Illinois surpasses 100 new COVID-19 deaths for first time since May

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 145 new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest single-day total since late May.

The new deaths reported brings the state’s total death toll to 10,434.

The 145 deaths is the highest since 159 were reported on May 27 and the fifth-highest number of deaths reported on a single day.

The department also reported a single-day high of 12,657 new cases of COVID on Wednesday, surpassing Tuesday’s high of 12,623.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total tests is 12.4 percent, a 3.9 percent increase from last week. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests is 12.4 percent, a 3.5 percent increase from last week.

There were 93,464 more tests processed during the past day. A total of 8,664,483 tests have been processed.

As of Tuesday night, 5,042 Illinoisans were in the hospital with COVID-19, an increase of 1,281 from last week. Of the patients in the hospital this week, 951 were in the ICU and 404 patients were on ventilators.

Twenty-seven percent of Illinois’ 34,984 hospital beds were available as of Wednesday morning. Twenty-nine percent of the state’s 3,766 ICU beds were available as were 73 percent of the state’s 5,755 ventilators.