Pritzker shares positive COVID-19 news with Illinois residents: 'We are, in fact, bending the curve'
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CHICAGO -- Governor JB Pritzker on Tuesday confirmed that Illinois is “bending the curve” in its fight against COVID-19, providing residents with some much needed hope.
“As we work to defeat COVID-19, at some point we will have fewer cases to report and fewer lives lost. That will be good news. But it doesn’t change the fact that each and every life that we lose to this virus is an immense tragedy. May each and every one of their memories be for a blessing,” the governor said.
“With that said, I want to start our conversation today with one of the numbers that we watch closely, and that’s our doubling rate. That’s the number of days that it takes to double case counts, hospitalizations or deaths. Why is that important? Well because the higher that number is, the slower your growth, which means the flatter your curve. At the beginning of this pandemic, our doubling rates were very low. And since we put all our executive orders in place, Illinois has seen our doubling rates increase substantially. That is a very good thing. On March 22nd, the rate at which our COVID positive case count was doubling was just about two days. By April 1st, that rate had increased to about 3.6 days. As of this Sunday, April 12th, our case doubling rate had reached 8.2 days. Similarly, our mortality-doubling rate has increased. At the beginning of April, it was at 2.5 days. And it is now at 5.5 days. To be clear, there is nothing good about twice as many people having this virus, or worse, dying from it, no matter how long the increase takes. But we won’t get to zero cases over night. 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.
Governor Pritzker, however, also said the curve may not flatten -- and may go up again -- if Illinois residents do not adhere to the stay-at-home order.
"We must stay the course for our efforts to remain effective," he tweeted.
Later on in the press conference, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who is the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, also had some positive news to share.
“The Illinois Department of Public Health has continued to outreach to individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19 through an electronic survey to identify people who have recovered. We send out these electronic surveys to people to catch their recovery rate at 7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days. As you can imagine, people are getting better with time,” the health director said.
“So to share those results, I’m happy to report that of the people who were surveyed at seven days, 44 percent have indicted recovery. At 14 days, the number increases to 50 percent. At 21 days after testing positive, we have 61 percent of people who…no longer have symptoms. And at 28 days, 69 percent of people reported no COVID-19 symptoms and feeling much better. So again, people are getting better, people recover from this disease,” Dr. Ezike said.
“It is important to note that not everyone responded to the survey, so potentially the average could be higher,” she added.
Dr. Ezike also announced 1,222 new cases of the coronavirus, raising the state’s case total to 23,247.
There are also another 74 deaths from the disease in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The state’s death toll is now 868 people.
Early Monday afternoon, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she believes the stay-at-home order issued by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will extend past April 30 and into May.
“I think that’s going to be difficult for us to say April 30th everything [opens] up. I don’t expect that to happen. I think it will extend beyond that. And we are already in the process of thinking about even when we get to a point where we feel safe from a public health standpoint, what would be the sequencing of lifting that [stay-a-home order?] That’s a conversation of course we need to have with the governor and his team,” Lightfoot said.
Governor Pritzker said Sunday that he and his staff are working on figuring out when and how things will open back up, and when people will get back to work.
"The last thing we want is to open things up and have a big spike in infections," he said.
Pritzker said the state has set up a way to get in touch with a mental health professional if the COVID-19 pandemic is causing you anxiety. Just text "TALK" (or "HABLAR" for Spanish assistance) to 552020. You can also text the words "UNEMPLOYMENT," "FOOD" or SHELTER" to the same number for assistance.
The state is also launching a remote care program for COVID-19 patients whose symptoms are not severe. Healthcare workers will connect digitally with patients on a daily basis. And, depending on the severity of the situation, the state might provide kits with blood pressure cuffs and thermometers.
Illinois launches free mental health service
Gov. JB Pritzker said the state has set up a way to get in touch with a mental health professional if the COVID-19 pandemic is causing you anxiety. Just text "TALK" (or "HABLAR" for Spanish assistance) to 552020. You can also text the words "UNEMPLOYMENT," "FOOD" or SHELTER" to the same number for assistance.
Social distancing efforts have been making a difference in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
Across the country, there have been more than 580,000 confirmed cases with at least 23,000 dead.
The director of the CDC says infection rates are stabilizing and that some areas of the country might be able to open within the next few weeks.
"I think we've really stabilized across the country. We’re still seeing a small rate of increase, you know, in the range of 5 to 6 percent, as opposed to where we were before, when it was 20, 30 percent per day. But we're close. We’re stabilized and anticipate that we'll begin to see a decline in the days ahead, but we gotta just continue to take it day by day, and look at the data,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield.
Redfield says, however, that even in areas of the country that are opened up eventually, mitigation efforts and widespread testing will have to continue.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and death.