As case positivity rates drop to July levels, 31 more school outbreaks have been reported in suburbs

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The positivity rates of COVID-19 cases in the suburbs and Chicago fell below 4% for the first time since July 24.

The rate in some suburban counties had exceeded 6% last month, according to records from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

But this week also saw 31 more outbreaks of COVID-19 in suburban schools, the IDPH reported.

Case positivity measures the rate of new cases on tests administered, and is often given as a seven-day average to account for daily abnormalities and better show trends.

Chicago’s seven-day case positivity rate is the lowest in the region at 2.8%, and the highest is in Will County at just over 3.9%.

Suburban Cook County reports a seven-day case positivity rate of just under 3%, while Lake County is 3.5%, Kane County is 3.7 % and that of DuPage County is 3.8%.

In McHenry County – where the seven-day case positivity rate climbed to nearly 7.8% in August – the rate is just below 3.9%, according to data from the IDPH.

The statewide seven-day case positivity rate is 4.06%, the first time it has been this low since July 30.


While the daily number of new cases in each county and Chicago has remained relatively stable over the past few weeks, the number of tests has increased dramatically, mostly in schools.

There are now 83 school-related epidemics in the suburbs in the past 30 days, according to IDPH records. Information on school outbreaks, which is updated on Fridays, is available on the agency’s data tracking website, dph.illinois.gov/covid19/school-aged-metrics.

Outbreaks are defined as two or more cases of COVID-19 linked by a common exposure, which, in the case of schools, can be in classrooms or at sporting events.

In suburban Cook County, there are now 26 outbreaks in schools in the past 30 days, up from 14 last week. DuPage County now has 16 school outbreaks.

In the past 30 days, 13 outbreaks have been reported in schools in Kane County and 12 in McHenry County.

There are also 16 reported outbreaks in schools in Will County, but none in Lake County.

IDPH officials also said on Friday that 2,082 patients were being treated for COVID-19 infections in hospitals in Illinois. This is a decrease of 81 patients compared to the day before.

Of those currently hospitalized, 502 are in intensive care.

Many hospitals report that the majority of current COVID-19 patients are not vaccinated.

IDPH officials also reported on Friday that 54 more people had died from the virus and 3,601 new cases had been diagnosed.

That brings the state’s death toll from COVID-19 to 24,546, with 1,590,342 cases of respiratory illness diagnosed since the start of the pandemic.

IDPH officials also reported that an additional 21,372 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered statewide.

Illinois vaccine suppliers have now administered 14,284,288 vaccines since their availability nine months ago.

IDPH records show that 54.3% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated.



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