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Illinois Reports Highest Daily COVID-19 Case Count In Two Months, With 1,772 New Coronavirus Cases; Gov. Pritzker Says 'This Is Hugely Problematic'

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in more than two months on Thursday, with 1,772 confirmed cases of the virus in the past day, a trend Gov. JB Pritzker called "hugely problematic."

It's the first time that the Illinois Department of Public Health has reported more than 1,700 new COVID-19 cases since May 25, when the state reported 1,713 cases, and the most daily cases reported since May 24, when IDPH reported 2,508 new cases.

Gov. JB Pritzker, who on Thursday visited two counties currently on the state's warning list for the virus, said "this is our moment to pull together to protect the progress that Illinois has made since the beginning of the pandemic, and to keep our families and our friends and our neighbors healthy and safe."

"As much as I'd like to, this virus isn't something we can wish away. So we have to act responsibly and collectively to protect the people that we love," he said. "To date, relative to most other states, Illinois has seen real success in handling this pandemic, but it doesn't take long at all for a trajectory of success to turn around, and right now things are not headed in the right direction."

Illinois has now reported more than 1,000 daily cases of the virus 17 times in July, compared to only twice in all of June.

"Every region, every region has increasing positivity rates, and increasing cases. This is hugely problematic," Pritzker said. "It's not something that we wanted to see happen, but it means that we're going to have to take a hard look at what do we need to do, what mitigations do we need now in order to get us back in line with the direction that we were going, which was reducing those positivity rates."

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has reported 176,896 total COVID-19 cases, including 7,478 deaths.

The new cases announced Thursday came as IDPH reported 41,134 tests for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, for a one-day positive test rate of 4.3%. The seven-day statewide positive test rate for the past week stands at 3.8%, compared to 3.4% one week ago, and 2.6% three weeks ago.

As of Wednesday night, 1,452 virus patients were being treated in Illinois hospitals, including 353 in intensive care, and 149 on ventilators. The state's COVID-19 hospitalization numbers have been relatively flat since late June.

So far, the vast majority of COVID-19 patients have recovered from the disease, with a 95% statewide recovery rate as of Monday. The state's recovery rate calculates the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, and have survived at least 42 days after their test.

Four counties in Illinois -- Adams, LaSalle, Peoria, and Randolph -- have been placed on a "warning level" for COVID-19, meaning tighter restrictions could be imposed if infection rates and hospitalizations continue to increase.

Specifically, Pritzker said in Region 2 of Illinois, which includes LaSalle County, there have been seven straight days of increases in the positivity rate, and three straight days of increases in hospitalizations. If the region sees four more days of increasing hospitalizations, many businesses could be forced to close, or reduce operations.

"That means bars will close again, a possible reduction in service at restaurants, and smaller capacity limits on other activities. The specifics of the reversal will be determined and dependent upon the types of activities that are most likely causing, or could cause greater community spread of the virus," he said.

The governor said public health officials also have seen troubling trends in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs, although neither of those regions is yet at "warning level."

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said, not only has the state seen a recent rise in overall virus cases, but officials also have seen a slow increase in hospital admissions.

"Of course, these are indicators that we are making a bit of a u-turn, and so this may mean that businesses temporarily will have to further reduce capacity limits. It may mean that our favorite restaurants now has to go back to takeout dining,"

Ezike said Illinois residents can help avoid those kinds of rollbacks in reopening rules by regularly washing their hands, keeping six feet away from other people whenever possible, and wearing a mask whenever they go out in public.

She also said officials have seen too many instances of people having large parties and other gatherings, without observing the proper health precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

"A lot of private gatherings, people in their homes, in their basements, having large gatherings where there's no masking and no distancing; that is a huge driver of the new cases that we're seeing. But it doesn't stop there," she said. "From the private party – that no one is able to monitor, of course – people can get infected, and have gotten infected in those spaces, and then they do move on to a bar or a restaurant, where there's additional opportunity to spread."

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