Illinois COVID 19 Today: IL reports 1,392 new coronavirus cases, 7 deaths; COVID-19 Response Fund to give last round of grants

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois public health officials announced 1,392 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday along with seven additional deaths. The state also announced a coronavirus relief fund will give out its last round of grants.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois now stands at 252,353with 8,186 deaths, the IDPH reported.

The preliminary seven-day positivity rate from September 1-7 is 4.0%.

Within the past 24 hours, the state has processed 31,363 specimens for a total of 4,478,710.

As of Sunday night, 1,504 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, with 343 patients in the ICU and 133 patients on ventilators.

The eight additional COVID-19 deaths include:

-Clinton County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 80s

-Cook County: 1 male 30s

-Jackson County: 1 male 40s

-Montgomery County: 1 female 90s

-Williamson County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s

Since the start of the pandemic, a COVID-19 response fund set up by the state distributed more than $30 million dollars in assistance in the way of meals, health care services and direct cash payments.

"The Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund was born and it answered the call when our state needed it most and before the federal government had begun to help," Gov. JB Pritzker said.

Gov. Pritzker announced Tuesday that the COVID-19 response fund is winding down and giving its last round of grants. This time it is funding organizations that are either led by or serve the Black and Latinx communities.

"We really honed in on the underlying systemic inequities that COVID laid bare and racial inequity emerged as a further focus of our grant making," said Penny Pritzker, chair of the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund.

That means Tracy Dace, the founder of Driven to Reach Excellence and Academic Achievement for Males, can re-engage with families during his outreach work in Champaign County.

"It's about people," Dace said. "It's about humans and lives and children and families so when COVID hit us, we had to recalibrate and we have lost so many families."

Grants were provided to a total of more than 1,600 organizations. The governor said there is still a need for help. He encourages people to look at all the organizations that were vetted by the fund and continue to make donations.

"Illinoisans demonstrated unsurpassed spirit of generous and compassion for friends, neighbors and communities," Pritzker said.