DuPage County surpasses 1,000 COVID-19 deaths with 13 reported Wednesday, fourth-deadliest day of the pandemic

The DuPage County Health Department on Wednesday reported 213 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in the county, with 13 deaths: 1 man in his 60s, 4 women in their 70s, 1 man in his 70s, 5 men in their 80s and 2 men in their 90s.

It was the fourth-deadliest day of the pandemic.

The county now has seen a total of 61,570 coronavirus cases including 1,001 deaths, according to the health department. The recovery rate among DuPage County cases as of Dec. 29 was 97.8%.

The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen 11 consecutive days under 12%. The region’s positivity rate increased to 10.4%. Currently, 19.5% of medical/surgical beds are available and 25.2% of ICU beds.

The region has 11 consecutive days over the 20% threshold for ICU bed availability, and one day under the 20% threshold for medical/surgical bed availability.

Within this region, Kane County’s seven-day positivity average is at 11.9%, and DuPage County is at 9.6%.

Hospitalizations have decreased nine out of the past 10 days in this region.

Finally, within the DuPage/Kane region, there are 67 available, staffed ICU beds out of 324 total and 362 ventilators available out of 579.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 7,569 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 139 additional deaths Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling average of Illinois’ positivity rate decreased from 8.5% to 8.4%.

By town, Wheaton has had 3,269 total cases, Glen Ellyn 2,316, Lombard 3,173, Villa Park 1,912, Hinsdale 953, Westmont 1,549, Darien 1,258, Woodridge 1,946, Downers Grove 2,851, Elmhurst 3,160, Warrenville 993 and Winfield 803. Addison has had 3,848 confirmed cases, Naperville 5,217, Carol Stream 3,356 and West Chicago 3,449.

The health department provides further information on its data dashboard for COVID-19-related hospitalizations, deaths, lab positivity and outbreak-associated counts by municipality. This additional information replaces the information that was previously provided daily in this format.

Information is also available for COVID-19 cases and deaths among DuPage County residents by race, ethnicity, severity, long-term care facility outcomes, underlying medical conditions and doubling time. Visit the DuPage County COVID-19 Dashboard at www.dupagehealth.org/covid19data.

Individual long-term care facility outbreak updates are provided on the Illinois Department of Public Health website.

Joshua  Welge

Joshua Welge

I am the Sports Editor for Kendall County Newspapers, the Kane County Chronicle and Suburban Life Media, covering primarily sports in Kendall, Kane, DuPage and western Cook counties. I've been covering high school sports for 24 years. I also assist with our news coverage.