Springfield hospital to become coronavirus care site. What about southern Illinois?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday a shuttered hospital in Springfield will reopen as an alternate care site for coronavirus patients.
Vibra Hospital closed in 2019, according to The (Springfield) State Journal-Register. Three other sites in northern Illinois, including McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, have been designated as sites that will be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The former Advocate Sherman Hospital Campus in Elgin, the Metro South Health Center in Blue Island and Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park are the others.
“I never want to get to a place where our families or friends don’t have a place to heal,” Pritzker said in his daily coronavirus briefing, delivered at McCormick Place.
Of the state’s 28,000 hospital beds, only 11,500 are available, Pritzker said, “a lot fewer than is normal for this time of year.” Only 800 intensive care unit beds of a total 2,680 were available, the governor added.
The St. Louis area and metro-east could see its share of alternate care facilities.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page told St. Louis Public Radio that the county’s health department and area hospitals have had talks with universities about using dorms for COVID-19 patients who either need to be quarantined or who are recovering after being released from the hospital.
Lindenwood University-Belleville, which has vacant dorm rooms, does not have a formal agreement to allow the dorms to be used for COVID-19 patients but the school is ready to assist if needed.
“As a committed community partner we are ready to assist where and when needed, and while there is no formal agreement in place, we will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to do our part if needed,” Lindenwood University spokesman Chris Duggan said in an email to the BND.
Lindenwood’s main campus is in St. Charles and the college has announced it is ending its daytime undergraduate academic programs in Belleville.
Statewide as of Friday afternoon, there were 1,209 additional confirmed cases for a total of 8,904 cases. There were 53 additional deaths for a total of 210 deaths.
Thursday, the St. Clair County Health Department announced that a third person died in the county from complications of coronavirus. The patient was a man in his 70s who had underlying health conditions, the department said.
The department previously announced the deaths of two patients who tested positive for COVID-19. One woman was in her 80s and the other was in her 30s. Both of them had underlying health conditions.
As of Friday afternoon, the total number of cases in southwestern Illinois stood at 147.
Here’s a breakdown of the cases:
▪ St. Clair County: 69, three deaths
▪ Madison County: 38
▪ Clinton County: 9
▪ Monroe County: 8
▪ Washington County: 1
▪ Randolph County: 17
▪ Bond County: 3
▪ Jersey County: 1
▪ Macoupin County: 1
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
