298 new cases of coronavirus, 11 deaths reported Sunday in Illinois

Rush University Medical Center staff collect nasopharyngeal swab samples to test people for the coronavirus at the hospital’s drive-thru testing site on Nov. 19, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The cases were diagnosed among 35,598 new tests, holding the average 7-day statewide positivity rate at its record low 0.9%.

Illinois state health officials announced on Sunday 298 newly identified cases of the coronavirus and 11 more deaths, including a Chicago-area woman in her 20s.

The cases were diagnosed among 35,598 new tests, holding the average 7-day statewide positivity rate at its record low 0.9% since state officials began tracking that in May 2020. Chicago’s positivity rate is 1.3%.

Sunday’s caseload increased slightly from Saturday’s 268, but it’s still too soon to see effects of Friday’s full reopening of the entire state, including Chicago, which lets businesses operate at full capacity, free of pandemic-related restrictions, such as capacity limits and social distancing requirements.

Five of the 11 reported deaths came from Cook and Will counties, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

COVID-19 has killed at least 23,061 people — ranging in age from younger than one to more than 100 —in Illinois to date, of the 1.38 million people who’ve tested positive since March 2020. More than 5,000 Chicagoans have died of the virus.

Still, 625 people remain in Illinois hospitals with COVID, 180 of whom were in the intensive care unit and 93 on ventilators.

On Saturday 22,917 more doses of vaccine were administered — less than half the number of people one week earlier — bringing the state total to 11,924,966 doses to date. Some 52% of adults in Illinois are now fully vaccinated, with more than 69% of grownups receiving at least one dose of vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts put the threshold for herd immunity at 80% of the population being fully immunized.

For help finding a vaccine appointment in Chicago, visit zocdoc.com or call (312) 746-4835. The city is offering in-home vaccinations to any resident 65 or older, as well as those with disabilities or underlying health conditions.

For suburban Cook County sites, visit vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or call (833) 308-1988.

To find providers elsewhere, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

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