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* The governor was asked about the latest numbers yesterday…
Illinois is entering what could be “the most crucial month of this entire pandemic,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday, a period bookended by Thanksgiving and a string of December holidays traditionally marked by gatherings that carry the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Though the state has recently seen a slight decrease in the hospitalization rate for COVID-19 patients, it’s still 14% higher than the spring peak during the initial surge of the pandemic.
“It’s likely too early for us to have yet seen the bulk of Thanksgiving-related hospitalizations. We’re now in our 11th day since Thanksgiving and we are four days out from Hanukkah and 18 days from Christmas, 19 days from Kwanzaa, 24 from New Year’s Eve,” Pritzker said Monday. “These next four weeks may be the most crucial month of this entire pandemic. We quite literally have very limited leeway in our hospital systems to manage another surge.”
* We discussed this Atlantic article yesterday…
The current [national] rise in hospitalizations began in late September, and for weeks now hospitals have faced unprecedented demand for medical care. The number of hospitalized patients has increased nearly every day: Since November 1, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has doubled; since October 1, it has tripled.
The national numbers are here.
* Here are the Illinois hospitalization numbers…
October 1: 1678
November 1: 3371
December 7: 5190
While hospitalizations have not doubled since November 1, they have more than tripled since October 1.
Wear a mask, keep your distance, wash your hands and use actual common sense.
* Related…
* The God Committee - When hospitals are overwhelmed, who decides who lives and who dies?
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 9:24 am
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At this point everyone willing to voluntarily wear a mask and use common sense is doing so. Everyone else needs to be coerced. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but only a bit. Look at that youtube clip in Australia Rich posted yesterday - they had to do things like fine people for indoor personal gatherings, but they reaped the rewards.
Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 9:41 am
Actual common sense isn’t found on the likes of OAN, Newsmax and Fox…just sayin.
Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 9:59 am
If yesterday’s numbers were weekend numbers and usually low wouldn’t today’s numbers be the first real showing of the potential spike from Thanksgiving.
Lets hope that it stays steady because if not our hospitals will be even more strained.
Please mask up
Comment by The Dude Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:02 am
Also worth noting that those hospitalization peaked at more than 6100 a couple weeks ago. We’re definitely down off the peak but still at an unacceptably high level.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:13 am
The IEA and the IFT, among their other school COVID safety proposals in their call to legislator action, is pushing for teachers and other educational workers to be included among the first to receive the COVID vaccine. Will that include state employees, including those covered by IFT?
https://wrex.com/2020/12/08/illinois-education-unions-call-on-lawmakers-to-make-schools-safe-during-the-pandemic/
Comment by State Employee Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:18 am
“At this point, everyone willing to voluntarily wear a mask and use common sense is doing so. Everyone else needs to be coerced”
Perhaps the correct sentiment. But the issue is who is willing/able to do the coercion? The employees of stores/businesses are in fear of reactions from mask opponents, the local Health dept is swamped and the LEO’s are not interested.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:24 am
==Will that include state employees==
Just stop already. You’ve been harping on this state employee thing for a long time and wondering why they aren’t being treated differently than everyone else. Why should they? If they work someplace like a Veteran’s Home I’m guessing they’ll end up in that nursing group that is at the front of the line. But this continued suggestion that state employees should be pushed up the list is beyond ridiculous.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:28 am
==Will that include state employees==
Like Demo said, unless you have underlying health conditions or work in a place with high turnover (DMV maybe?), just hold out as the high risk groups (and those that help them) get squared away.
Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:39 am
==The IEA and the IFT, among their other school COVID safety proposals in their call to legislator action, is pushing for teachers and other educational workers to be included among the first to receive the COVID vaccine.==
The problems is that everyone wants to have priority. It just doesn’t work that way.
Comment by tea_and_honey Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 10:41 am
Donnie - I know, that’s the rub - Rich has told me the ISP has very limited resources and I don’t know how much the governor can boost those without legislative action, but I would still try to make as many and as high profile enforcement examples as possible in the hope that it might “give cover” to some of these businesses to act on their own (i.e., their customers will understand they’re trying to avoid penalties/being closed). Beyond that, I get that legislative action to do more will come with a political cost, but if you aren’t willing to take that hit and spend your political capital in a deadly pandemic, what good is all that power? I see Cuomo in NY and Grisham in New Mexico pushing boundaries - I know, all situations are different, but I sense there’s a “silent majority” out there who would be just fine seeing the hammer drop on businesses and people who flout the state covid rules. (As a side note, this is why things like Tunney serving customers is so bad - it makes it so much harder for the Dems to get tough when they get caught in utter hypocricies)
Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 11:20 am
So much about Covid-19 depends on data interpterion. Yet, data has little meaning without context. How do these numbers compare to hospital capacity? What is normal hospital capacity? How do these numbers compare to hospitalization caused by seasonal influenza? How do these hospitalizations break out by race/gender/age and existing medical conditions? We have suspended so many basic rights (such as the right to worship) because of the public health needs, how come we continue to maintain a very strict interpretation of medical privacy? Only a few ‘entitled’ medical professionals get to see the real data and the rest of us must ‘trust’ their conclusions.
Comment by Fool on the Hill Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 2:46 pm
“Fool” is an appropriate nickname for you.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 3:38 pm
==How do these numbers compare to hospitalization caused by seasonal influenza?==
That is completely irrelevant. COVID isn’t the flu and isn’t treated medically anything like the flu and you know it.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 3:43 pm
Hospitalizations peaked about 2 weeks ago in Illinois around 6,200 peole. Down nearly 1,000 cases since then (15%) to 5,199 today. Why not report this?
Comment by Aron Tuesday, Dec 8, 20 @ 4:29 pm
Hospitalizations in DuPage County are well off the peak, never came close to the first wave. Deaths don’t track reported cases, those are also well off the first wave. It is still very lethal to be old and in a LTCF. Most of the residents there have heart and lung disorders, and that’s where the fatality rate is almost 20%.
Comment by Touré's Latte Wednesday, Dec 9, 20 @ 9:25 am