SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Department of Public Health and Cook County Department of Public Health announced Thursday that a fifth person in Illinois has tested positive at the IDPH laboratory for the coronavirus or COVID-19.
Specimens have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.
The patient is a Cook County resident in his 20s who flew into Chicago O’Hare Airport earlier this month after traveling to Italy. He is currently hospitalized at Rush University Medical Center in isolation.
Public health officials are in the process of identifying and contacting all close contacts.
“The state of Illinois is working around the clock to contain COVID-19 and educate the public,” Gov. J-B Pritzker said.
Pritzer added, “public health officials anticipated there would be additional cases and we will continue to implement robust measures to contain the virus while also preparing for further transmission. The risk of COVID-19 to the general public in Illinois remains low, but we encourage the public to be vigilant and take extra care with the normal precautions you should take during flu season.”
The CDC has confirmed one of the recent presumptive positive cases. Illinois officials are awaiting results on the other case. Both remain in home isolation and are doing well.
At this time, the exposure route for the third and fourth cases is not known. Both individuals recently traveled to another state, but health officials have not been able to link them to a COVID-19 confirmed case in Illinois or the other state.
Therefore, because IDPH has been unable to identify a point of exposure for these two cases, health officials believe it is possible these cases may be due to community transmission in Illinois.
“While we expect to see additional cases, we are not seeing widespread transmission of the virus in Illinois and we believe the risk to the general public remains low,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “We understand people are concerned, but we want to reassure residents that we have been working with local health departments, hospitals, clinicians, the CDC, and other state agencies around the clock and are using every resource at our disposal to prepare.”
Illinois’ two previously confirmed cases have both recovered. Health officials continue to monitor individuals throughout Illinois who have a history of travel to an affected area or who have had close contact with a confirmed case.
Illinois was the first state to be able to test for COVID-19 and IDPH continues to test for the virus in all three of its laboratories in Chicago, Springfield, and Carbondale.
