Officials on Wednesday said there were 192 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, a record high for one day.
The previous high number of deaths reported during a 24-hour period was 176 on May 5.
The additional deaths reported Wednesday bring the statewide death toll to 3,792.
Officials also reported 1,677 new known cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of known cases to 84,698 since the pandemic began.
State officials said earlier this week that additional data shows that the state may not begin descending from its peak in the pandemic until mid-June, when previous models anticipated the peak would hit the state between late April and mid-May.
The higher case counts are linked to a higher rate of testing. There were 17,668 COVID-19 tests conducted over the past day, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike said Wednesday.
The statewide seven-day rolling positivity rate among those tested was 17% as of Wednesday, according to the Department of Public Health. To date, 489,359 tests have been performed in Illinois, Ezike said.
“With the increase of testing around Illinois, for sure there are an increase in positive COVID-19 cases detected, that is expected,” Ezike said. “But rather than focusing on the large numbers of cases yesterday, one should take into account the very large amount of specimens.”
With Edwards County now reporting a case of COVID-19, 99 of Illinois’ 102 counties have seen known positive cases.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com
