COVID-19 hospitalizations prompt pleas from Pritzker, health professionals

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - With more people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois than during the bleakest period of the initial coronavirus onslaught last spring, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday turned to professionals in the field to make personal pleas for precautions to slow the relentless pandemic.

The state reported 11,632 new infections, down from repeated record-breaking days last week, but November has seen a daily average of approximately 10,500 new COVID-19 cases, compared with about 4,900 per day the last two weeks of October. And those numbers have filled 5,581 hospital beds in the state, a steep increase from the 5,037 maximum from the spring, when officials scrambled to set up field units to handle potential overflow.

“The nation has been swept by a COVID storm ... and with nearly no mitigations in the states bordering us, and no national strategy to reduce the spread, we’re in for a very difficult next few months,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus briefing in Chicago.

Again, he pleaded with the public to stay home unless necessary to go out, wear face coverings when out in public and limit contact with large groups of people. Nowhere in the state are more than 25 people allowed in one place at once, and in three regions the number can’t exceed 10.

Health care workers are exhausted, according to Dr. Michael Kulisz, chief medical officer of Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and associated with Northwestern Medicine.

“It’s very difficult for our staff, our physicians, our clinical staff to continue the long hours they’re working and resources are going to dry up,” Kulisz said by video feed. “It’s important for all of us to do our part, and our part isn’t that difficult. It’s simple: It’s masks, it’s social distancing, it’s stay home and avoiding gatherings.”

The virus has now claimed 10,779 lives among 585,248 cases in Illinois. Of those hospitalized, 1,144 were in intensive care units and 514 were on ventilators. The numbers of these very ill patients have soared as well. The daily November average for those in ICU is 876, a 62% increase from the 541 average the last half of October.

Ventilator usage has average 391 per day in November, 81% higher than the 216 daily in the two weeks prior.

“Health care workers are weary, the pandemic has taken its toll on our community ... and it’s not only the bedside health care workers, but then we have housekeepers and nutrition services workers and we have building services workers,” said Ruth Colby, president and CEO of Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, who reported 60 employees sick with COVID-19 were not at work Monday.

Officials are concerned about the coming collision of cold weather, traditional holidays and flu seasons, all which have the capacity to spread or exacerbate the virus as people stay indoors, gather for celebrations and fail to get inoculated against the flu.

“It is not too late to rethink your Thanksgiving Day plans,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state public health director. “They need to be more aligned with COVID-19 precautions. We can all see it. Things are getting worse. And so those initial plans that you made several months ago, even several weeks ago, they may need to change.

“Do your plans include those who are over 60?” Ezike advised. “Do your plans include those who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk? Are some of your intended guests pregnant? You have to be thinking about all of these things before you bring additional people into your home.”