CHICAGO– The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today is announcing seven more individuals in Illinois have tested positive at the IDPH laboratory for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“The virus is here in Illinois. While it may not be in your community now, we anticipate it will be eventually. We all need to take action now by postponing large events and restricting visits to nursing homes to limit the spread,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Guidance for this novel virus is changing day by day, sometimes hour by hour, but we want to empower people to think about what they can do to reduce their risk of possible infection, as well as spread of the virus. The state will continue with containment efforts while also implementing mitigation strategies and we’re asking for your help in these efforts.”

Approximately 29% of the cases in Illinois are travel associated, about 44% are a contact of a COVID-19 case, and the remaining cases do not have a clear connection and could be the result of spread in the community. While the vast majority of cases are recovering, approximately 94% are in isolation either at home or in the hospital. At this time, there have been no deaths associated with COVID-19 in Illinois.

At this time, we have the following information about the most recent cases.

Chicago

40s - female

Youth - male

Kane

70s - male

Cook

70s - female

70s – female

50s - male

McHenry

60s - man

Public health officials are still investigating the travel history of these individuals and any potential contact with a known COVID-19 case. Public health officials will identify and contact people who are considered close contacts of these cases.

An increase in cases each day not only includes monitoring and following-up with each patient for care, it also means dozens if not hundreds more close contacts need to be identified and contacted. IDPH understands there is a high demand for information and we want to provide as much information as possible, but our top priority is investigating all cases and protecting patient confidentiality. Reports of suspected cases are inevitable, especially when we see more spread, but we want to reassure people that we are sharing as much information as we can as soon as we can.

For information about how you, your school, workplace, and community can prepare, please visit Preventing COVID-19 Spread in Communities. For general questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.