Illinois’ coronavirus peak moved back, Governor J.B. Pritzker says
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the coronavirus pandemic will not peak in Illinois until mid-June, pushing back original estimates by a month.
The governor delivered his daily news briefing from his home in Chicago. The governor’s staff began working from home after a senior staffer tested positive for COVID-19.
Though the state hasn’t passed its peak yet, the governor said researchers tracking the virus’ spread have seen decreases in hospitalizations and other key metrics they’re tracking.
The governor released his phased, regional reopening plan last week. There are three main hurdles each region has to jump before moving from the second to the third phase:
- No more than 20% all COVID-19 tests come back positive, increasing no more than 10 percentage points over two weeks;
- No overall increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-like illness for 28 days;
- At least 14% of intensive care unit beds, medical and surgical beds, and ventilators available.
The soonest the state can move to the next phase, which is marked by salons, barbershops and retail reopening, is May 29. The southern region is on track to meet all those metrics by the end of the month, the governor said.
The southern region — almost all of southern Illinois below Interstate 70 — reported an available hospital capacity of 45.8% and 28% ICU beds, while 80.7% of ventilators were available. Since May 1, the southern region reported a 54.3% decrease in hospitalizations.
Pritzker again defended his decision to take a gradual approach.
“Lifting all of our mitigation at the end of May would likely lead to a second outbreak in each and every one of our four regions,” Pritzker said.
Public health officials reported 1,266 new coronavirus cases and 54 deaths statewide on Monday for a total of 79,007 cases and 3,459 deaths. In the 24 hours before the daily news briefing, 12,441 tests were performed statewide.
SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS CORONAVIRUS CASES
Since the pandemic began, a total of 1,732 people in the region have tested positive for COVID-19 and 116 have died.
Here are the statistics for southwestern Illinois counties as of Sunday:
ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Total overall: 761 positives, 59 deaths, 3,476 tests administered, 45 tests pending
MADISON COUNTY
Total overall: 431 positives, 31 deaths, 82 hospitalizations, 121 recoveries
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Total overall: 222 positives, two deaths, 1,044 tests administered, five hospitalizations, 89 recoveries
CLINTON COUNTY
Total overall: 123 positives, 10 deaths, 622 tests administered, nine hospitalizations, 32 recoveries
MONROE COUNTY
Total overall: 80 positives, 11 deaths, 29 recoveries
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Total overall: 38 positives, one death, 802 tests administered, eight tests pending, three hospitalizations, 28 recoveries
PERRY COUNTY
Total overall: 36 positives, five recoveries
JERSEY COUNTY
Total overall: 17 positives, one death, 10 recoveries
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Total overall: 15 positives, 13 recoveries
BOND COUNTY
Total overall: Eight positives, one death, 140 tests administered, six tests pending, three recoveries
CALHOUN COUNTY
Total overall: One positive, one recovery
