Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker stated Monday that Illinois and its residents prevented the worst case coronavirus scenarios by social distancing, staying at home and taking other precautionary measures.
At his daily coronavirus press briefing, Pritzker said without social distancing, Illinois would have exceeded its hospital capacity by more than 25,000 beds on April 6.
Citing data from IPDH, Pritzker said Illinois reported 3,680 coronavirus hospitalizations on April 6, a total of 4,020 on April 10 and 4,599 hospitalizations on April 19.
When it comes to intensive care unit beds, Pritzker stated hospitals have worked to expand bed capacity in recent weeks. In the beginning of April, coronavirus patients occupied approximately 43% of the state's 2,700 ICU beds, while as of Monday, 1,239 patients had occupied 40% of the state's 3,100 ICU beds, according to state health department data.
As for ventilators, the number of coronavirus patients on ventilators has continued a downward trend since the beginning of April — approximately 29% of hospitalized patients were using ventilators on April 6 compared to 23% as of Monday.
"Had we not established mitigation measures, by now we would have needed thousands more ventilators beyond our existing capacity," Pritzker said Monday.
The governor added that all projections indicate Illinoisans have saved thousands of lives, and the coronavirus curve appears to be bending the right way.
Local
"With the current mitigation strategies in place, we may not have reached our peak yet, but your actions are helping to keep that peak as low as possible," Pritzker said.
Pritzker also acknowledged that the numbers of cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, all-be-it at a slower rate than in previous weeks.
An additional 1,151 coronavirus cases and 59 more deaths were reported Monday, increasing the total number of cases to 31,508 with 1,349 deaths.
