Over 8,000 COVID-19 cases in Illinois, including 210 deaths

Posted on April 3, 2020
Gov. JB Pritzker gave the daily update on COVID-19 Friday at McCormick Place in Chicago. (WJBC file photo)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker’s daily coronavirus briefing was meant to show off how McCormick Place in Chicago is becoming a giant field hospital to fight coronavirus, with the first five hundred of an eventual 3,000 beds on site.

Pritzker announced three other hospitals in the Chicago area — and that the former Vibra Hospital site in Springfield will become the first downstate “alternate care facility.” A city spokeswoman said the Illinois Emergency Management Agency took possession Friday.

And Pritzker had something to say about masks.

“The doctors all agree that this virus can be spread through droplets,” said the governor, “like when you sneeze or cough. So blocking that by wearing a mask in public seems like a common-sense way to do what’s right for those around you.”

Pritzker was not wearing a mask when he said that.

The coronavirus totals presented Friday for Illinois are 8,904 cases, including 210 deaths.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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