Illinois health officials announce 1,178 new coronavirus cases and 39 new deaths
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 1,178 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 39 more people have died statewide as of Tuesday.
Illinois has seen a total of 4,923 deaths across the state during the pandemic, officials reported. A total of 113,195 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus.
The number of new positive cases was the lowest it has been since May 19.
An additional 17,230 have been tested for the virus, bringing the total number of administered tests to 786,794, 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 on 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 Tuesday, 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.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 2:41 PM.
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