Here’s where each health region in northern Illinois stands as of Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,848 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 22 additional deaths Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling average of Illinois’ positivity rate remained flat at 3.5%. The state received the results of 46,391 COVID-19 tests in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday afternoon.

Illinois now has seen 279,114 total cases of the virus and 8,508 people have died. The state has conducted a total of 5,231,607 tests since the start of the pandemic.

As of late Tuesday, Illinois had 1,563 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, an increase of 108 patients over the past 24 hours. Of those, 351 were in intensive care units, and 144 were on ventilators.

In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. JB Pritzker praised the residents of Illinois for their role in bringing the state’s positivity rate down to be lower than those of all of its neighboring states.

The average positivity rates in eight of the state's 11 health regions now are decreasing, Pritzker said. Region 7 (Will and Kankakee counties) has returned to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan and is reporting a positivity rate of 5.7%, which shows the ability of a region to successfully mitigate the spread of COVID-19, he said.

Over the weekend, the state hit a new record of over 74,000 COVID-19 tests reported in a single day with more than 5 million tests conducted since the start of the pandemic, Pritzker said.

"Our state is among the best in class when it comes to fighting COVID-19 because we've put people first," he said. "It's with those same tools that we will find our way out of this pandemic and through this difficult time."

Despite these successes, Pritzker warned residents to remain vigilant of the threat posed by the virus and noted that Region 1 (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has a positivity rate of 7.5% – nearing the 8% threshold for additional mitigations set by the IDPH.

IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike warned about becoming "numb to the numbers" and urged Illinoisans to wear their face masks, to practice social distancing and to get their flu shots.

Regional update: 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 10-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 zero days of positivity increases and two days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate decreased slightly to 5.0%. Currently, 40% of medical/surgical beds are available and 54% of ICU beds.

The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen one day of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region’s positivity rate remained flat at 5.5%. Currently, 33% of medical/surgical beds are available and 43% of ICU beds.

The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen one day of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate remained flat at 5.7%. Currently, 33% of the region's medical/surgical beds are available and 32% of ICU beds.

The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased to 7.5%, the highest rate of any of the state's 11 regions. Currently, 44% of medical/surgical beds are available and 52% 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 zero days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate stayed the same at 5.5%. Currently, 44% of medical/surgical beds are available and 44% of ICU beds.

Chicago has seen two days of positivity increases and zero days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased slightly to 4.8%. Currently, 26% of medical/surgical beds are available and 36% of ICU beds.

Suburban Cook County has seen two days of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased slightly to 4.7%. Currently, 32% of medical/surgical beds are available and 42% of ICU beds.

Newly reported deaths include:

• Christian County: 1 female 60s

• Cook County: 1 male 60s, 2 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s

• Douglas County: 1 male 60s

• Franklin County: 1 male 80s

• Kankakee County: 1 male 80s

• Lake County: 1 male 40s

• Macon County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 80s

• Peoria County: 1 male 70s

• Rock Island County: 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s

• Tazewell County: 1 male 90s

• Will County: 1 male 90s

• Williamson County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s