Saturday numbers show continued COVID-19 resurgence in Illinois

The discouraging trend in COVID-19 cases continued Saturday, with the latest numbers from the Illinois Department of Public Health showing a growing test positivity rate, more people in ICU and on ventilators, and a continued higher level of cases and deaths.

The department Saturday reported 2,905 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease and 31 additional confirmed deaths.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Oct. 3-9 is 4.0%, up from 3.8% as of Friday and 3.3% at the beginning of the week.

Of the deaths, nine were in Cook County, three in Lake County, two in Will County and one each in DuPage and Kane counties. Lake County is one of 26 counties officials placed at a warning level Friday for an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 because the state's risk metrics were exceeded.

Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 66,256 specimens for a total of 6,243,635.

As of Friday night, 1,807 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19, down five from the previous day. Of those, 406 patients were in the ICU, an increase of 11, and 166 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, an increase of 13.