DEATH TOLL’S CRUEL CLIMB
State reports another 42 dead from COVID-19, and while urging people to be ‘courageous,’ top health official says it will get worse
Barely two weeks ago, Illinois had yet to confirm its first death attributed to the coronavirus.
A week ago, the statewide toll rose to 19 fatalities.
But Wednesday’s latest record daily spike of 42 COVID-19 deaths reported by state health officials raised the count to 141 lives lost — nearly doubling the figure from just three days earlier and putting the looming reach of the pandemic in sharp relief.
An additional 986 cases brought the state total to 6,980, and things will still get worse in the weeks ahead, Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said at a daily briefing alongside Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“But I’m not urging people to despair,” Ezike said. “Let’s be strong and courageous. Don’t be terrified. Don’t be discouraged. The courageous actions that we need to take are well within our grasp.
“And those actions are the ones we’ve been saying from the outset: Wash your hands, stay at home, clean frequently touched surfaces. All of these things seem minimal, but these are the courageous actions that are going to save lives and eventually end this pandemic.”
A majority of the new reported deaths — 34 of 42 — were from Cook County, including the youngest, a man in his 20s.
Ezike said about 20% of those who test positive require hospitalization, and about 5% require intensive care. The mortality rate is between 1% and 3%.
“Our numbers are unfortunately going to bear that out,” Ezike said.
1st city employee dies
Among the dead was a City of Chicago employee, the first to succumb to the virus, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a separate news conference.
“This is a sad day for all of us in city government. … While I can’t provide and will not any personal details, I can say that the employee was longstanding, beloved by family and co-workers,” Lightfoot said.
“This sobering moment should remind us that the numbers that we report every day are not mere statistics. They are people whose lives have been forever changed.”
Gov tracking supplies, workers
Since asking the state’s retired health care workforce for help in fighting COVID-19 more than a week ago, Pritzker said more than 1,100 have applied to rejoin the workforce. The governor said his administration is also exploring whether fourth-year medical students and nursing students at the end of their programs can help the state.
Asked if there are enough health care workers to staff what is intended to be a 3,000-bed field hospital at McCormick Place, Pritzker said “we believe we have enough to staff the first 500 beds … but we need more. There’s no doubt.”
In his ongoing bid to land more medical supplies for the state — while slamming the federal government response — Pritzker is also calling the CEOs of major airlines to organize an airlift to haul personal protection equipment from China, according to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Durbin said: “I talk to the governor almost every day, and yesterday he said he felt like a shipping clerk. He was calling the major airlines that he knew the CEOs to be available, asking and begging them to help Illinois secure goods from China.”
Lolla on for now
And while major events have been canceled across the board, Lightfoot said it’s too early to tell whether Lollapalooza could be next on the chopping block if pandemic measures stretch into the summer.
“Lollapalooza is scheduled to start about four months from now. If we think about where we were four months previous or four weeks previous or even four days previous, what we know is this virus is unpredictable. It’s fluid. The circumstances really are kind of changing day-to-day,” she said.
“It’s our hope and our expectation that it will go forward. But we will deal with the circumstances when we are much closer to that time.”
Sentencing via videoconference
In another first brought about by the pandemic, a federal judge agreed to sentence a federal convict by videoconference rather than delay court proceedings — a move that would have seemed extraordinary in a pre-COVID-19 world.
U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang’s decision to sentence Malcolm Junious remotely April 14 appears to be the first in Chicago since an order from U.S. Chief District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer largely brought federal courts in the city to a halt in mid-March.
Pallmeyer revised her order Monday, allowing for videoconferencing or teleconferencing of felony sentencing or plea hearings only after consultation between an emergency judge, the presiding judge and Pallmeyer.
Junious pleaded guilty in December to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.