Illinois is experiencing a 'dire' coronavirus situation

Coronavirus testing in Illinois.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Illinois is experiencing a "dire" coronavirus situation that seems to mostly be flying under the national radar, says Youyang Gu, a data scientist who created a COVID-19 pandemic modeler.

As Gu points out, Illinois last week recorded more cases in a single day than Florida ever has, though Florida has been considered a hot spot throughout much of the pandemic. Illinois is the country's sixth-most populous state and testing has ramped up, but Florida still has much a higher population. Meanwhile, Illinois is the only state to average 12,000 cases per day over the course of a week — not even California or Texas have reached those numbers.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.