Evanston reported four new COVID-19 cases today raising the total here to 128. The statewide count rose by 1,287 to a total of 13,549.
There were 436 new cases in Chicago for a total of 5,503. Skokie reported 14 new cases today for a total of 168, the largest number in any Cook County suburb.
The state reported 73 new deaths today for a total of 380. Chicago reported 27 new deaths for a total of 135. Evanston’s death toll remained at two. Skokie’s remained at one.
The chart above shows Evanston’s daily count of new cases along with the seven-day-average of new cases, which smooths day-to-day variations and may provide a better indication of when the city has started to “bend-the-curve” enough to signal that the peak of the pandemic here has passed.
The equivalent data for the state as a whole is shown below.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, at his news conference this afternoon, said the the number of people hospitalized for non-coronavirus reasons has dropped in recent days — in large part because there’ve been fewer traffic accidents resulting in injuries because of the reduction in people on the roads.
But, despite that, he said, the percentage hospital beds that are not in use has declined as the number of COVID-19 patients increases.
The governor also seemed to be indicating that the state’s restrictions on activities may extend well beyond the ned of this month.
Solutions that would allow a return to normal — a vaccine, effective treatments, tests for antibodies to the virus — are coming, he said, but they’re not coming “today, tomorrow or next month ” and life is unlikely to return to normal “in the next few weeks or even the next several months.”