Illinois health officials on Monday said another 33 people have died from the coronavirus, bringing the state’s death total to 307.
There are also 1,006 new cases, bringing the total to 12,262 positive cases in the state, according to officials. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office said the virus has now spread to 75 of 102 counties.
Those additional deaths include 22 from Cook County.
Pritzker on Monday also outlined the state’s supply of PPE, or personal protective equipment. The governor’s office said there were 54 more people placed on ventilators due to COVID-19 from Friday to Monday.
The Democratic governor for weeks has warned that Illinois has not yet reached its peak and that more ventilators and medical equipment were needed to treat the most severe cases.
He took that message to national television once again Sunday morning on CNN, telling Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that President Donald Trump has mismanaged a federal stockpile of much-needed medical equipment.
“If we had relied upon the White House and its obligation to fulfill our needs ... our state and nearly every state in the United States would come up short and could not protect our health care workers and our first responders,” Pritzker said Monday.
“But here’s the good news. We haven’t trusted what we were told by the White House.”
Instead, he said, his office and officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency “have been working tirelessly to pursue all other routes to acquire additional PPE for the fight against COVID-19 in Illinois.”
Every 10 days, Pritzker said, the state is going through 1.5 mil N95 masks, 25 million gloves, 4.4 million gowns and 700K surgical masks. At that rate, “the equipment we received from the federal stockpile will last only a handful of days,” Pritzker said..
Pritzker said Illinois’ hospital capacity has been expanded to 28,000 non-ICU beds, and 2,680 ICU beds.
By Sunday evening, Trump responded to Pritzker during a briefing, saying Pritzker has “not performed well” and is “always complaining.” The president, however, said he is sending Illinois 600 ventilators.
Trump also said the federal government is “building a 2,500 bed hospital in McCormick Place and we’re helping to staff it.”
Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday unveiled the first 500 beds of what is actually a 3,000 bed alternate care hospital at the massive site. And while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped to quickly build the site, the Pritzker administration, not the feds, has staffed it — with local health officials and administrators.
According to a White House official, Illinois has received 367,700 N95 masks, 300 ventilators, 875,000 surgical masks, 174,400 face shields, 142,600 surgical gowns, 4,000 coveralls and 693,600 gloves from the federal government as of April 4. Chicago has separately received 150 ventilators and 172,700 N95 masks, as well as other supplies.
Pritzker has requested 4,000 ventilators from the federal government, and has repeatedly said the government is issuing just a fraction of those requests. The state has received 450 total ventilators. That’s even less than the 1,400 ventilators Vice President Mike Pence said the state needs.
The state, however, will receive $115.3 million in federal support to combat coronavirus, according to the White House.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state’s public health chief, warned at Monday’s briefing that Tuesday will be very warm, which prompted her to issue a warning: “Please stay home. I assure you if people congregate tomorrow, we will set the state back in our fight against COVID-19.”
Ezike says 70% of those who have died in Illinois due to coronavirus have had some underlying conditions, including hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
Pritzker on Sunday closed out his daily briefing thanking the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois National Guard and FEMA.
“I think sometimes people mistake when I am being critical of the White House or the president,” Pritzker said. “They mistake that for me being critical of the people who are helping at the federal level.”
