92 more coronavirus deaths as Illinois tops 50K cases

Officials on Wednesday said another 92 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, as the case count in the state has reached more than 50,000.

In total, 2,215 people have died of the coronavirus in the state, according to health officials. With the newly reported 2,253 cases, the state has now seen 50,355 people test positive for the virus.

According to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office, the state received 14,478 test results on Tuesday. Nearly 257,000 people have been tested overall.

Between midnight on Monday and midnight on Tuesday, an additional 45 COVID-19 patients entered ICU rooms in the state’s hospitals. During that same period, an additional 298 people entered hospitals with suspected COVID-19 symptoms or confirmed cases, the governor’s office said.

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The governor said about 20 million personal protective equipment items have been distributed among county public health departments, hospitals, nursing homes and non-profits across the state. That includes 10.1 million surgical masks, over 1.8 million N95 masks and over 173,000 gowns.

On Monday, Illinois received a shipment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency of more than 300,000 N95 masks, and over 500,000 KN95 masks, as well as a million gloves and other “necessary” supplies, Pritzker said.

And Pritzker said he’s spoken to Vice President Mike Pence in requesting 900,000 gowns from FEMA.

The Democratic governor also said all nursing home facilities, even ones without COVID-19 cases, will be tested, with free testing for employees of facilities with known cases.

Since expanded testing started at nursing homes, the state has distributed 18,000 swabs needed for testing to 68 facilities. And the Illinois Dept. of Public Health is partnering with Quest Diagnostics to run 3,000 tests per day at Illinois’ nursing homes, with the promise to get back those results within 48 hours.

Figures released by state health officials last week showed the number of nursing home fatalities had doubled to 625. The department has been updating a public database on Fridays to reflect those numbers, but privately-owned nursing homes have also been disclosing cases and deaths in their facilities.

Ten people have died at the City View Multicare Center in Cicero, including one staff member, while more than 200 residents and staffers have also tested positive. Cicero officials have complained about City View’s health safety record.

The state also plans to send out a team of 200 public health nurses to nursing homes across the state to conduct tests, train staff and take samples themselves. Pritzker said the state is also working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to open up existing bed capacity at VA hospital so seniors can isolate themselves and receive medical treatment if needed.

McCormick Place field hospital

The governor was asked at his daily briefing about healthcare workers who have been sent to work at the McCormick Place alternate care facility, which has been used on an extremely limited basis.

“We have a shortage of healthcare workers across the state, so those that aren’t working at McCormick, that we can redeploy, we are redeploying,” Pritzker said. “As to the future of McCormick Place, we’ve talked a lot about standing down many of the beds.

Pritzker said the state has “stood down” 1,000 beds at the 3,000-bed facility.

“It looks like we’re going to have the ability to stand down much more of that facility, but again, I don’t want to speak too soon because all of these identified alternate care facilities need to be in a state of some kind of readiness in the event that there’s a surge and we re-open, and God forbid we reopen too fast, or because there’s a surge that people expect in the fall,” Pritzker said.

Asked if the McCormick Place field hospital would remain running through the fall, the governor said, “I can’t project that far in advance.”

“We need to be ready. We just don’t know,” Pritzker said. “And so I think we have to watch and see what the infection rates are.”