Thread by @BauerJournalism

Gov. JB Pritzker has his daily coronavirus update at 2:30 p.m. I'll live tweet.

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

blockclubchicago.org/2020/12/03/192…

Pritzker: "Yesterday, as the nation reached 100,000 hospitalizations from COVID-19, thousands higher than either our spring or summer national peaks, the director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, warned that as we wait for mass distribution of a vaccine the months ahead could ...

"amount to the most difficult in the public health history of this nation. That makes our collective action in the coming weeks all the more important. What can we do to support our health care systems? How do we make sure they're able to care for all the patients who come ...

"through their doors? Not just the current surge of COVID-19 patients, but also severe flu cases, car crash survivors, those suffering from heart attacks or strokes. Everyone knows the basics, of course: Wash your hands, keep your distance, wear your mask around others to ...

"protect yourself and to protect your family And right now, that includes working extra hard to stay home as much as we can to bring down rates of transmission in our communities."

You can also help by getting your flu shot and donating blood.

Pritzker: Many of our blood donation centers are collecting convalescent plasma from people who are healthy and are fully recovered from COVID-19.

Pritzker: Research into plasma as a treatment is ongoing.

Red Cross rep: Health individuals are needed to donate life-saving blood, and businesses/organizations are needed to host blood drives.

If you're fully recovered from COVID-19, your donation of plasma is also needed.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, on CDC guidance for quarantine: Previous guidance was to quarantine for 14 days. But now, they recommend 10 days, as long as the individual does not have any symptoms at all.
Someone could still develop ...

symptoms after that, but the risk is lower.
Alternatively, someone can discontinue quarantine at 7 days if they have no symptoms and have a negative test on day 5 or 6. You still need to quarantine between taking the test and getting a negative result. You must have no symptoms.

Ezike: 10,959 new confirmed cases. Total of 759,562.
192 deaths. Total of 12,830.

Ezike: "Our path forward starts today with what we choose to do and our actions for today."

Ezike: She thanks everyone who has been wearing a mask and not doing group activities.

Pritzker: "I'm deeply concerned for the people who attended that wedding. ... I understand that those people will go home or back to their communities and may infect, have infected other people, and this is very concerning to all of us. ... I'm deeply worried for them and for ...

"the communities" where they returned. He hopes they'll isolate and get a test.

Pritzker: "It's very irresponsible. And it's also irresponsible of the hotel to host an event like that." He hopes Cook County will pursue action against the people and hotel.

Pritzker: "I have not closed schools, so that's just not a — that's a fallacy. ... All across the state, parents, teachers, local school councils have made decisions for themselves based in part on how rampant the virus is in their county, their area ... ."

Pritzker: "It is devastating, it's just devastating for the country, for the state of Illinois, for all of us who are very focused on trying to save people's lives. I can tell you that trying to do everything we can for the frontend of the process — remember, by the time you ...

"hear of someone having died, they got infected weeks earlier. Some of those of the people who passed away, they probably went to the hospital at some point, then they became an ICU patient, some of them went on ventilators. I look at it and I say, 'How can people not follow ...

"'the mitigations?' ... I just hope that people are heeding the mitigations that we're asking them to follow because that, ultimately, is gonna bring that count down. You saw it" in the spring.

Red Cross: If you donate blood, your blood will be tested for COVID antibodies.

(Hey, this sounds familiar....)

https://twitter.com/BauerJournalism/status/1324711597097537538

Ezike: We will get to know more about who the vaccine(s) can be given to as the FDA rolls out more info.

Ezike: We do know the first group will be hospital-related workers and long-term care residents.

Ezike: The monoclonal antibody infusions, those are for people who have tested positive and are in a high-risk category and they think they'll have a bad course — like someone older.

Pritzker: "We're making sure that we're getting particularly as we approach the rest of the holidays of December, trying to get it out even kind of wider and deeper. It's not that people necessarily saw it and specifically ignored it; I think there are people who may not have ...

"realized what it is they were portending for the state and for themselves when they went to a Thanksgiving gathering ... . I do think that people are making different plans for their Christmas holiday or for Hanukkah or for other celebratory holidays. Very hopeful, anyway, ...

"that we can divert people from large family gatherings so we don't have yet a third surge on top of this potential second surge."

Pritzker: We're waiting for ASIP to do the rest of its work on the other populations beyond those that will be served by the early delivery of vaccines. Illinois is getting 109,000 that will arrive Dec. 13-19. There will be hundreds of thousands of others to come.

Pritzker: That still won't cover all of the people who are in Phase 1A (hospital-related staff and long-term care residents).

Pritzker: They want to make sure other people in congregate facilities, like prisons, get vaccinated. They're waiting on federal guidance.

Pritzker on Madigan: "I have called already for the speaker to answer those questions or resign."

Ezike on getting honorary community health degree: "I am grateful for this, and I receive it in the name of the incredible people of IDPH ... ."

Ezike: We don't have a case yet here of documented re-infection.

Ezike: They've seen reports of increasing documented re-infection cases around the world.

Pritzker: We've been preparing for the Legislature to get together for months now. Had hoped they'd meet in November.

Pritzker: "It is time for us to rid this state of the unethical characters who hold office, and we need to have laws on the books that address the things we have learned that are taking place in our state. Things like making sure we have lobbyist disclosure."

Press conference over.

blockclubchicago.org/2020/08/26/ess…