Coronavirus Positivity Rate Declines Across Most Of Illinois

Jonah Meadows
Updated ·7 min read

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Coronavirus positivity rates declined in seven of Illinois' 11 COVID-19 resurgence mitigation regions during the first week of September, according to state public health officials.

As of Monday, the statewide positivity rate is 3.6 percent, falling by 0.6 percentage points over the past week. Last week, only one of the regions in the greater Chicago area — Lake and McHenry counties — showed increasing positivity rates, and positivity rates dropped sharply in Will and Kankakee counties following of restrictions on gatherings and businesses implemented last month, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Several suburban regions showed declines in coronavirus positivity rates last week — the Will-Kankakee region's rate was down by 1.2 percentage points, suburban Cook County's declined by 0.9 points, and the Kane-DuPage region's fell by 0.6 points. Chicago's rate dropped by half a percentage point.

Other than the north suburban Region 10, where the positivity rate rose to 6.4 percent, other areas of the state to show increasing positivity rates include the Edwardsville, Springfield and Champaign emergency medical services regions.

Region 4, the Metro East region, showed a rise of 0.7 percentage points back to 10 percent positivity, despite mitigation measures imposed by public health officials aimed at reducing the number of new cases of COVID-19. Hospital admissions in the region also rose last week, as measured by a rounded rolling average of new hospital admissions of people with symptoms of a coronavirus infection.

Region 6, the Champaign region, has the lowest positivity rate in the state. Officials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have implemented a comprehensive testing protocol, with more than 40,000 students taking twice-weekly tests. The region's positivity rate rose from 1.9 percent to 2.4 percent last week, and its average number of new hospitalizations of people with coronavirus symptoms was up by one.

The Springfield region, Region 3, saw its positivity rate climb by 0.6 percentage points, rising to 5.3 percent. A positivity rate of less than 5 percent is a good measure of whether enough tests are being conducted, according to Johns Hopkins University. Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration has set an 8-percent threshold for triggering new regional restrictions.

If a region has a positivity rate above 8 percent for three or more days in a row, public health officials have imposed additional measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Officials also promise new restrictions if a region's positivity rates show increases for seven of 10 days — as well as if increasing hospitalizations lead the availability of hospital beds to drop below 20 percent or if there is an increase to the rounded rolling average of daily new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illnesses," or CLI, during seven or more of the past 10 days.

As of Thursday evening, there were 1,619 people in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19, the department said, a decrease of two people compared to the prior week. There were 359 people in the ICU, one fewer than a week earlier, and 155 people were on ventilators, the same number as the prior week. And of Monday, there have been 8,314 deaths in Illinois among more than 262,000 cases detected, according to public health officials.

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Data through Tuesday was released Friday. Find the latest metrics from all regions below:

Region 1 (Rockford EMS region)

  • 5.3 percent coronavirus positivity on Sept. 8, down from 6.3 percent a week earlier

  • Three new daily hospital admissions with "COVID-like illnesses," or CLI, on average in the past week, down from five the week earlier.

  • 43 percent of surgical beds and 46 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 41 percent of surgical beds and 49 percent of ICU beds a week earlier

Region 2 (Peoria EMS region)

  • 7.0 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down by 0.4 percentage points compared to a week earlier.

  • 10 new hospital admissions a day with COVID-19 symptoms, up from nine the prior week

  • 42 percent of surgical beds and 44 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 40 percent of surgical beds and 40 percent of ICU beds a week earlier

Region 3 (Springfield EMS region)

  • 5.3 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, up from 4.7 percent a week earlier.

  • Three new daily hospital admissions, down from five the previous four weeks.

  • 38 percent of surgical beds and 39 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 35 percent of surgical beds and ICU beds a week earlier

Region 4 (Edwardsville EMS region)

  • 10 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, up from 9.3 percent the prior week. The Metro East region remains under additional restrictions in response to its high coronavirus positivity rates

  • Six new daily hospital admissions with COVID-19 symptoms, up from five the previous week

  • 31 percent of surgical beds and 43 percent of ICU beds are available, the same percentage of surgical beds and 6 percentage points fewer ICU beds compared to a week earlier.

Region 5 (Marion EMS region)

  • 6.3 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down by 0.1 percentage points compared to a week earlier

  • Four new average daily hospital admissions, up from three a week earlier

  • 47 percent of surgical beds and 61 percent of ICU beds are available, compared to 49 percent of both surgical beds and ICU beds a week earlier.

Region 6 (Champaign EMS region)

  • 2.4 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, up from 1.9 percent a week earlier. It nonetheless remains the region with the lowest coronavirus positivity rate in the state.

  • Nine people a day, on average, are being admitted to the region's hospitals with symptoms of the virus, up from eight a week earlier

  • 37 percent of surgical beds and 47 percent of ICU beds are available, an increase of 3 percentage points for surgical beds and a decrease of 4 points for ICU beds over the past week

Region 7 (Will, Kankakee counties)

  • 7.5 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down by 1.2 percentage points compared to the prior week. Additional restrictions were imposed on the region last month after the rate remained above 8 percent for more than three days in a row.

  • The rounded rolling average of the number of people newly admitted to hospitals with symptoms of COVID-19 remained at 11.

  • 33 percent of surgical beds and 34 percent of ICU beds were available at hospitals in the region, compared to 29 percent of surgical beds and 30 percent of ICU beds a week earlier

Region 8 (Kane, DuPage counties)

  • 5.4 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down from 6.1 percent a week earlier

  • Nine people a day are being hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, down from 10 a week earlier

  • 31 percent of surgical beds are available, the same number as the prior week, and 48 percent of beds in ICUs are available, an increase of 3 points compared to the week earlier

Region 9 (Lake, McHenry counties)

  • 6.5 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared to a week earlier. State public health officials last month added Lake County to its list of those that have reached a warning level for a surge of cases.

  • Seven new daily hospital admissions, down from nine a week earlier

  • 41 percent of surgical beds and 56 percent of ICU beds were available, up from 38 percent and 50 percent, respectively, compared to the prior week

Region 10 (Suburban Cook County)

  • 6 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down by 0.9 percentage points compared to the prior week.

  • 19 people a day were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms, on average, down from 22 percent a week earlier

  • 30 percent of surgical beds were available, up three points from the prior week, while availability of ICU beds remained steady at 34 percent

Region 11 (Chicago)

  • 5.1 percent positivity rate on Sept. 8, down by 0.5 percentage points during the prior week

  • 19 people were admitted to hospitals in the city, on average, with CLI, down from 20 on the prior week.

  • 27 percent of surgical beds were available and 39 percent of ICU beds remained available, both were up by 1 point over a week earlier.

This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch