State reports 166 more deaths (66 due to data delay), 11,028 new cases
The Illinois Department of Public Health Saturday reported 166 more deaths, but it said 66 of them would have been in Friday's report except for a delay in reporting of death data.
The state has reported an average of 74 deaths a day over the last seven days, up from an average of 28 in the same period a month ago. The dead on Saturday included 67 in Cook County, 6 in DuPage County, 9 in Kane County, 7 in Lake County and 10 in Will County.
The state also reported 11,028 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, down sharply from the record 15,415 reported on Friday. The results were based on results of a record high 114,370 specimens tested by laboratories.
Saturday's statewide seven-day average infection rate was reported at 12.6% after peaking at 13.2% Friday. It's the first time that metric has declined since Oct. 23, according to IDPH.
Simultaneously, Chicago, suburban Cook County and the five collar counties all saw significant decreases to the seven-day average infection rates as well. That's due to the fact that most of those locations saw record, or near-record, numbers of test results, but only a moderate amount of new cases from those tests.
In McHenry County, the county's seven-day average infection rate dropped almost five percentage points to 18.1% Saturday after just 235 of the 2,093 tests taken by residents there resulted in new cases.
As of Friday night, 5,415 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19, up 53 from Thursday. Of those, 1,018 patients were in the ICU, up 28, and 499 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, up 11.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 562,985 cases, including 10,670 deaths.