A team of health care workers will be deployed to Rockford's Javon Bea Hospital-Riverside, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday, saying the medical professionals will "help reduce the strain" on the hospital amid the current omicron surge.
In a news release, Pritzker explained the federal government granted the state of Illinois' request for medical staffing assistance at the Winnebago County medical facility.
Under the terms of the agreement, a team of 22 people, including clinical staff, will be sent to the Mercyhealth-operated hospital for 14 days to assist doctors and nurses as they treat COVID patients.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
The additional staffing will also serve to help other area hospitals who may transfer patients to Javon Bea-Riverside, the news release stated.
As COVID hospitalizations hit record levels this week, Pritzker announced hundreds of health care workers will be deployed to hospitals statewide in the coming weeks.
The governor, in a COVID-19 update Wednesday, announced 552 additional workers are slated to arrive at state hospitals by next Friday. In addition, the state is sending another 340 workers from so-called "COVID reaction teams" to "respond quickly to emerging crises at hospitals and other healthcare facilities" within the next 10 days.
More than 2,000 health care workers have already been sent to struggling Illinois hospitals this month to assist with patient care and give workers reprieve.
"With unprecedented numbers of patients being hospitalized, we must do all
we can to keep our healthcare workers and institutions operating and available to all who need medical assistance," Pritzker said Wednesday.
According to the figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health, as of Thursday, 7,320 patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 were hospitalized.
That is just below the all-time record for hospitalizations, which was set on Tuesday with 7,353 hospitalized patients, according to IDPH data.
