State reports smallest daily COVID-19 case total since October

State health authorities on Sunday announced 6,003 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, the fewest reported on a single day in nearly eight weeks.

The Illinois Department of Public Health also confirmed 79 additional deaths from the coronavirus, 38 of them in Cook County. State officials also reported four deaths in DuPage County, three in Kane County, one in Lake County and four in Will County.

The case total is more than 1,500 fewer than the 7,562 reported Saturday, and the lowest since Oct. 27. However, it is not unusual for figures to be down on Sundays.

Hospitalizations also dipped, from 4,624 reported as of Friday night to 4,389 as of Saturday night. Of the patients hospitalized Saturday, 991 were in an intensive-care unit and 546 were on ventilators.

With Sunday's cases, the state has reported a total of 900,370 infections since the pandemic began, including 15,202 deaths.

The statewide infection rate continued to decline and stood at 7.8% on Sunday, based on a seven-day average

That number, which was 9.1% the previous Sunday, is calculated by dividing the number of new COVID-19 cases diagnosed over seven days by the total tests processed in that time.