The number of people who contracted confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 fell for the second straight week in Brookfield, Riverside and North Riverside, a trend playing out statewide after a massive spike in new cases from late October through mid-December.

One more Brookfield resident, a 63-year-old man, died on Dec. 21 from the disease. He was the 11th resident of Brookfield to die from COVID-19 since the county began tracking that data in March and the seventh since Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26.

There were no additional deaths reported in either Riverside or North Riverside, where three residents each have succumbed to COVID-19 during the pandemic.

While still higher than at any time during the first seven months of the pandemic, the one-week total of new COVID-19 reported cases in each village as of the morning of Dec. 29 was the lowest since mid-October.

According to the Cook County Department of Public Health, there were 50 new cases in Brookfield. That’s down sharply from the 92 reported the week before and one-third the highest weekly total of 152 the village experienced in mid-November.

Since the county began tracking data in March, there have been 1,281 people with confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in Brookfield.

In Riverside, there were 23 people with new confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 for the week ending on the morning of Dec. 29. That was down from 29 the week before and one-third of the village’s one-week high total of 69 on Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, in North Riverside the weekly total number of people with new confirmed or probable cases fell to single digits for the first time since the seven-day period ending Oct. 20. 

The county reported seven new cases in North Riverside for the week-long period ending the morning of Dec. 29, down from 27 the previous week. North Riverside all-time high for new cases in a one-week period was 36, at the end of November.

State’s death toll passes 16,000

While the number of new COVID-19 cases and people hospitalized in Illinois continue to decline, the state’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 16,000.

An additional 105 deaths were reported on Dec. 28 by the Illinois Department of Public Health. That brings the total COVID-19 deaths in Illinois to 16,074 among 942,362 cases and more than 13 million test results reported.

The IDPH on Monday reported 4,453 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois.

Statewide, the rolling seven-day average case positivity rate from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27 was 7.2 percent. That is three-tenths of a percentage point lower than the seven-day average case positivity rate reported on Dec. 23, the last day IDPH released COVID data before the holiday weekend. That makes one week of rates below 8 percent.

However, according to the most recent data available Monday on the IDPH website, the seven-day rolling positivity rate in Region 10, which encompasses all of suburban Cook County, was 9 percent as of Dec. 25.

At the end of Dec. 27, there were 4,243 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois, a decrease of 350 from Dec. 23.

There were 884 intensive care beds in use by COVID-19 patients as of Sunday night, a decrease of 69 from Dec. 23. That left 840, or just over 25 percent, of ICU beds available statewide.

COVID-19 patients occupied 515 ventilators, a decrease of 21 from the Wednesday prior to the holiday weekend. That left 4,205 ventilators, or 73.7 percent of all ventilators, available for use across the state.

More than 112,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Illinois since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved for emergency use earlier this month.

On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill granting $900 billion in COVID-19 aid, which includes a direct payment up to $600 dollars to some Americans. The bill also includes funds for vaccine distribution and boosts in weekly unemployment benefits.

Raymon Troncoso of Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report.