By Dave Dahl
CHICAGO – The main point of Thursday afternoon’s coronavirus briefing: Illinois has performed 10,000 or more tests a day for seven straight days.
“To date, over 80 percent of those we have tested are Latino and African-American,” said Jose Sanchez, president and CEO of Norwegian American Hospital in Chicago, “and half have tested positive.”
“A lab needs the raw materials that are necessary to sustain and increase our testing output,” said Gov. JB Pritzker, “and when this pandemic hit the United States, it became immediately evident that our nation just doesn’t produce enough of these raw materials to meet the need.”
Pritzker said the solution was for the state to make its own viral testing medium, chemical reagent, and get its own swabs.
Among those anxious to re-open Illinois commerce are the five Republican Congressmen from the state. They want the state to take a regional strategy, and Pritzker says that is exactly what he is doing with state parks.
The governor’s newest “stay home” order runs from May 1 through the 30-th.
The state’s coronavirus count is 52,918 cases and 2,355 deaths.
Dave Dahl can be reached at News@WJBC.com.
