Officials on Monday said another 50 people have died in Illinois from the coronavirus as the state nears the loss of nearly 2,000 people to the pandemic.
In total, 1,983 have died from the virus. With 1,980 more positive cases reported Monday, there have been 45,883 cases in the state, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. There were 12,676 tests results returned on Sunday, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.
Sunday marked the fourth day in a row that Illinois reached Pritzker’s goal of running at least 10,000 tests within 24 hours. That’s the testing capacity experts say is needed to better understand how widespread the virus is throughout the state.
Pritzker on Monday planned to outline the state’s hospital capacity. On Sunday, the Democratic governor said hospitalizations were relatively flat compared to Saturday, with nearly 4,600 people in hospital beds. Of that, 1,267 patients were in ICU, including 772 people on ventilators.
The governor said the state could end up needing fewer hospital beds as it has bent the curve of the COVID-19 virus’ spread in the state, so plans at the McCormick Place field hospital have been scaled back from its initial plans to hold 3,000 beds across three halls.
The governor planned to be part of a White House teleconference call prior to his 2:30 p.m. daily briefing. President Trump on Monday bashed Illinois in a tweet, calling it a “poorly run” state in a tweet criticizing the state’s Democrats’ for asking for a $10 billion state pension rescue, along with other coronavirus aid.
