Illinois reports 14 more COVID-19 deaths, another 1,467 infections

State health officials announced 14 additional COVID-19 deaths Sunday along with 1,467 more infections.

The state's seven-day average infection rate now stands at 3.9%, that's up 1.3 percentage points from a month ago when the weekly infection rate was just 2.6%.

Among the 14 dead, six were Cook County residents, one was from Kane County and another was from McHenry County. The other six were from five downstate counties.

The state's death toll from COVID-19 now stands at 7,517, while 181,943 Illinois residents have been infected by the respiratory disease, according to Illinois Department of Public Health figures.

Sunday, 26.8% of the new cases were diagnosed in Chicago residents. Suburban Cook County residents made up 12.6% of the new cases, DuPage and Will counties each made up 6.1% of the new cases. Kane County residents accounted for 4.2% of the new cases, while residents of McHenry and Lake counties made up 2.1% and 2.0% of the new cases, respectively.

In all, residents of Chicago and the suburbs accounted for 60% of the new cases announced Sunday, according to the IDPH.

Hospitals statewide added 60 COVID-19 patients Saturday as well, according to IDPH figures. There were 1,407 patients with COVID-19 infections in hospitals across the state by the end of the night Saturday, including 339 in intensive care.

However, the state averaged slightly fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past week - 1,409 a day - than the previous week when 1,444 patients were being treated each day.

Hospitalization metrics are one of the key components guiding state health officials' decisions about whether to roll back certain business operations and gathering size capacities.

Other metrics include the overall positivity rate of the region as well as consistent growth of new cases in the region. Nearly a dozen counties in Illinois are currently at warning levels because of an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.