The Daily Illini COVID-19 updates for May 7: Illinois tops 70,000 confirmed cases, 3,000 deaths

By Ethan Simmons, News Editor

All 700 employees of Rantoul Foods, the site of a recent COVID-19 outbreak, will be tested for the coronavirus, said Julie Pryde of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District on Thursday.

Pryde said the outbreak has infected 52 employees at the Rantoul processing plant so far, and around 200 have been tested.

At least six Illinois children have been hospitalized with a mysterious inflammatory illness that’s potentially linked to COVID-19, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

It’s the same illness that’s shown up in children in New York and Europe; symptoms can include a fever, rash, red eyes, swollen hands and feet, vomiting and abdominal pain.

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District announced 19 more cases of the coronavirus in Champaign County on Wednesday, pushing the countywide total to 236 cases.

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Of the 236 cases, 107 are active, 123 have recovered and six have died. Six people with active cases are currently hospitalized. Fewer than 5% of Champaign County’s 4,817 tests have proved positive.

County health officials recommend anyone with symptoms — fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, fatigue and loss of taste or smell — to get tested.

About 8.2% of the United States’ 345,742 new coronavirus tests proved positive on Thursday. About 14.9% of Illinois’ 17,783 new tests proved positive.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus as of May 7, 11 p.m. CDT 

Numbers in (+) indicate increases from the previous day. 

World: 3,846,861 cases (+91,482); 269,584 deaths (+5,753); 1,285,807 recoveries (+40,389)

United States: 1,256,972 cases (+28,369); 75,670 deaths (+2,239); 195,036 recoveries (+5,126) with 8,105,513 tested (+345,742)

Illinois: 70,873 cases (+2,641); 3,111 deaths (+137) with 379,043 tested (+17,783)

Chicago: 28,441 cases (+701); 1,184 deaths (+72)

Champaign County: 236 cases (+19); 6 deaths; 123 recoveries (+7) with 4,817 tested (+258)

Numbers from Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Mapcoronavirus.illinois.gov and c-uphd.org

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