Pritzker: Start thinking about a summer with no festivals

It's time to start thinking about a summer without any festivals, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday during his daily coronavirus briefing.

"I think everyone needs to think seriously about canceling large summer events," he advised. "I don't see how we're going to have large gatherings of people until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away."

That could mean anything from Lollapalooza in Chicago and Ribfest in its first year in Romeoville, to more modest suburban events like Libertyville Days in June or Railroad Days in West Chicago in mid-July.

"I know that's hard for everyone to hear, but that's just a fact," the governor said.

Several towns have canceled spring events because of the coronavirus outbreak, but organizers of summer events have been biding their time so far. The economic impact of such cancellations would hit some towns hard.

Pritzker said it's unlikely the state will lift the stay-at-home order before April 30. While he said the measures employed to "flatten the curve" of infections appear to be working, the trajectory of the curve is still heading upward.

"We are, in fact, bending the curve. But if we are improving here in the state, it's because people are staying at home," he said. "If you go out, there's a propensity to infect other people. We should stay home."

An additional 66 people have died from the COVID-19 infection, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Thursday. And another 1,344 people tested positive for the infection in one day. But she remained optimistic about the effects of the state's stay-at-home mandate.

"We are headed in the right direction," she said. "All these actions are making a difference and we must continue to work together."

This increases the number of Illinois residents who have died to 528, and the number of infected in the state to 16,422.

Cook County residents accounted for 41 of the new deaths, nine were from Will County, six from DuPage County, four from Lake County and one from Kane County. There were no new deaths in McHenry County. The rest were from downstate counties.

The state is now reporting cases in more than three-quarters of the state's counties.

More than 91% of the confirmed coronavirus cases are residents of Chicago and the six-county suburban region, according to IDPH reports.

Pritzker's office on Tuesday released data showing that 35% of about 2,700 intensive care unit beds in the state are available. In the Northwest suburbs, a little more than half of beds are available, compared to 28% in the West suburbs, 17% in the Northeast suburbs and almost a quarter available in Chicago.

Lake County hospitals reflected the numbers when three of the 10 hospitals in the region filled their ICU beds to capacity, Ezike said Thursday. The region includes Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan and several hospitals in the North Shore.

Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for Lake County's crisis team, confirmed the county health department was notified Wednesday that the three hospitals' ICUs were maxed out; he would not say which hospitals. But he said the county's hospital system overall can handle COVID-19 and other patients.

"Capacity numbers are a very fluid number; that changes hour by hour," he said via email. "There are Lake County hospitals which are not at ICU capacity, and in fact are expanding their ICU capacity. Ventilators also remain available for those in need of ventilation in Lake County."

Covelli said the hospitals work closely with one another. "So if one hospital is nearing or at capacity in the ICU, a patient can be transported to a different hospital."

• Daily Herald staff writer John Leusch contributed to this report.