CHICAGO – Governor J.B. Pritzke and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced Wednesday a new mitigation plan to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 in Illinois as the state reported nearly 1,200 new confirmed cases of the virus Wednesday.
The plan calls for mitigation strategies in different areas of retail if a certain region of the state sees a sustained increase in the 7-day rolling average of positivity rate and either a sustained 7-day increase in hospital admissions for a COVID-19 like illness or a reduction in hospital capacity that threatens the capability to handle a surge, or three consecutive days averaging a positivity rate above 8%.
The plan also accounts for months of additional data and research as public health experts reach a greater scientific understanding of the virus and how it spreads. A map of the resurgence plan regions will be available on the state’s coronavirus website.
As states across the country have experienced a surge of new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, Illinois remains an outlier with lower hospitalization and infection rates and one of the highest rates of testing in the U.S.
IDPH is now reporting a total of 156,693 cases of COVID-19 across the state since the pandemic began. 7,226 Illinoisans have died of the virus.