Pritzker gives updates on Hospital and Ventilator capacity
Written by WZND Newsroom on April 7, 2020
Photo courtesy to Pritzker Facebook page
CHICAGO – Building on measures to address the health and safety of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor JB Pritzker provided an update on the state’s medical capacity to treat residents impacted by COVID-19.
“My administration has worked with our state’s network of more than 200 hospitals to increase capacity in our existing health systems,”said Pritzker. “These trends offer us further insight into the overall reach of COVID-19 in our state as we adjust the ‘how,’ ‘what’ and ‘where’ of our response.”
As of April 6, 3,680 known COVID-19 patients and suspected COVID-19 patients were hospitalized. COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) totaled 1,166, and 821 patients are on a ventilator. Suspected COVID-19 patients are individuals under investigation and assumed to have COVID-19 for the purpose of medical treatment.
The governor and his administration are working with a statewide network of more than 200 hospitals to increase capacity in our existing health systems. As of April 6, Illinois now has 28,139 hospital beds, 2,709 of which are ICU beds.
Using state level procurement, Illinois has placed orders for 3,620 ventilators. Pritzker and his administration are hard work to place additional orders soon.
Pritzker also announced that Governor Gavin Newsom and the state of California, will be lending 100 additional ventilators to Illinois.
The ventilators are loaned through a state-to-state mutual aid request under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).
Illinois has also received 450 ventilators from the federal government.
