Evanston’s health department reported three additional COVID-19 deaths today, bringing the death toll here to 41 and 13 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 710.
That means nearly one in every one hundred Evanston residents now has been diagnosed with the disease. That’s slightly higher than the rate across the state as a whole, but substantially lower than the rate in the City of Chicago.
Chicago reported 496 new COVID-19 cases today for a total of 44,666 as well as 26 more deaths for a death toll of 2,075.
Statewide 1,622 new cases were reported today for a total of 117,455. The state death count rose by 84 to a total of 5,270.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported conducting 88 more COVID-19 tests in Evanston and finding 11 positive cases fo a positive rate of 12.5% Fivty-eight of the tests and nine of the new cases came from the south Evanston 60202 ZIP Code. The state’s case counts tend to differ somewhat from counts reported by the city.
Statewide, results of 21,796 COVID-19 tests were reported today with a positive test rate of 7.4% The seven-day rolling average for positive test results statewide was 7.8%
At his news conference this afternoon, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said today’s would be the last of his series of regular daily briefings on the coronavirus crisis, but that the state would continue to provide daily statistical updates on the course of the pandemic as the it loosens restrictions on public activities moving into Phase 3 of his Restore Illlinois plan.
With restaurants opening for outdoor dining today and other businesses reopening, Pritzker and State Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike urged resident to continue to practice social distancing, wear masks in public places and take other steps to reduce the chance that the state will experience a resurgence of the disease.
“Our journey is long, and far from over,” Pritzker said. “The virus is still out there and still very dangerous.”