State warns of suburban uptick in new COVID-19 cases
Kane County is the only Chicago-area metropolitan county that didn't exceed the state's warning level for new cases per capita last week.
The metric shows Chicago, suburban Cook County, and DuPage, Lake, McHenry and Will counties all saw more than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents for the week ending July 18, according to Illinois Department of Public Health reports.
Meanwhile, state health officials announced Friday that 19 more people have died from COVID-19 and an additional 1,532 residents have been infected.
That brings the death toll to 7,385, with the state now reporting 168,457 people have been infected.
The new cases come from a batch of 44,330 tests, which represents a 3.5% infection rate for the day.
The state has averaged 1,303 new cases during the past seven days for an average infection rate for the week of 3.4%.
Kane County barely missed triggering the warning with 48 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Statewide, 35 counties and Chicago exceeded the warning level. For comparison, St. Clair County, on the east side of St. Louis, experienced 160 new cases per 100,000 residents last week, IDPH reported. That was the highest level of any county in the report.
The per capita metric is just one of eight the state uses to monitor the overall COVID-19 risk in a county.
"Individuals, families and community groups can use these critical data to help inform their choices about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do," IDPH officials wrote on the agency's county risk metric website.
Chicago's rate was 64 new cases per 100,000 residents. The number of new cases in other suburban counties was: suburban Cook County, 56; DuPage County, 51; Lake County, 63; McHenry County, 64; and, Will County, 54.
The per capita rate was the only metric exceeded by Chicago and the suburban counties.
Elsewhere in the state, four counties – Adams, LaSalle, Peoria and Randolph – exceeded warning levels for multiple metrics.
“These counties saw outbreaks associated with business and risky behavior,” IDPH officials wrote in a news release Friday.
In Randolph County, where the warning level was exceeded in three metrics, IDPH officials blamed “congregate settings, numerous bars not complying with distancing and masking, a large party with more than 200 people” and infections spreading among households.
The other metrics include the county's positivity rate for testing, the number of tests administered, hospital visits and admissions, as well as deaths and medical facility availability.
IDPH officials also reported hospitalizations for COVID-19 infections were fairly stable Friday. Statewide, 4.2% of all hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients. Among the intensive care units throughout the state, 8.4% of those beds were occupied by 325 COVID-19 patients.