Thread by @BauerJournalism

Gov. JB Pritzker will have his daily coronavirus update for Illinois at 2:30 p.m. I'll live tweet.

Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.

blockclubchicago.org/2020/11/10/79-…

Pritzker: "We will not be holding a COVID-19 briefing tomorrow due to Veterans Day, but we'll be back here on Thursday. And I want to encourage everyone to take some time tomorrow to honor our veterans ..." and to volunteer/contribute in some way to a veteran org.

Pritzker: "We all want this to be over. But we need to gird ourselves for winter because it's not over yet. Neither has winter come, nor is the pandemic over. We have potentially months of the fight ahead of us. As hard as that sounds, yesterday we were given some real hope" ...

re: the Pfizer vaccine news. "That's potentially a very big deal. It proves not only an effective vaccine might be on the horizon" but other vaccines that use the same tech "are on the right track."

Pritzker: "In the meantime, we're locked in a struggle with this virus as winter approaches."

Pritzker: Across the state, the majority of our regions are seeing far higher rates of hospitalizations for COVID-19 "than they either did in the spring." Regions outside Cook and the collar counties are seeing the worst surge they have yet.

Pritzker: Region 1, northern Illinois, has nearly doubled its hospitalization peak. Other regions have doubled — and more — their hospitalization peaks.

Pritzker: East Central Illinois has now surpassed 3.5 times its spring hospitalization rate.

"Even where things are not as awful, things are still bad." Regions 4/7 are "running just above the worst that they saw in the spring, with no sign of slowing."

Pritzker: Regions 8/9, the collar counties, "are close behind."

"Though still below their spring highs, things are close and they're increasing."

"Only regions 10 and 11, suburban Cook and Chicago, remain a fair distance behind their worst hospitalization peaks in the ...

"spring, by about half. But we're seeing concerning trends in suburban Cook County."

Pritzker: Statewide, we're averaging more than 4,200 patients with COVID-19 in the hospital. Our highest average in the spring was 4,822. "We're now just hundreds short of our worst hospitalization numbers last spring."

Pritzker says he's talked to health care leaders: "We must not let them become overrun. ... They have a message for everyone listening: They implore you to make sure everyone wears a mask and stops gathering with a large number of people in your homes. They need your help."

Pritzker: "We're monitoring the numbers closely and additional statewide action is possible."

blockclubchicago.org/2020/11/05/no-…

Pritzker: We remain the best testing state in the Midwest. "To that end, I'm pleased to announce we've surpassed a new milestone in Illinois:" we did more than 100k tests in the past 24 hours. We're one of the first states to do that and first in the Midwest.

Pritzker: "We know there's a renewed demand for testing statewide as positivity rates rise, so we're making every effort to keep building out our testing infrastructure."

But nothing makes a bigger difference than wearing a mask, avoiding gatherings, etc.

Pritzker: "I know it feels like we've been at this a long time. The whole country, the world has ... . But we can't let our guard down. Look at these numbers. More than 10,000 of our fellow Illinoisans are getting infected each day, and dozens are dying each day. ...

"There is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and we just don't know exactly when we will get there."

In the meantime, stop having social gatherings. Wear masks. Social distance. Get your flu shot.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health: Today, reported all-time high of newly identified COIVD cases: 12,623. Total of cases: 511,183.

79 deaths. Total deaths: 10,289.

Ezike: Overnight, 4,742 people hospitalized with COVID-19; 911 in ICU and 399 on ventilators.

Ezike: Anyone who wants a test can show up at one of the state's drive-thru sites.

Ezike: "If you've never gotten a COVID test ... it's good to get one" unless you've been indoors for literally the entire past nine months.

Ezike: "Please help us prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the spread of the flu."

Pritzker: "You saw what happened when hospitals filled up in the spring. It's the same problem for hospitals now, honestly."

Pritzker: With hospitals, it's not so much do we have the space as do we have the staffing. There's not extra staff available if every state is demanding their services.

Ezike: When you get a positive result from an antigen test, it's listed as "probable." Molecular test results are confirmed. "When we say the total number of new cases, that's the confirmed tests from the molecular tests with the" probables from antigen results.

Ezike: "All ages are getting diagnosed with this. ... When I look at it over the week and several weeks, all ages are represented. The 20-30" take a little more of the population, but it's an "even spread."

Pritzker: "It's only good news, the vaccine is only good news. ... It's still gonna take some time here before it's been proved to be efficacious ... ."

Pritzker: Each of the vaccines is somewhat different. The Pfizer one requires extremely cold storage. "That makes distribution more difficult."

Pritzker: "So, we will need a lot of help from the federal government — there's no doubt about it — to deal with that problem."

Pritzker: When a region sees a peak depends on if residents follow mask mandates and other safety guidelines.

Pritzker: "I will point out that this is an extraordinarily difficult, y'know, and troubling situation. Any nursing home or longterm care facility, etc. Especially because our Veterans Affairs Department has really done an outstanding job of keeping the veterans in our ...

"veterans home safe. They really have. So this is a blow to all of us. It's something they've been working against the entire time."

Ezike: "There are, unfortunately, significant morbidity and we'll be hoping for the best for all of the individuals at that facility."

Pritzker on Madigan: "That's a decision that members of the House will make, I know, in January they'll be taking a vote on speaker. That's their business."

Ezike on counting "probable" antigen results: "These are definitions established by the CDC. Other states are doing it — check the Missouri website, check the California website ... . We are just aligning ourselves."

Ezike: "If these people had not been tested with the [rapid test] and instead been tested with the traditional PCR, they still would've been cases. ... It doesn't change the fact these individuals have COVID."

Pritzker: "That would be disappointing. We have so much work to do in Springfield. There's no doubt. ... I must say it would be disappointing. We just have so many things we need to accomplish with regard to the budget, in particular. We have major efforts underway that will ...

"require the Legislature's engagement. Indeed, I'm already working with a number of members ... . I do not know whether they're not going to have a session but, again, it would be disappointing."

Pritzker: "I think you just named all of" the factors driving the surge. "I read today that Iowa hit 48% positivity. That means that, in theory, out of every 2 people you run into, 1 of them might have COVID. Wisconsin is not very far behind that. Look, we're surrounded, in ...

"many ways. We have a 13-plus percent positivity I believe today, and that's terrible. It's not 48, but it's terrible. The other thing is, I think, don't be fooled by just the case numbers. They're horrible, to say 12,000 people are infected is terrible. Take note that we're ...

"doing more testing than almost any other state. ... If you didn't do any tests in Illinois, you'd still have thousands and thousands — more than 10,000, clearly — who are infected ... . These numbers are awful. Positivity rate is going in the wrong direction."

Pritzker: The numbers are "on the cusp of going exponential. It's hard to tell when or if that would happen. And that's why we need everyone to please help us out. Help yourself out. Wear a mask, like everybody in this room, and encourage everybody you know to wear a mask. It ...

"really is hugely important that you do that when you're with other people."

Pritzker: We have a meeting that's coming up. "I have worked diligently. We're gonna need the General Assembly to step in here. There's a limited amount the administration can do on its own. We're gonna do that. We need to make significant cuts, and we need to look at the size...

"of the budget deficit and to think about the trajectory going forward. Those are all conversations happening now."

Press conference over.

blockclubchicago.org/2020/11/10/79-…