As Illinois is seeing a statewide trend of rising COVID-19 cases, Oak Park Director of Public Health Mike Charley announced over this past week that 68 residents tested positive for coronavirus from Oct. 14-Oct. 21. River Forest also had 24 residents test positive during that span.
Those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Oak Park range in age from “less than 20 to 80s.” River Forest did not announce the age group of its new cases.
On Oct. 19, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that the statewide rolling positivity rate had increased to 5.4 percent, marking 15 straight days of increases.
That came as the state reported an average of 3,662 new cases each day from Saturday through Monday. Another 71 COVID-19 positive people died over the three-day period, bringing the Illinois death toll since the pandemic began to 9,236 among 347,161 confirmed cases with more than 6.8 million test results reported.
Hospitalizations, intensive care bed usage and ventilator usage for COVID-19 all spiked in the state as of Sunday evening as well.
In northeast Illinois, generally, positivity rates are even higher, according to regional data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The positivity rate in Region 9, which includes north suburban Lake and McHenry counties, increased to 7.3 percent, while Region 10 — suburban Cook County including the Landmark coverage area — increased to 6.8 percent. Chicago, which makes up Region 11, increased to 6.2 percent.
Oak Park and River Forest’s village governments have not reported any deaths in the month of October.
