Guv credits stay-home order for drop in deaths, hospitalizations
But Pritzker warns, ‘We’re not through this yet’ on coronavirus pandemic
Gov. Pritzker emphasizes the need to maintain social distancing, precisely because of the progress made, at the daily coronavirus briefing in Chicago on Monday. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
The governor credited the statewide stay-at-home order on Monday for a drop in deaths and hospitalizations and the lack of need to divert COVID-19 patients to the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility, but he cautioned about drawing too much from a single day’s data and warned, “We’re not through this yet.”
Gov. Pritzker announced just 46 new deaths Monday at his daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago, bringing the state toll to 2,662. Pritzker said he was “hopeful” that represents an ebb in the COVID-19 outbreak in Illinois, “but I think one day is not a helpful number to look at.”
Nonetheless, the data trended downward almost across the board Monday. Newly confirmed COVID-19 infections dropped to 2,341, bringing the statewide total to 63,840. Hospitalizations dropped from 4,672 a week ago to 4,493, and the percentage of beds in Intensive Care Units occupied by COVID-19 patients also slipped slightly from 34 percent last week to 33 percent, with almost 1,000 available across Illinois. More than 50 percent of ICU beds were available in the Rockford and Springfield areas, although the governor cautioned against spikes in more rural regions where that percentage may not represent much wiggle room in the total number of beds. In the northern suburbs of Chicago, he pointed out, just 12 percent of ICU beds are open.
“Snapshots in time alone are not enough to offer a full understanding of where we are,” he said. “But together they can offer some indication of how things are trending.”
Pritzker credited statewide observance of the stay-at-home order — supported by a vast majority of Illinois voters — for limiting spread of the disease, but he added that improved hospital treatments have also limited the number of patients who need to go on ventilators, with 763 Illinoisans on ventilators as of Sunday, 22 percent of statewide capacity, down from 29 percent a month ago.
“It begins a very different recovery when people are intubated, and it’s no doctor’s first choice,” he said, adding, “That’s a lot lower than we had expected.”
Pritzker confirmed that the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility was beginning the slow process of breaking down beds prepared there in case of an overflow of COVID-19 patients at Chicago hospitals that never materialized, calling it “an indicator of the success we’ve had.” He said about 30 patients have been treated there — “and I thank God for that, that it was only that number” — but added that the areas with the most-advanced equipment, such as pressurized tents, would be the last to be removed, just in case of a surge.
“Nobody really knows exactly where we’re going to end up here,” he added. “Guess what, a lot of people didn’t get sick, and a lot of people didn’t die.”
Pritzker renewed calls for people across the state to maintain the stay-at-home order and not jeopardize the clear progress made in limiting the pandemic. “If our numbers flatten and get better — and that’s where we seem to be at right now — it’s because people have followed the rules,” he said. “And to the extent people are not following them and are gathering in groups, they’re going to spread the virus.”
He repeated warnings that many carriers of the disease show no symptoms, and testing is not yet adequate to reveal who those people are. “We’re doing a lot of testing,” Pritzker said, with 13,834 reported Monday statewide, “but no state is doing enough testing.”
He expressed disappointment at churches where dozens of people reportedly met Sunday, as well as local efforts to reopen businesses in East Peoria in defiance of the order to stay home as much as possible, saying, “They’re running the risk they’re going to infect people who work there, people who patronize their stores.” He warned merchants they’re “taking on liability” in defying the order, and that insurance policies may well not cover them against lawsuits filed by those infected in their stores.
Pritzker repeated that he was not looking for local law enforcement to have to enforce the order, saying, “That’s not something that I prefer.” He again expected residents to show common sense. “We’re asking them to disperse” when found in groups larger than 10, he said. “If people are persistently defiant, they can be put in jail.”
The governor said his administration is planning recruitment to conduct contact tracing — another key element in an eventual return to normalcy — but that he is not yet sold on tracing through Bluetooth interactions on smartphones. “It poses some questions on privacy,” Pritzker said. “I’ll want to see more” before endorsing its use.