Wednesday brought talk by some local officials about curves that are flattening, and a slowing of the increase of coronavirus cases in the Chicago area.

It’s a bit hard to see, quite yet, on the charts that NBC5 Investigates has been updating every day. Most Chicago-area counties continue to have distinct increases of new cases. The one bit of good news is that the increases are more steady – like stair steps – and less like the exponential curves that shot so quickly upward in past weeks.

That said, there is a hint of a flattening curve -- in some counties. In the first chart below, check out DeKalb and Kendall Counties in the Chicago area; Newton County in Indiana, and Champaign and McLean Counties in downstate Illinois. Remember, the aim is to have those curves flatten out at the top, to form a plateau:

And in this second chart, there's a possible trend downward, in the daily reports of new cases, both in Illinois overall, and in specific counties:

On the other hand, today marked some rather dramatic jumps in cases, in some smaller Chicago-area counties, including Berrien County in Michigan (12 new cases just today, including 2 new deaths); Kenosha and Walworth Counties in Wisconsin, LaPorte and St. Joseph Counties in Indiana, and Winnebago and Rock Island Counties in Illinois:

Add to that, a sharp jump in recent deaths in both McHenry and Will Counties - including the deaths of several residents at the Symphony nursing home in Joliet:

And one more thing: South Suburban Park Forest has overtaken the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago (on Chicago's far north side) as the hardest-hit community, concerning coronvirus cases. You can use the chart below, to search by zip code or community name, to find out where your area ranks, in terms of coronavirus per capita: