Coronavirus Update: Illinois may be 'bending the curve' in COVID-19 fight; fewer cases, deaths in last 24 hours, Gov. JB Pritzker says
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said new data shows the state may be "bending the curve" in the fight against COVID-19 Thursday, but cautioned residents still need to practice social distancing and abide by the stay-at-home order.
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State health officials reported more than 1,344 new cases and 66 additional deaths from coronavirus Thursday, bringing the state's total to 16,422 cases and 528 deaths.
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"Our rate of rise is looking less and less exponential, that indicates to us that we are in fact bending the curve, there is even some evidence that we may be moving towards a flatter curve - but we need to keep watching the data on a daily basis," Pritzker said Thursday, exactly one month since declaring a disaster proclamation in Illinois.
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Both new cases and deaths were lower than Wednesday, when Illinois marked the largest number of coronavirus deaths and cases in a single day: 1,529 new COVID-19 cases and 82 deaths.
"If we are improving - and it's still up in the air - but if we are improving in this state, it's because people are staying home," Pritzker said.
Gov. Pritzker said he doesn't plan to lift the stay-at-home order before April 30, noting that COVID-19 cases and deaths are not yet trending downward in Illinois. Even after April 30, Pritzker cautioned residents that life will not return to normal all at once.
"Unlike what some have said at the federal level, it isn't going to be that all of a sudden you're going to drop the stay-at-home and every other restriction," Gov. Pritzker said. "If you do that, you're going to see a big spike upward and once again, hospitalizations, ICU beds filled, vents filled and more death."
Those favorite summer pastimes that everyone may be dreaming of after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted - including baseball games and large concerts like Lollapalooza- may fall victim to the fallout from the pandemic.
"I do not see how we are going to have large gatherings of people again, until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away," Pritzker said. "I would not risk having large groups of people getting together anywhere. And I think that's hard for people to hear, but that's just a fact."
"We are all making sacrifices and I ask you to stay the course, we are headed in the right direction because of all of the tremendous efforts by all of you," Dr. Ezike said.
The governor said the key to moving on lies in the state's ability to test for COVID-19. It's currently about 6,000 people a day. The governor's goal is 10,000, with state labs now working around the clock seven days a week.
"The fact of the matter is we are not going to be able to truly move on until we have testing, much greater testing, contact tracing, and treatment," Pritzker said.
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Thursday that the city's share of the federal stimulus package will be about $470 million with another $800 million going to CTA and $205 million to help Chicago Public Schools.
She also said that responding to the COVID-19 crisis has cost Chicago about $100 million, with much of that coming from preparing the McCormick Place alternative care medical facility.
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There were temperature checks Thursday for staff reporting for duty as the alternate care facility at McCormick Place readies for an influx of the sick.
Though the facility will primarily care for patients with mild or moderate symptoms, the Illinois National Guard delivered 250 negative pressurized tents to be used as isolation areas for those whose conditions worsen.
"Air flow comes into the room, and airflow doesn't go out of the room, so the negative pressure is that the airflow is going into the room and not sending potentially hazardous room outside," said Lisa Roy, of Johnson Controls.
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McCormick Place will not have an ER or walk-in services. Instead, patients will be transferred here if beds at existing hospitals are full.
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"We're here to support the doctors, the medics, all the physicians that are out there," Brigadier General Richard Neely. "They're the ones that are on the front line. So we're enabling them to do their job."
As of three days ago, less than a quarter of Chicago's ICU beds were available. That figure is even smaller in the northeast and southwest suburbs. But in the northwest suburbs, about half are available, so patients could go there first.
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"We are not seeing an indication to open McCormick yet, but we are following closely the capacity in all of the regions," said Illinois Dept. of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
Officials say McCormick Place could start taking patients early next week, but that will depend on staffing.
"Some of that staffing comes in at different times," Pritzker said. "We're phasing the staffing in because it isn't like you can grab hundreds of people all at once and have them begin working all at once. That's a very difficult thing to do."
Meanwhile, the new shipment of supplies are the first of three to complete the massive project at Chicago's largest convention space.
"The problem right now is shipping across the country is a real challenge," said Brigadier General Neely. "So the only way to get them was to really airlift them. So we worked through the Department of Defense to get approval to move these aircraft so we could get them here in a timely manner."
The Illinois Department of Public Health has created a hotline at 1-800-889-3931. More information can be found at the IDPH website and the Chicago Department of Public Health websiteid
