State blows past Pritzker goal of 10k tests
16,124 tests yield new single-day high of 2,724 COVID-19 cases, but percent positive actually drops
Lt. Cmdr. Danett Bishop, of Hawthorn Woods, processes a COVID-19 test earlier this week taken from a U.S. Navy sailor. (U.S. Navy/Jonathan Berlier)
By Ted Cox
The state blew past Gov. Pritzker’s stated goal of 10,000 COVID-19 tests in a day on Friday, with a reported 16,124 reported statewide.
That yielded a new single-day high of 2,724 fresh cases, but Gov. Pritzker pointed out at his daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago that the 17 percent positive rate was well below the previous 21 percent.
“Today we met our goal of 10,000 daily tests,” Pritzker said. “In fact, we surpassed it, with 16,124.” While not putting too much emphasis on one day’s data, he called the 17 percent confirmation rate “a positive sign nonetheless for everyone when more people are getting tested and there is a lower ratio of positives.”
The governor added, “In the face of this virus, testing is really key to everything — to everything else that we need to do to get Illinois moving again.”
“We know that testing is a critical component to reopening the economy,” said Gabrielle Cummings, president of NorthShore University Health System, which has tripled the number of tests conducted from 400 a day on March 12 to 1,200 a day now. The 25,000 tests it’s processed constitute 13 percent of the state total.
Cummings warned, “The supply chain remains a challenge,” in that those taking specimens and processing them in a lab need the raw materials.
“The challenges in the supply chain in order to get us to 10,000 were immense,” the governor granted. But he lauded the state’s public universities as playing “a key role,” for instance doubling the number of swabs available. “We anticipate being able to push that number higher,” he said of the tests. “The idea here is we’ve got to keep going, and we will.”
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, reported 108 new deaths, bringing the state toll to 1,795, while the 2,724 new cases brought the state total to 39,658. But she too was encouraged by the lower percentage positive, saying, “Obviously, when you test more people, you are going to find more cases.” She added that hospitalizations for the coronavirus remained steady, as did the percentage of COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Units and on ventilators.
“We have flattened the curve” of rising infections, Ezike said. “We have lowered the number of lives lost.”
Pritzker, however, dismissed current tests for COVID-19 antibodies. Even though they “have created a lot of buzz,” he said, they are “not entirely reliable,” and besides it’s not yet known if the presence of COVID-19 antibodies means a person is immune to reinfection or still capable of infecting someone else.
“To be clear, these tests are not quite where we need them to be,” he said. “What I won’t do is run full speed ahead with these tests before they’re proven,” Pritzker added, because it would potentially offer people “a false sense of security.”
Pritzker and Ezike urged residents to continue to follow the stay-at-home order, extended Thursday to May 30, including the new requirement to wear masks in places where social distancing is difficult, like grocery stores. The governor said stores are encouraged to forbid entry to anyone not wearing a mask or face covering, same as they would for a person not wearing a shirt or shoes. “It’s perfectly acceptable to tell people you’re not allowed in without a face mask,” he said. “You can even use a T-shirt” to cover the nose and mouth.
Pritzker waved off reports that at least one county sheriff is refusing to impose the restrictions under the extended stay-at-home order, saying, “Whether your sheriff is enforcing it or not, you know what you need to do to stay safe.” He dismissed a lawsuit filed by by state Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia against the extended stay-at-home order as “a political maneuver at a time when we probably shouldn’t be dealing with politics, but rather simply addressing the emergency.”
Springfield reporter Mark Maxwell, of WCIA-TV in Champaign, reported on Twitter that “despite calls to reopen downstate, the second-most COVID-19 infections per capita are in Jasper County, Rep. Bailey’s district. It’s also the deadliest county per capita, (with) more deaths per 10,000 than Cook County.”
Although Pritzker suggested he was being “goaded” with a reporter’s question about President Trump’s contention Thursday that injecting disinfectants would kill COVID-19 — a treatment that would likely also kill the patient — he said, “It’s dangerous. What the president said yesterday is dangerous.” Although the White House attempted to walk back the comment Friday by labeling it as “sarcasm,” Pritzker pointed out Trump gave no indication at the time he was being sarcastic, adding, “I hope to God that nobody listened to him.”
The governor said the Illinois Department of Employment Security is processing three or four times the phone calls it was on unemployment claims at the beginning of the economic crisis resulting from the lockdown — many more times the calls it was processing a year ago. He advised so-called 1099 employees — meaning private contractors, freelancers, tipped employees, and gig workers — who’ve been idled in the coronavirus lockdown to file for benefits immediately with IDES online. Although they may “get rejected” under the old rules, they’ll “be in the system” and “eligible for revalidation” when funding for the expanded unemployment benefits granted by a congressional COVID-19 relief package is made available by the state May 11.
The governor was asked if baseball will be played this year. “I hope so,” he said. “But I don’t know.”