14 new COVID-19 deaths, 1,853 new cases as test sites pivot for colder weather
As temperatures drop, public health experts are strategizing the latest COVID-19 logistical issue — how to maintain a strong testing program through a Midwestern winter.
The state is nearing a milestone with 5.9 million virus tests performed so far, officials said Monday as they also announced 1,853 new COVID-19 cases and 14 more deaths from the respiratory disease.
Drive-through testing sites with tents sheltering workers and equipment became go-to places for suburbanites concerned about contracting COVID-19 this spring and summer.
Now that it's October, the Illinois Department of Public Health “is working on plans to keep community-based testing sites operational during cold weather, including tents that have already been arranged in Aurora,” agency spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said.
Elsewhere, “the DuPage County Health Department is in the process of finalizing plans for our future COVID-19 testing efforts,” spokeswoman Stephanie Calvillo said.
The Will County Health Department postponed testing at a community health center Monday because of the weather.
“There are discussions going on about how to plan for colder weather testing,” spokesman Steve Brandy said.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which handles about 20% of tests in Illinois and uses a saliva-based process, is also pivoting.
With fall in full swing, “many test sites are being transitioned to indoor locations,” said chemistry Professor Paul Hergenrother, who helped develop the saliva test.
Total virus infections in Illinois stand at 303,394, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported, and the number of children and teenagers infected is inching up.
Nearly 12.8% of people infected with COVID-19 are age 19 and younger, or 38,795 infections, state data showed Monday, compared to 12% in early September. The largest demographic of COVID-19 cases remains Illinoisans ages 20 to 29 at 20%, or 60,973 infections.
The average number of new cases daily for the last seven days is 1,965, up nearly 3% compared to 1,909 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28.
The virus test positivity rate is 3.4% based on a seven-day average. Illinois labs reported 38,538 tests in the last 24 hours, resulting in a daily test rate of 4.8%.
Currently, the highest average test positivity rate in the metro region is 5.7% in Lake and McHenry counties based on results from Thursday posted Monday. Elsewhere, the test positivity rate is 5.5% in Will and Kankakee; 5.2% in suburban Cook, DuPage and Kane counties; and 4.6% in Chicago using a seven-day average.
There were 1,631 patients in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19 as of Sunday night, higher than the seven-day average of 1,595.
Deaths statewide have reached 8,805. Among those were four Cook County men — two in their 60s, one in his 70s, and one in his 80s — and a DuPage County woman in her 80s.