wednesday, Southern Illinois was on pace on the following metrics:

• A positivity rate of 4.7% and a decrease of 1.0 percentage points over a 14-day period.
• A 52.2% decrease in hospital admissions for COVID-like illness since May 1.
• A surge capacity of 45.4% of medical and surgical beds, 40.5% of ICU beds and 76.5% of ventilators.