While overall new cases of COVID-19 continued to fall in Brookfield, Riverside and North Riverside last week, five more local residents have died after being infected by the novel coronavirus, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Two Brookfield residents, an 86-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man, died on Jan. 23 and Jan. 29, respectively, according to the medical examiner. That brings the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in Brookfield to 25 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
While deaths from COVID-19 initially lagged the explosion of new cases in November, December and early January, there have been nine fatal cases – more than one-third of the total — in Brookfield since Dec. 20.
Two more Riverside residents have also died in the past week and a half from COVID-19. A 65-year-old Riverside woman died on Jan. 24 and a 93-year-old woman died on Jan. 26, bringing the village’s total number of fatalities from the virus to nine.
A majority of Riverside’s COVID-19 fatalities – five of the nine – have been recorded since Dec. 24.
North Riverside experienced its first death from COVID-19 in more than a year on Jan. 16, when an 81-year-old woman died from the virus, according to the medical examiner.
She was the fifth COVID-19 fatality identified by the Landmark in North Riverside since the pandemic began in March 2020 and the first since Jan. 11, 2021.
For the week-long period ending Jan. 31, Brookfield recorded 147 new cases of COVID-19, the third straight week in which cases declined and the lowest total since mid-December.
Riverside cases number held steady at 99 for the week ending Jan. 31, while North Riverside cases dropped to 38 for the week compared to 83 the week prior. That was also the lowest weekly total in that village since mid-December.
