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Gov. JB Pritzker warned Tuesday that if Illinois’ COVID measures do not decrease, “significantly greater mitigation measures” could be imposed on the state.
“We are constantly looking at the menu of options that we may have to impose in order to bring the numbers down,” Pritzker said at a press conference. “I remind you that if we are not able to reduce those numbers, if hospitals keep filling up, if hospital beds and intensive care units are full like in Kentucky – it’s right next to Illinois – if that happens, we’re going to have to impose much bigger mitigation measures. “
As of Tuesday, 37 counties in Illinois and Chicago were on a “warning level” for the availability of beds in intensive care units, according to data from the state’s health department.
For a county to reach a “warning level,” it must have an intensive care bed capacity of less than 20%, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
All but one of Illinois counties are also experiencing “high” community transmission of COVID-19, placing most of the state in the category in which anyone over the age of 2 should resume wearing a. mask inside, regardless of vaccination status, health officials say.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines late last month to recommend that fully vaccinated people again wear masks indoors in areas of the United States that experience “substantial transmission. ”Or“ high ”COVID-19.
Illinois health officials on Friday reported 24,682 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week, along with 126 more deaths and nearly 235,000 new vaccine doses given – increases across the board as the state continues to see an increase fueled by the delta variant.
As of midnight Thursday, 2,000 patients were hospitalized with COVID in the state – up about 21% from the previous week. Of these patients, 468 were in intensive care beds and 234 on ventilators. All metrics are a reported increase from the previous week’s numbers.
Pritzker said increased mitigations could include this as “phases,” which brought restrictions both regionally and statewide earlier in the pandemic, although he did not offered a lot of detail.
“These are things we don’t want to go back to,” he said. “These are, you know, phases, situations, things on the menu that I think we don’t want to come back to but for now.”
Pritzker noted that increased mitigation measures have already been implemented statewide, including an indoor mask mandate in schools, a vaccine mandate for state employees in assembly places. , a vaccine requirement for nursing home staff and a mask warrant in all state buildings.
Meanwhile, Chicago and the suburb of Cook County have independently issued indoor mask warrants, requiring anyone over the age of 2 to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of immunization status.
Last week, the governor declined to give a specific measure on which the state could impose a similar indoor masking mandate, leaving the door open for further mitigation measures but relying on local authorities to take action. , even though he called the current COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant a “very dangerous time.”
Earlier this month, Pritzker unveiled a new mask mandate specifically for schools, requiring – rather than recommending – that all students, teachers and staff at K-12 schools wear masks indoors, with effect immediate.
The Illinois State Board of Education then placed several schools and districts in the state on probation or changed their status with the state to “unrecognized” for failing to meet the mandate.
Asked about the action at an independent press conference on Friday, Pritzker said schools failing to meet the requirement endanger students and their communities at “a very dangerous time.”
“What I can tell you is that schools that do not meet the requirements for masks for their children of course put their children at risk, they also put at risk the people who work in the school, the parents and grandparents who pick up and drop off their children from school, ”said Pritzker.
“We are living in a very dangerous time of coronavirus, a revival of the delta variant across the country and here in Illinois,” he continued. “I am deeply concerned, in particular that the delta variant is having an increasingly serious medical impact on young people, not just young children who go to school, but older children in high school and young people. teachers who come to work in schools every day. I’m just trying to ask people to make sure they’re following a mitigation measure that we know is working. “
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