McCormick Place scaled back as state nears 2,000 COVID-19 deaths
Daily testing remains well above 10,000
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth tour the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility earlier this month. (Chicago Sun-Times pool photo)
By Ted Cox
City and state officials have scaled back plans for the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility in another sign Illinois has successfully “flattened the curve” of increasing COVID-19 infections.
Over the weekend, daily testing remained above Gov. Pritzker’s stated goal of 10,000, while deaths dropped below 100. After 59 newly reported deaths Sunday, the state toll stood at 1,933. With the increased testing, the state registered more than 2,000 new cases both Saturday and Sunday, although short of the single-day high of 2,724 set Friday, bringing the Illinois total to 43,903.
That nevertheless gave cause for the state and Chicago to scale back on ambitious plans to convert the McCormick Place convention center into an alternate care facility for COVID-19 patients who are less severely ill. A month ago, state and city officials readied plans for 3,000 beds at the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility, but Pritzker announced over the weekend that they’d hold at the current 1,000 beds, in two halls of 500 each, while also holding back on plans for a larger 1,750-bed hall.
State health officials reported over the weekend that COVID-19 hospitalizations had held steady, as did the number of coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units or on ventilators. They’ve maintained all along that the hope was to keep COVID-19 cases from overwhelming the hospital system, so that McCormick Place and other alternate care facilities wouldn’t even be needed. Last week, Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported that fewer than a dozen patients had been transferred to McCormick Place. Pritzker said Friday that they were not yet moving on plans to reopen Vibra Hospital in Springfield, because it was looking increasingly likely it will not be needed.