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COVID-19 surge continues to rage locally, statewide

Graphs showing the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks make the spring peak look like a foothill. 

The fall surge of COVID-19 infections is getting worse in spite of statewide restrictions on indoor dining and gathering sizes, and on Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker implored local governments to do more to enforce mitigation rules.

“I cannot stress enough the severity of our situation. This rise is unsustainable,” he said. “What we all do will determine how much worse the coming weeks will look.”

The state set a new record for new cases in one day with 9,935 recorded on Thursday. 

The following chart shows numbers of cases and deaths in the state of Illinois since the pandemic began.

Homewood saw about 100 new cases in October. In the first five days of November there have been 40 new cases. If that rate continues, the village could see 240 new cases this month. Flossmoor saw about 40 new cases in October and has added almost 30 so far this month, which would result in 180 new cases for the month if the trend continues. 

Flossmoor has had 277 cases since the pandemic began. Homewood has had 594. 

Pritzker also asked for a moment of silence at his daily press briefing to remember the people who have died from complications related to the virus. On Thursday the number of deaths in Illinois topped 10,000 since the pandemic began.

As of Wednesday, all 11 regions of the state were under mitigation orders as case rates and hospitalization numbers have continued to soar.

Pritzker noted that mitigations take some time to show an effect. It took about six weeks after the spring shutdown before the peak in daily case numbers was reached. But he also said for mitigations to work, they have to be enforced, and he laid some blame for the current trend on businesses that are not following the rules and local officials across the state who have not been diligent about enforcement. 

“If you want to keep the economy moving forward they ought to enforce the mitigations we’ve put in place,” he said. “Moving the state backward is bad for every industry. When they don’t enforce them, people die.”

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