Here’s where each health region in northern Illinois stands as of Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Illinois reported 23 more deaths and 1,598 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. This marks Illinois’ highest single-day total of new confirmed cases in the month of July.

The state tested 39,633 people over the previous 24 hours. Illinois’ seven-day rolling positivity rate has risen for a third straight day to 3.2%. Illinois has now seen 165,301 total cases of the virus and 7,347 people have died. A total of 2,348,487 people have been tested.

At a news conference Wednesday, IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike where she expressed concerns over rising cases and positivity rates in Illinois, she compared wearing a face mask to wearing a seat belt, saying it saves lives and wondering aloud "So what's the controversy?"

"This is not about restricting freedom," Ezike said. "This is about decreasing the transmission of the virus."

Gov. JB Pritzker said the state is now up to 1,600 contact tracers. The current contact tracing efforts were reaching about 61% of cases.

Pritzker expressed concern over the rising positivity rates in the southwest part of the state near St. Louis. The region that includes St. Clair County is at 6.9% positivity.

"You can go from 3% positivity to Arizona's 25% positivity in the blink of an eye," Pritzker said. "We've been there. Let's not let that happen again."

Pritzker also issued some stern comments directed to people choosing to not wear a face mask.

"It demonstrates a callous disregard for the people in your community if you don't wear a mask," he said. "If you're not wearing a mask in public, you're endangering everyone around you, so the enemy is you."

As of late Monday night, Illinois had 1,456 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those, 337 were in the ICU and 132 were on ventilators.

Regional update: According to a July 15 update to the governor's COVID-19 response plan, the state will be tracking public health metrics in a slightly different way to monitor any potential resurgences of COVID-19. Additional restrictions can be placed on any of the state's 11 health regions if the region sustains an increase in its average positivity rate for seven days out of a ten day period.

A region may also become more restrictive if there is a seven-day increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-related illness or a reduction in hospital medical/surgical beds or ICU capacity below 20%. If a region reports three consecutive days with greater than an 8% average positivity rate, additional infection mitigation will be considered through a tiered system of restriction guidelines offered by the IDPH.

The North Suburban region (McHenry and Lake counties) has seen four days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 3.8%. Currently 42% of medical/surgical beds are available and 57% of ICU beds.

The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen four days of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 4.0%. Currently 33% of medical/surgical beds are available and 50% of ICU beds.

The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen three days of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 4.9%. Currently 33% of medical/surgical beds are available and 39% of ICU beds.

The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen three days of positivity increase and one day of hospital admission increases. Currently 44% of medical/surgical beds are available and 54% of ICU beds.

The North-Central region (Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren and Woodford counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 3.9%. Currently 42% of medical/surgical beds are available and 49% of ICU beds.

Chicago has seen two days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 4.8%. Currently 32% of medical/surgical beds are available and 43% of ICU beds.

Suburban Cook County has seen five days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate is 3.9%. Currently 30% of medical/surgical beds are available and 40% of ICU beds.

Newly reported deaths include:

- Cook County: 1 male 40s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 3 females 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s

- DeKalb County: 1 female 90s

- DuPage County: 1 female 50s

- Kane County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s

- Knox County: 1 female 70s

- Lake County: 1 female 70s

- McHenry County: 1 male 50s

- Montgomery County: 1 female 100+

- St. Clair County: 1 female 70s

- Winnebago County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s