Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s beginning to feel a lot like March again in the Land of Lincoln.
The state’s top doctor fought back tears Friday while making her most impassioned plea yet for residents to follow basic health guidelines as Illinois’ autumn coronavirus resurgence means many front-line health care workers “are seeing history repeat itself.”
“Excuse me, please,’ Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said, turning her back and pausing for nearly 40 seconds during the daily briefing, as Gov. J.B. Pritker and others offered her tissues.
she outlined the latest 3,874 cases of the disease confirmed statewide. The seventh highest caseload of the entire pandemic capped a week of record-breaking infection numbers that sent testing positivity rates shooting up statewide.
Officials also announced 31 more deaths have been attributed to the virus
The pandemic death toll has risen to 9,418 since March, and it’s poised to balloon at an increasingly troubling rate as Illinois hospitals treat the most coronavirus patients they’ve seen since early June. Nearly 2,500 hospital beds were occupied by coronavirus patients as of Thursday night, with 511 in intensive care units and 197 using ventilators.
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