As the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in multiple states, Illinois has taken on the alarming distinction of having over 10,000 cases in a day--and it has done so six days in a row. No other state has sustained such a high daily case count for weeks.
“The virus is winning the war right now,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. On Wednesday, the state health department said Illinois had a record 12,657 new confirmed cases of Covid-19.
“As the weather turns cooler and more activity turns inside, we may have a real problem on our hands,” the Democratic governor said at a press conference Monday.
Last week, every one of the state’s 11 regions hit metrics that triggered some restrictions. Measures in Chicago began the week before, including limiting gatherings to fewer than 25 people and banning indoor dining and bar service. On Monday, Mr. Pritzker said three additional regions will be under the more stringent second phase of restrictions, including DuPage and Kane counties to the west of Chicago, and Will and Kankakee counties to Chicago’s south.
Under Tier 2, indoor and outdoor gatherings of 10 people or more are prohibited, and no indoor service is allowed at bars or restaurants.
"We're getting to the point where we're really concerned," said Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Dr. Ezike said she was particularly worried about hospital-bed availability.
Daily new confirmed cases in the state are up nearly fivefold since Oct. 1, Gov. Pritzker said Monday, when the state recorded 10,573 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In the past five weeks, the daily positivity rate has nearly tripled, while hospitalizations and deaths per day more than doubled in the same period.
The majority of new infections and deaths have been in the northeastern part of the state, near Chicago. Of the state's 500,000 total virus cases since the pandemic began, around half have been reported in the areas in and around Chicago.
Kimberley Junius, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Department of Public Health, said she believes the spread is being driven by “Covid fatigue and people not being as vigilant about masking and physical distancing consistently and correctly.” Ms. Junius said emergency-department visits and hospital admissions are also up significantly. “We are very concerned there could be a strain on the health-care system very soon,” she said.
Staffing continues to be an issue for public-health departments across the nation, including in Illinois' most populous county, she said. “Our agency has had 150 staff serving 2.5 million people. We are now expanding our team to include 375 additional contact-tracing staff,” she said.
On Oct. 2, the state recorded 6,222 cases and the week prior, it had 4,729 cases. The seven-day average on Oct.1, which smooths out irregularities in data, was at 2,046. A month later, on Nov. 1, that average was 6,367.
Last Friday, Mr. Pritzker said that while he didn’t see a statewide stay-at-home order in the coming days or weeks, he wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility if the spread of the virus doesn’t decrease. “I just don't know. None of us, frankly, expected that the entire country would be swept with an increase in Covid-19," he said.
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November 12, 2020 at 10:45PM
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