Illinois health officials on Monday said another 74 people have died from the coronavirus, bringing the state’s death toll to 794.
There are also 1,173 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of cases in the state to 22,025. There have been more than 100,000 tests administered, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The virus has also spread to an additional county, with 87 of 102 counties reporting cases.
Private labs do not report their results on Sundays, which has led to a lower number of confirmed cases on Mondays, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.
Pritzker on Sunday said he was “cautiously optimistic” the state could be “bending the curve” to keep hospitals within their patient capacity.
As of midnight on Sunday, 39% of ICU beds in the state were taken by COVID-19 patients. That’s 1,159 of 2,024 beds in use. There are still 967 ICU beds available, Pritzker’s office said. Out of 3,079 total ventilators, 1,285 are in use, and 800 of those are for COVID-19 patients.
Pritzker on Monday also highlighted ways for Illinois residents to get unemployment benefits — and the problems his administration is working through as a record number of out-of-work Illinoisans try to seek benefits. He also planned to discuss an emergency rule adopted Monday by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission that will allow essential workers — like grocery store workers and health care workers — to get workers’ compensation should they get COVID-19.
The governor said the state’s online unemployment filing systems, “built a decade ago for a much lower number of claims, simply haven’t kept pace.”
An outside call center with 200 employees also is being opened. The existing website has been upgraded, he said.
Over five weeks, 513,000 claims were filed, Pritzker said. That was five times the numbers from the Great Recession, which was seen as the high-water mark that the filing system was built to handle, he added.
Employees bravely went back into the office to process claims, Pritzker said - doing in a month a workload that could have taken a year.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Monday said he will ultimately make the decision on when to relax the nation’s social distancing guidelines. Many governors across the nation, including Pritzker and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have discussed their concerns over opening up the states too quickly. Both have spoken out about a fear of a second wave of infections that could cost more lives.
Illinois residents are abiding by an executive stay-at-home order until April 30.
