Illinois once again averaging 20 COVID-19 deaths per day
Illinois is averaging 20 deaths a day during the past week from COVID-19, a figure the state hadn't reached in more than a month.
State health officials announced Thursday that 27 more residents have died from the disease, pushing the state's seven-day rolling average to 20 deaths per day since Aug. 14. The state's death toll since the outbreak began stands at 7,833.
Illinois hadn't averaged 20 or more deaths per day since July 14, when the rolling average was 22 deaths a day, according to Illinois Department of Public Health records. On Saturday, the state was averaging just 14 deaths a day for the week.
COVID-19 deaths are considered a lagging indicator when determining the prevalence of infection in a community. It can take more than a month for rising caseloads to result in fatalities, experts said.
"The death numbers are also going to lag behind hospitalization numbers," said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, Edward Hospital's medical director of infection control and prevention. "And patients can be hospitalized for weeks or even longer than a month before they expire or a decision is made to withdraw support."
The last time the state was averaging 20 or more deaths a day, the majority of deaths were occurring in Chicago and the suburbs. However, downstate counties account for the majority of deaths this time.
On Thursday, Jefferson County in the southern part of the state reported five deaths, the most of any county that day.
"All of our recent deaths are related to ongoing outbreaks we've had at long-term care facilities," said Amy Harrison, administrator at the Jefferson County Health Department.
Two separate outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the county that were diagnosed Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 resulted in 35 infections at one location and nine at another, Harrison said.
Jefferson County also recorded two deaths each day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to IDPH records.
Only seven of Thursday's deaths were recorded in Chicago and the suburban collar counties. The rest came from downstate.
Pinsky said another reason the fatality rate has lagged lately is because a larger number of younger residents are becoming infected with the disease. They aren't as susceptible to the more dire outcomes of COVID-19, but they can easily transmit it to older and medically vulnerable individuals they come into contact with, he said.
Pinsky said COVID-19 patients admitted to Edward Hospital in Naperville are starting to skew younger.
"We are starting to see more patients in their 40s and 50s who got it and less of those in their 60s and 70s than we did before," he said.
Ultimately, as the infection rate rises, so will the likelihood of more deaths from the respiratory disease.
IDPH reported 1,832 new cases Thursday. The state's seven-day rolling average infection rate now stands at 4.4%. Thursday was the first day since Saturday the average infection rate hadn't increased.
The state is also averaging 1,899 new cases of COVID-19 a day during the past week, the most since late May, IDPH reports.