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COVID-19 hospitalizations continue 'alarming increase'

With 167 more hospitalized for COVID-19 Wednesday, Illinois has 3,761 patients in the hospital for the disease - a figure that has more than doubled in less than a month.

"We're seeing an alarming increase in cases, which is adding about 10 patients a day," said Mary Lou Mastro, CEO of Edward-Elmhurst Health. "And from my perspective, staffing is our No. 1 concern."

Of those hospitalized statewide, 776 were in intensive care, which represents more than 20% of the state's ICU beds, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

None of the state's health regions are yet at warning levels that would warrant reducing elective procedures, but hospital administrators and state health officials are watching patients loads carefully.

"We are monitoring capacity throughout the state," said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. "We have a significant problem and we're going to have to come up with a creative solution. It is a very imminent issue."

State health officials Wednesday reported another 55 Illinois residents have died from COVID-19, while 7,538 new cases of the disease were diagnosed. That's the second-highest single-day total of new cases the state has ever recorded.

Thirty-one of the deaths were in the Chicago area.

Health officials also reported 10.5% of today's 71,857 COVID-19 tests resulted in new cases, the highest rate since May 22. The statewide seven-day average infection rate is 8.5%.

Suburban Cook, DuPage and Lake counties all had record high numbers of new cases Wednesday. Combined, they accounted for 35% of the state's new cases.

The state's death toll from the disease stands at 9,933 with 437,556 residents who have contracted the virus since the outbreak began eight months ago.

Mastro said this surge in patients is more problematic than the first round last spring. At that time, not only was Illinois one of the few hot spots in the country, the disease was mainly contained to the Chicago area. Hospitals could rely on help from out-of-state or downstate medical professionals that weren't as affected as the Chicago area.

"This disease makes the work more labor intensive, with all the donning and doffing of protective equipment and being the main communicator for the patients since they can't have visitors in many cases," Mastro said.

The entire state is under restrictions to tamp down COVID-19 spread, but the four suburban health regions all saw average test positivity rates increase again Wednesday and all are at 10.9% or higher. Continued increases could result in tighter restrictions, health officials said.

"With this amount of disease in our community, it's hard to think you could go anywhere and not be exposed," Ezike said. "Cases are increasing exponentially. We still need to work on the front end to try to limit the number of people who get sick. Then we can slow down that need for hospitalization."

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