December 30, 2020 – The first case in Illinois was announced on January 24th, a Chicago area woman who had just returned from Wuhan China. It was just the second case in the US. The woman’s husband soon became infected as well, marking the first known person to person transmission of COVID-19 in the Country. State public health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike spoke with the media that day about the new strain of Coronavirus that we were not yet calling COVID-19.
By February 11th, the virus officially had the name of COVID-19. Concerns grew rapidly in March as new cases increased to 585 in Illinois. On March 20th, Governor JB Pritzker announcing the State’s first mitigation efforts:
In early April, officials began advising the public to wear a mask to prevent the transmission of the virus and on May 1st, a statewide mask mandate went into effect.
Cases dropped over the summer and some businesses were allowed to open back up under the Governors Phase 4 Restore Illinois Plan. However, new mitigations were applied regionally as the test positivity rate began to increase towards the fall. In addition, fall and winter school sports were put on hold. Today, bars and restaurants remain closed to indoor dining services.
Total cases in Illinois are now at nearly 950,000 and more than 16,000 people have died in Illinois due to COVID-19 related complications.
