Another 74 people have died from the coronavirus in Illinois as health officials announced 1,222 new cases Tuesday, but a slow in the exponential viral spread means “we are, in fact, bending the curve,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
COVID-19 cases were doubling every two days as of March 22. As of Sunday, the doubling rate was down to 8.2 days.
“The fact that our doubling rate continues to increase in every metric is a clear demonstration that there is a deceleration of virus transmission. We are, in fact, bending the curve,” Pritzker said.
But the governor warned “this curve may not flatten. And it may go up again if we don’t adhere to the stay-at-home order. We need to stay the course for now for our efforts to truly remain effective.”
The new cases raised the statewide total to 23,247 confirmed diagnoses while the death toll stands at 868. The virus also spread to an additional county, now reported in 88 of 102 counties, officials said.
It’s still unclear when cases and deaths will actually drop significantly. The state remains under a stay-at-home executive order until April 30, although Pritzker this week signaled there may be some “adjustments” made to that order in the coming weeks.
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The Democratic governor outlined the state’s hospital capacity, which has not yet reached a peak. Most projections of the number of statewide cases and deaths also analyze hospitalization peaks.
On April 6, the number of known COVID-19 patients and suspected patients hospitalized totaled 3,680. That had steadily increased to 4,283 as of Tuesday, Pritzker said.
About 40% of ICU beds are being occupied by COVID-19 patients, while ventilator usage has increased from 24% to 29% in a week. About a quarter of the state’s ventilator supply was being used Tuesday.
Pritzker has been very vocal about criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the outbreak, specifically about the state’s difficulty in acquiring personal protection equipment and ventilators.
Trump has said he will ultimately make the decision on when to relax the nation’s social distancing guidelines. He took that further on Monday at a news briefing, saying “I have the ultimate authority,” when asked about his authority to reopen the country.
Trump later said, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s got to be. … It’s total. The governors know that.”
Asked about whether Trump or governors are truly in charge of relaxing those regulations, Pritzker on Monday said it’s up to the governors.
“I think he’s going to issue some advice about it but it is true that it’s up to the governors to make decisions about the executive orders that we’ve put in place, Pritzker said. “All the governors that I’ve talked to and especially me, we want to lift these orders as soon as we can. We want to get things back to more normal, as soon as we can. But one thing we have to pay attention to is what direction are the curves going and what is the advice that we’re getting from again the scientists and the doctors, who know more about immunology and about all the issues of COVID-19 then an elected official who’s not a doctor.”
