IL Repeats Highest 24-Hour Coronavirus Death Toll As 125 Die

ACROSS ILLINOIS — For the second time this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that 125 Illinois residents died of coronavirus over a 24-hour period, marking the same grim milestone the state reached Thursday. There were 1,585 additional cases diagnosed since Friday, for a total of 29,160 cases of coronavirus throughout the state. To date, 1,259 people have died of complications from the virus.

Despite what Illinois Department of Health Director Ngozi Ezike called a"sobering" death toll, Pritzker urged residents to look for signs of hope in the midst of this challenging time. "For many of you this pandemic has been draining, emotionally and physically."

Pritzker said, "It's equally important to look out the window, to walk outside, to look at all the hopeful signs."

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One of those signs of hope is that testing availability has increased across southern and central Illinois, according to Ezike. "Clinics in Carbondale, Marion, Champaign and Addison will soon be able to test their communities for COVID-19 and send those specimens directly to IDPH for quicker turnaround on the results," Ezike said.

Despite the high death toll, Ezike said, "It is with some guarded optimism that we say that the growth is slowing," encouraging residents to continue to stay home.

Pritzker also announced that the Telehealth remote patient monitoring program has been extended throughout the state to help those "potentially affected with a mild version of COVID-19" who are able to recover in their own homes. The service is available to everyone regardless of insurance coverage, Pritzker added.

To find your local Telehealth remote patient monitoring number, visit the state's coronavirus website.

"Everywhere you look there are people stepping in to fill the gaps in other people's lives," Pritzker said, highlighting a number of examples of people coming together to help others in the midst of the crisis, including the Red Cross's 2020 Class of Heroes.

Pritzker said residents are even doing their part to help by just staying home. He said, "You are the difference makers, you are the helpers, you are bending the curve."

The additional deaths in Illinois include:

• Cook County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 30s, 3 males 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 4 females 50s, 6 males 50s, 9 females 60s, 11 males 60s, 8 females 70s, 20 males 70’s, 11 females 80s, 12 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 4 males 90s
• DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s, 3 females 90s, 1 male 90s
• Kane County: 2 males 50s
• Kankakee County: 2 females 80s
• Kendall County: 1 male 60s
• Lake County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
• McHenry County: 1 male 70s, 3 males 80s
• Monroe County: 1 male 80s
• Peoria County: 1 female 80s
• Will County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s