16 Coronavirus Deaths: Pritkzer 'Not Willing To Sacrifice Anyone'

ILLINOIS — As the state's coronavirus death toll hit 16 and Illinois reported an additional 250 confirmed cases — for a state total of 1,535 — Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlined what's happening to increase the state's capacity for treating additional patients should the worst-cases scenario for the disease's spread become reality.

While measures are being taken to boost the state's testing capacity — currently, the state can process nearly 2,000 coronavirus tests per day and aims to reach 4,300 per day — there's more to be done.

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Coronavirus In Illinois: March 24 Update As Cases Hit 1,534

"We can't just test," Pritzker said. "We have to treat."

While most patients who get coronavirus will recover without the need for hospitalization, a significant portion of patients will develop severe symptoms requiring an ICU bed or even a ventilator, the governor said.

And as Illinois remains among the states with the highest number of positive coronavirus tests, "We need to be a priority when it comes to ventilators and N95 masks especially," Pritzker said, repeating his call for President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed up production of essential equipment.

"We are on a wartime footing right now, and we need an allocation of resources to the front lines that prioritizes where the battle is being waged more aggressively," Pritzker said, adding, "Lives depend on it."

The governor also defended the actions the state has taken to curb the spread of coronavirus, including the stay-at-home order that's closed businesses across the state.

"What will drive my decision-making in the weeks ahead: science," Pritzker said, acknowledging that many are wondering: How long will this last?

"The honest answer is, we don't know yet," he said. "I know that's hard to accept, but it's honest, and I'm determined to be honest with you above all else."

And while seeing the economy slow down "keeps me up at night," Pritzker said, "You can’t have a livelihood without a life. As long as Americans have breath in their lungs, we will find a way to survive and to thrive.

"We can revive our economy," Pritzker said. "We can't revive the people who are lost to this virus."

Referring to situations faced in other countries, such as Italy, where doctors have had to choose who gets a ventilator and who doesn't, Pritzker said. "I'm not willing to sacrifice anyone. There is no life in this state that is more or less precious than any other."

How many hospital beds does Illinois have?

Currently, there are 26,000 non-ICU beds in hospitals across Illinois, with 13,000 available, and a total of 2,600 adult ICU beds with 1,100 available.

Will Coronavirus Push IL Hospitals To Capacity Tipping Point?

Without the stay-at-home order, Pritzker said within one week the state would need over 2,500 more non-ICU beds and 800 ICU beds than currently exist in the state. Within two weeks, Illinois would need more than 28,000 additional non-ICU and 9,400 additional ICU beds. "That's untenable," Pritzker said.

Illinois currently has about 2,200 ventilators in state, of which 1,600 are available. Under a "worst-case scenario," Pritzker said the state would need over 4,100 additional ventilators within two weeks, based on projections with no protective intervention.

The state expects to receive 300 more ventilators and 300,000 N95 masks from FEMA "in the coming days," he said.

Pritzker said state agencies are taking a "two-pronged approach" to preventing the worst-case scenario, from "flattening the curve" by closing non-essential businesses and urging residents to stay home, to increasing the state's overall health care system.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health are also building up triage units while using hotels and reopening shuttered hospitals to increase capacity. IEMA has set up 49 patient triage tents, including 40 outside Cook County.

Meanwhile, just two days after issuing a call to retired doctors and nurses and those who have left medicine to rejoin the healthcare workforce, Pritzker said 180 former workers have already answered the call since the application went online.

Coronavirus case breakdown

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of IDPH, called today's new coronavirus case numbers and deaths "sobering," tearing up as she said, "It is not easy to be reporting these numbers every day. And we won't fall into the trap of forgetting that these numbers are people" with families who love them and will not be able to have proper funerals for them.

"This disease has affected every group in our society," infecting people from ages 0 to 99 and all demographic groups, Ezike said.

In Illinois, 54 percent of coronavirus patients are white, 33 percent are black, 11 percent are Latino or Hispanic and 5 percent are Asian.

Sixteen percent of Illinois coronavirus patients require hospitalization, and 4 percent wind up in the ICU. Of those who have died of the illness, 92 percent have been over age 60.