10,000 new COVID cases, 10,000 dead
Dr. Ezike says, ‘The next several months are going to be very tough, but how tough still depends on us’
“The next several months are going to very tough,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike warned Friday, after the state topped 10,000 new COVID-19 cases in a day for the first time. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
Illinois set a new one-day record with more than 10,000 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 Friday, a day after surpassing 10,000 in the coronavirus death toll.
At the daily briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago, Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced 10,376 newly confirmed cases, bringing the state total to 465,540, while 49 new deaths attributed to COIVID-19 took the statewide toll to 10,079.
More than 4,000 COVID patients were hospitalized across the state, with 786 under intensive care and 339 on ventilators. Illinois set a new record with 98,401 COVID-19 tests conducted in a day, but with the rising number of infections that nevertheless produced a seven-day positivity rate of 9.6 percent.
The Illinois Department of Public Health put 75 of the state’s 102 counties on a formal warning list for rising infections: Adams, Alexander, Bond, Boone, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Chicago, Christian, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Cook (including Chicago), Crawford, Cumberland, DeKalb, Douglas, DuPage, Effingham, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Greene, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Iroquois, Jackson, Jasper, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Johnson, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Madison, Marion, Mason, Massac, McHenry, Mercer, Monroe, Morgan, Moultrie, Ogle, Peoria, Perry, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Rock Island, Saline, Sangamon, Scott, Shelby, St. Clair, Stephenson, Tazewell, Vermilion, Wabash, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Whiteside, Will, Williamson, Winnebago, and Woodford. That was up from 49 last week and 51 the week before.
Gov. Pritzker said that Illinois was “on the verge” of seeing coronavirus cases rise at an exponential rate, with the entire state already facing renewed restrictions on indoor service at restaurants and bars and with gatherings limited to 25 people or fewer. Pritzker added that, if statewide infections do rise exponentially, “we’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
“The next several months are going to be very tough,” Ezike said. “They’re going to be very hard. But how tough and how hard and how bad it is still depends on us. Let’s please think beyond ourselves and do what we can to protect all of us. Again, that involves masking, maintaining your distance, washing your hands — and please get your flu shot.”
A day after threatening renewed statewide mitigation measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Pritzker said he “can’t be specific” about what exactly those stricter restrictions would be. “It’s the last thing I want to do,” he said. “But I’m ready to do it.” He has resisted reimposing a statewide lockdown, but emphasized that the only way scientists and health experts have found thus far to slow the spread of the pandemic is by limiting personal contact.
Pritzker defended the ban on indoor bar and restaurant service, saying, “All the data we have so far point to those locations (as) a major source of risk.” He did draw a distinction, however, between bars and restaurants being a main source of “exposure,” while factories are the top source of “outbreaks,” meaning five or more cases linked to a specific setting during a 14-day period. In essence, an infected person might have visited several bars or restaurants over the two weeks before showing symptoms, without being able to pinpoint just where transmission occurred, while outbreaks concern more concrete confirmation about cases linked to a specific site.
Ezike said the state was adding “probable” cases that had positive results in antigen testing to the overall total of cases, estimating that padded the total by about 7,600.
She again rejected the idea of pursuing “herd immunity” by allowing the coronavirus to spread freely. Ezike said it’s not known what level of general public infection would produce “herd immunity,” where the coronavirus would be contained, but it’s estimated at 60 to 80 percent. She added that current estimates are that 5 to 10 percent of Illinoisans have been infected with COVID-19. With that having already produced more than 100,000 deaths statewide, Ezike said it would be “unfathomable” to allow the additional deaths that would be a consequence of pursuing herd immunity.