New Illinois COVID-19 cases jump 20% from Friday's record

The number of COVID-19 cases detected daily in Illinois continued to spiral upward Saturday. It has now set records six of the last 10 days, climbing 20% from Friday's record and 95% from the record set 10 days ago.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 12,438 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease, up 2,062 from Friday's level. The department also reported 76 additional deaths, including 26 in Cook County, 4 in DuPage, 2 in Kane, 1 in McHenry and 2 in Will.

Separately, Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office announced Saturday that he and staff members who were exposed to COVID-19 have tested negative. The governor was exposed at a meeting with representatives of the restaurant industry on Monday. Pritzker learned of his exposure Friday and self-isolated.

Under Centers for Disease Control guidelines, the governor and staff are not considered close contacts because they met with the individual more than 48 hours before symptom onset, according to the news release. Therefore, they will not be required to quarantine for 14 days.

As of Friday night, 4,250 people were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19, an increase of 160 from the day before. Of those, 813 patients were in the ICU, up 27 people, and 367 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, up 28 people.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6 is 10.3%, up from 9.6% for the same metric on Friday.

The department is reporting a total of 477,978 cases and 10,154 deaths. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 98,418 specimens for a total 8,313,547.