Saying that marginalized and minority communities face greater health risks amid the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday called for measures to improve equity and increased testing.

Pritzker said communities of color, especially black communities have suffered disproportionately during the coronavirus pandemic.

"The data accumulating over the last few weeks has shined a bright light on what seems like a uniquely American problem," Pritzker said. "Many could have told what it would highlight long before the data drew the picture: Generations of systemic disadvantages in health care delivery and in health care access in communities of color and black communities in particular."

Prizker said the state is working to expand testing capacity and setting up testing facilities in communities of color.

His call came as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 1,465 new cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 68 additional deaths.

Illinois is reporting a total of 17,887 cases, including 596 deaths, in 83 counties.

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Among the new deaths was a Cook County Jail detainee, identified as 51-year-old Leslie Pieroni, who was pronounced dead on Thursday night at St. Anthony Hospital in Chicago, where he had been treated since April 3. An autopsy will be conducted to determine an official cause of death, but the Cook County sheriff’s department said preliminary indications are that he died of complications of COVID-19.

Pieroni was one of 276 detainees to have tested positive for the virus and one of 21 the sheriff’s department said was hospitalized as of Thursday night. His death came hours after a federal judge ordered Chicago’s Cook County Jail to take prompt action to stop the spread of the virus, including by making sure that the more than 4,000 detainees have access to adequate soap and sanitizer.

Pieroni had been in custody since December 2018, when he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child, according to the sheriff’s department. He was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse and a judge ordered him held without bond.

He previously had been convicted of a sexual offense and was charged in 2017 with failing to register as a sex offender.

The first inmate at the jail to die after testing positive for the coronavirus was 59-year-old Jeffery Pendleton, on Sunday.

Sheriff Tom Dart said the jail has already taken all but one of measures ordered by the judge, including supplying inmates with sanitizer three weeks ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jeff Kolkey: jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey