(The Center Square) – The Illinois Department of Public Health reported the state’s highest single-day death toll of the year Wednesday.
Health officials reported 9,757 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 along with 238 deaths. Those numbers include some data that was delayed over the holiday weekend, according to a news release.
The previous high was 192 deaths on May 13.
Statewide, IDPH has reported a total of 748,603 cases of COVID-19 and 12,639 deaths since the outset of the pandemic. Of the total number of deaths, 6,047 were reported from long-term care facilities. That’s about 47 percent of the total.
The virus has been particularly devastating for those older than 70. Seventy-two percent of all COVID-19 deaths in Illinois were in people 70 or older, according to state data.
In the past 24 hours, laboratories reported 85,507 tests for a total of 10,699,586. As of Tuesday night, 5,764 people in Illinois were in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 1,190 patients were in the ICU and 714 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, IDPH said.
The preliminary 7-day statewide test positivity rate from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 was 12.5%.
The state’s COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 97%, according to IDPH data.
