Another 131 COVID-19 deaths, 12,022 cases reported in Illinois Thursday

State health officials Thursday reported 12,022 new confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 and 131 more deaths from the respiratory disease.

Of the fatalities, 29 were reported in Cook County, 11 in DuPage County, five in Kane County, four in Lake County, two in McHenry County and eight in Will County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday night was 6,032, down by about 100 from the night before.

But of those hospitalized, slightly more were in intensive care and on ventilators from a day earlier. The state reported 1,224 patients were in the intensive care unit (an increase of 16), and 724 on ventilators (an increase of 45), officials said.

In total, the state health department has reported 11,963 deaths and 697,489 infections since the onset of the pandemic.

Laboratories have processed 107,556 tests in the last 24 hours, for a total of more than 10.2 million.

The state's virus positivity rate was 10.3% based on a seven-day average.