New coronavirus cases leaped in Illinois in the week ending Sunday, rising 17.8% as 18,801 cases were reported. The previous week had 15,957 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Illinois ranked 18th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week the United States added 442,981 reported cases of coronavirus, an increase of 0.1% from the week before. Across the country, 25 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Many states did not report cases on Easter. That will make some state-to-state comparisons inaccurate, and also some in-state week-to-week comparisons inaccurate.

Within Illinois, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Peoria, Fulton and Tazewell counties. Adding the most new cases overall were Cook County, with 8,119 cases; DuPage County, with 1,541 cases; and Will County, with 1,003. Weekly case counts rose in 52 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week’s pace were in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties.

Picture Source: Chris Pietsch

SOURCE ( Mike StuckaUSA TODAY NETWORK )