the illinois department of public health announced total confirmed cases in illinois had reached 169,883, including 7,397 deaths in 102 counties. on july 25, the state reported 1,426 new covid-19 cases and 12 additional deaths, charting steadily rising statewide positivity rates reaching 3.6%, leading to stricter covid-19 restrictions in the city chicago to try to curb the upwardly trending numbers. august 2020 mask-wearing message at the chicago civic opera house while the daily number of cases remained below the mid-may peak, the average slowly crept up through the month. the average daily case number in the week leading up to august was 1,475, while the average for the final week of the month was 2,003 cases. september 2020 on september 25, the state reported 2,514 new covid-19 cases and 25 additional deaths, putting the state's positivity rate at 3.6%. the death toll from covid-19 passed 8,500. there were 29,517 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 4,642 deaths attributed to covid-19 at long-term care facilities. october 2020 people in masks on michigan ave. in october 2020 on october 30, the state reported 6,943 new confirmed cases, the highest mark since the pandemic began, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 402,401. the record was broken on the following day, october 31, with 7,899 cases. november 2020 on november 5, illinois recorded 97 deaths, the most deaths in a single day since june 4, pushing the total deaths past 10,000 to 10,030. on the same day, illinois set a new record for new cases, recording 9,935, which topped the previous record by more than 2,000. the following day, november 6, the record was surpassed again, with 10,376 new cases being confirmed. the state began adding probable cases to the total on that day as well, and, as a result, an additional 7,600 cases were added to the total to compensate for every probable case since the pandemic began. on november 7, illinois once again set a new record for the most cases in a single day with 12,438. on november 10, illinois passed 500,000 total cases, with 511,183 confirmed and probable cases since the pandemic began. this was accompanied by a new daily record for cases with 12,623, paired with the most covid-related deaths in a day since july 17 with 79. the following day, november 11, illinois once again set a new record for the most cases in a single day with 12,657. the state also reported 145 new covid-related deaths, marking the most since may 27 and the 4th highest total ever. the test positivity rate also reached 12.4%. as of november 11, 5,042 illinois residents were in hospitals due to coronavirus-like illnesses, with 951 in intensive care units and 404 on ventilators. on november 12, illinois set another new record for the most cases in a day with 12,702. on november 13, the record was broken for the fourth day in a row with 15,415 new cases, the most of any state on any day at the time (with the exception of a testing anomaly in texas on september 21 with 22,276 cases). with 551,957 total cases, illinois officially passed new york to have the 4th most cases of any state. on november 14, in addition to 11,028 cases, illinois reported 166 new covid-related deaths, the most since may 13 and the third most since the pandemic began. however, this number was inflated by a backlog from the previous day. on november 18, illinois passed 11,000 deaths (11,014) and 600,000 cases (606,771). on november 19, the state recorded 14,612 new cases and 168 deaths, the second and third most since the pandemic began, respectively. december 2020 on december 2, due to a backlog from the thanksgiving holiday, illinois reported 238 covid-related deaths, the most of any day since the pandemic began. another 192 deaths were reported the following day, december 3, the second highest count since the pandemic began. this spike pushed the daily average for deaths to its highest point ever, even higher than the first peak in mid-may. governor pritzker said that, due to more backlogged reports from the holiday, it is hard to tell how much of the spike can be attributed to the delays. a covid-19 outbreak started on veterans' day on november 11 in the lasalle veterans' home, infecting the majority of residents. by december 21, 34 residents had died of the disease. june 2021 on june 28, 2021, the illinois department of public health (idph) reported 85 cases at a summer youth camp in central illinois. idph was only aware of a few vaccinated individuals, the camp did not check vaccination status, and masks were not required indoors. two campers visited a nearby conference, resulting in another 11 cases. the camp was identified as crossing camp, a "christ-centered" camp in rushville, illinois. state government response on march 9, governor j. b. pritzker issued a disaster proclamation, the state's equivalent to a state of emergency, as four new cases were announced in the state. starting on march 9 onwards, pritzker and the illinois department of public health have been conducting daily press briefings about the crisis. on march 18, governor pritzker announced a new website that would be a centralized hub with information an resources related to the coronavirus and the impact on illinois residents and businesses. during march, the state government announced a series of escalating measures to achieve social distancing. on march 13, governor pritzker announced that all schools in illinois would close for a period to begin the following tuesday and last until the end of the month. the governor's announcement came after hundreds of public school districts and private schools had already announced closures. on march 15, governor pritzker announced that all bars and restaurants would be closed until march 30 to " and the safety and health of all residents of illinois." businesses with delivery and takeout options would still be able to serve. on march 16, governor pritzker announced that all gatherings of 50 or more people would be canceled in accordance with new cdc guidelines. the illinois gaming board suspended all video gaming operations at all licensed video gaming establishments and suspended gambling operations at all casinos from march 16 until march 30. on march 20, governor pritzker announced a statewide stay-at-home order starting on march 21 until april 7, 2020. all non-essential businesses were required to be closed (e.g. theaters, parks, libraries, etc.) whereas essential businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals, pharmacies would remain open. on march 31, governor pritzker extended the statewide stay-at-home order until april 30. on april 23, governor pritzker extended the statewide stay-at-home order through may 29 with some modifications. churches were also prohibited from holding meetings with more than 10 people in attendance. some churches defied the governor's order, held meetings and then filed federal lawsuits. services offered by the state government have also been affected. illinois secretary of state jesse white announced that all driver services facilities throughout the state would be closed from march 17 through march 31. white's office stated that expiration dates will be extended by 30 days through an emergency rule, this includes for driver's licenses, identification cards, vehicle registrations, document filings and other transactions. the illinois department of natural resources announced that all state sites, which include state parks, fish and wildlife areas, recreational areas, and historic sites would be closed until further notice. this also included the illinois state museum and its branches which include the research and collections center, dickson mounds museum in lewistown and the lockport gallery in lockport. on march 27, the illinois secretary of state, jesse white announced that notaries public are granted the authority to perform remote, online notarizations during the covid-19 pandemic via an executive order, executive order in response to covid-19 (covid-19 executive order no. 12). this authority is temporary and is set to expire when the state disaster proclamation is removed. these changes have been accompanied by public policy responses from the state government. on march 25, the illinois tax filling deadline was extended from april 15 to july 15. this was announced by governor pritzker during the daily coronavirus press conference along with a bulletin release from the illinois department of revenue. gov. pritzker also announced that three new emergency assistance programs that allow for small businesses to have access more than $90 million in aid. these programs are available through the illinois department of commerce and economic opportunity (dceo). the state government has also coordinated a public health response. the state of illinois is working with u.s. department of health and human services and the private companies of wal-mart and walgreens to provide testing sites in the hardest-hit communities within the state. in a march 22 interview on cnn's state of the union, governor pritzker compared the federal government's procurement of essential medical supplies to the "wild west". "we're competing against , we're competing against other countries," pritzker said. when asked about protective masks for medical workers, fema director peter gaynor could not give any specific answers. on march 31, a cmas severe (emergency alert) notification was issued to smartphones in illinois and neighboring states with the message: "state needs licensed healthcare workers to sign-up at illinoishelps.net to fight covid-19." the message was initiated by illinois healthcare professional emergency volunteer program, a state-run emergency response organization. on march 17, 60 members of the illinois national guard were activated to assist during the covid-19 pandemic in illinois for the anticipated need of medical staffing and logistic support. of those 60, 43 are airmen from the peoria-based 182d airlift wing's medical group whereas the other 17 are planners and liaison officers from both the army and air national guard. on march 26, roughly 50 additional illinois national guard soldiers from the 1844th transportation company based in east st. louis were activated to assist with the covid-19 response operations. the majority of those activated soldiers will help with medical warehouse operations in central illinois whereas four soldiers will be assigned to the state emergency operations center in springfield, "where their jobs will be to assist with communications, analyze virus response operations and give analysis for possible flood response operations" as stated in a press release. governor pritzker unveiled on may 5 a five-phase plan for reopening the state called "restore illinois". each phase has specific thresholds that must be met and allows for each of four zones, based on idph's emergency medical service regions, to progress through them individually. the phases are: phase 1 – rapid spread, phase 2 – flattening, phase 3 – recovery, phase 4 – revitalization, and phase 5 – illinois restored. within the same briefing, the governor announced that illinois was in phase 2 of the plan. governor pritzker announced on may 26, 2020, that the statewide coronavirus test positive rate had averaged 9.2% over the prior seven days, less than half the rate of 23% during the peak in april. illinois entered phase 3 on may 29, 2020, with the exception of chicago which entered phase 3 on june 3, 2020. the entire state moved into phase 4 on june 26, allowing for larger gatherings of up to 50 people and the re-opening of restaurants and bars, albeit under social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines. on august 7, pritzker modified the state's response including changing the emergency medical services to 11 regions and tightening the metrics for restrictions. "keep calm and wash your hands" sign at the cadillac theater, september 2020. on september 21, 2020, illinois passed the 5 million mark for the number of covid-19 tests administered, to be the state with the third highest number of tests administered, behind new york and california. in late october, 2020, governor pritzker began announcing tightened restrictions to many regions around the state, with 9 of 11 regions seeing the restrictions by october 29, including chicago. the restrictions include a ban on all indoor dining, limiting social gatherings to 10 people, and limiting organized gatherings to 25% room capacity or 25 people, whichever is lower. governor pritzker laid guidelines to postpone high school basketball, but the ihsa voted to continue on schedule. by november 4, all 11 regions were under heightened restrictions. on october 29, illinois passed 7.5 million total covid-19 tests. on november 4, 2020, illinois passed 8 million total