The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Thursday, April 2 announced 715 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 16 additional deaths.

– Christian County: 1 male 80s
– Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 2 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 4 male 70s, 1 male 80s
– DuPage County: 1 female 80s
– McHenry County: 1 male 60s
– Whiteside County: 1 female 90s

Logan, Macoupin, Mercer, Moultrie, and Piatt counties are now reporting cases.

At the daily press briefing alongside Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Chicago on Thursday,  IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike addressed her how COVID-19 cases are spreading across the state.

“Even the southern and rural areas of the state the virus is present, and (residents there) should join all their fellow Illinoisians in staying at home so that we can all get back to normal on the other side of this pandemic,” she said.

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 7,695 cases, including 157 deaths, in 61 counties in Illinois.  The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.

 A total of 43,656 people have been tested, an increase of more than 3,000 from Wednesday.

“This is a novel coronavirus, which basically just means it’s new to humans. There’s no vaccine and no one is immune,” Pritzker said in a daily briefing on the virus Thursday in Chicago. “Because of the lack of immunity in our population, there’s a greater risk of overwhelming our medical systems if too many people get sick from it all at once. It’s that simple.”

For all personal protective equipment (PPE) donations, email PPE.donations@illinois.gov.  For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.

Capitol News Service contributed to this story