Illinois logged another 6,664 COVID-19 cases on Monday – the lowest daily caseload in seven weeks. Hospitalizations and the number of deaths from the virus also dropped yet again. But that encouraging news was tempered a bit by a report of the first case of the Omicron subvariant in Illinois.
Although patients hospitalized with COVID-19 remained high at 5,238 occupied beds a daily total reached last year on only a handful of days it still meant 2,100 fewer patients hospitalized with the virus than when Illinois hit its record high on Jan. 12.
With coronavirus hospitalizations at an all-time high across Illinois, experts say it’s critical for residents to continue following basic precautions and to stop dismissing the most infectious variant yet as "mild."
The 488,873 COVID-19 tests reported as administered on Saturday were actually from nearly a week’s worth of tests, a public health official said. Other COVID-19 metrics released on Monday suggest the latest astronomical surge of the Omicron variant is far from over.