Illinois man loses father, grandmother to COVID-19

CHICAGO - One local family has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, as the deaths continue to climb statewide.

The state's leading health official says we have flattened the curve, but that does not mean we will not see spikes.

“We have surpassed 2,000 deaths here in Illinois. And we've seen the greatest one-day increase in fatalities thus far,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Dr. Ezike reported Tuesday that 144 Illinois residents lost their battle with COVID-19, and that more than 2,100 people have died during the pandemic in our state.

FOX 32 first told you about 72-year-old Verna Jackson dying from COVID-19 on April 1. At the time, her 40-year-old son Courtney Benton was also positive for the virus and in the hospital, as her grandson, named after his father, was in self-isolation because he too had tested positive.

Benton told FOX 32 by phone that his father died last week.

“He was on a ventilator for three weeks,” he said. “Everything started shutting down.”

Benton has fully recovered, but the loss of his grandma, who he called “Big Mama,” and his father has left him feeling empty.

To stop this virus, Governor JB Pritzker says we first need testing. We have seen testing increase with more than 10,000 administered per day, and now the federal government is planning to give Illinois 20,000 swabs per day next month.

“It will be a great advancement for us to have 20,000 more opportunities to get testing up and going,” Pritzker said.

But still, there is an uncertainty to dealing with a pandemic.

“I know that people are getting tired. We all are tired of this pandemic,” Dr. Ezike said. “We all need to try to hang in there so that we can prevent the loss of life of our loved ones and ourselves.”