Illinois public health officials Thursday announced 2,056 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and 25 more deaths. That raises the statewide known case tally to 268,207 throughout the course of the pandemic. The state reported death toll is now 8,392. The statewide seven-day rolling positivity rate stands at 3.6%.
The region that includes Will and Kankakee counties, which had harsher rules imposed by the state after it surpassed a positivity rate of 8% for three straight days, stood at 6.4% as of Wednesday, below the threshold that would restore rules in place statewide under the fourth phase of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten announced Wednesday that football will resume this fall, declaring a unanimous vote and a plan to play eight regular-season games in eight weeks beginning the weekend of Oct. 23-24.
However, Pritzker slammed the door on the possibility that Illinois’ high school athletes might join their college counterparts, saying football and other contact sports are still too risky in the midst of the pandemic.
Additionally, some suburban schools have decided to reopen closed buildings for remote learning supervision to a limited number of elementary-age kids, but for a fee.
Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
12:10 p.m.: 2,056 new known COVID-19 cases and 25 more deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 2,056 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional fatalities. The Illinois Department of Public Health is now reporting a total of 268,207 cases, including 8,392 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the start of the coronavirus’ spread.
The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 57,800 new tests, according to the IDPH.
1,558 people in Illinois are in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 359 patients were in the ICU and 144 patients are on ventilators, according to state health officials.
10:49 a.m.: Lincoln Park ZooLights will go on, but with a new, $5 charge
Park Zoo’s holiday ZooLights festival will go on this year, but with a first-time-in-decades cover charge to help the zoo offset pandemic-year losses, the institution announced Thursday.
Tickets to the annual bedecking of zoo grounds with holiday lights will be $5 per person regardless of age or membership status, and they go on sale to zoo members Sept. 24 and to the general public Oct. 1.
10:27 a.m.: 42 Wisconsin football players and staff members — 29 since Sept. 1 — test positive for COVID-19 as the Big Ten prepares for its season
Forty-two players and staff with the Wisconsin football team have tested positive for COVID-19 as the Big Ten makes plans to get the season started.
Public Health Madison & Dane County says the 42 people tested positive since June when athletes and staff returned to campus. Twenty-nine of the positive tests were from Sept. 1 through Sept. 15.
Health officials in Madison and Dane County are urging fans not to gather to watch football games when the Badgers begin their season in October.
8:45 a.m.: Attorney general says coronavirus lockdown orders second only to slavery as government intrusion on liberty
Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery.
In remarks Wednesday night at conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery.
“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said to applause from the crowd.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 House Democratic leader, told CNN…
Read More: COVID-19 in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Thursday