At his daily press briefing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker reported that 125 more people in the state have died from the new coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 1,259 since the start of the outbreak.
That matches the largest number of coronavirus-related deaths in a 24-hour period.
Officials also announced 1,585 new known COVID-19 cases Saturday, raising the number of known infections in the state to 29,160.
Here’s what’s happening on Saturday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
2: 35 p.m.: 125 more Illinoisans have died of COVID-19, Gov. J.B. Pritzker says
Illinois has tied its highest-single day death total with 125 fatalities from COVID-19, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Saturday.
That figure matched the mark set two days earlier. Meanwhile, the state’s top physician, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said there had been 1,585 more confirmed cases.
Those additions boosted the state’s totals to 29,160 confirmed cases and 1,259 deaths.
Saturday’s news came a day after the state announced 1,842 new known cases, the most in a 24-hour period since the pandemic started.
Those high totals rolled in late this week as Pritzker announced he would keep schools closed through the end of the academic year.
Still, Pritzker and Ezike have maintained that measures including the stay-at-home order are working as designed to moderate a steep climb in illnesses and fatalities. Pritzker said the upward curve was flattening but had not leveled off. Ezike added that expanded testing has boosted case counts.
Pritzker and Ezike also noted improvements seen in other measurements, such as the lengthening amount of time it is taking the state to experience a doubling of its number of cases and deaths.
As of Friday, Illinois had the sixth highest case count in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States had about 700,000 confirmed cases, the most in the world. —Dan Hinkel
1: 43 p.m.: First responders show their appreciation for hospital workers on the city’s North Side with a parade and donuts
Chicago Fire Department first responders rolled up in four trucks and stood outside Weiss Memorial Hospital Saturday morning, saluting nurses and physicians working on the front line.
Dozens of Weiss staff members gathered outside the hospital entrance in the Uptown neighborhood, 4646 N. Marine Dr., almost brought to tears by the gesture. They clapped back in return.
“We should be saluting at them instead of them saluting us,” said Weiss ER Dr. Tam Thai. “But the bottom line here is that we are in this all together to save lives and save our community.”
Last week, the Weiss team sent over pizza to four of their neighboring fire stations to thank them for their work. “And I think that they loved those pizzas,” said hospital Director of Business Development Brenda Routson.
They wanted to return the favor, so they organized the parade Saturday morning, driving four fire trucks and two cars to the hospital to drop off Dinkel’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Read more here. —Sophie Sherry
1: 20 p.m.: Doctors now not sure infant was killed by COVID-19
The ongoing investigation into the death of a 9-month-old baby has raised questions as to whether COVID-19 was to blame, Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a media briefing Saturday.
The baby’s death last month jarred city and state officials who noted when they announced it that the coronavirus has generally had little impact on children. During her regular morning online question-and-answer session Saturday morning, Arwady cautioned that the investigation remains ongoing nearly a month after the baby died and noted the Cook County medical examiner’s office ultimately will rule on a cause.
She said, however, that, “We did not find caregivers who had COVID-19… where we did testing, that was negative. The baby wasn’t known to have exposure.”
She added that “there were other positive tests for another kind of coronavirus.” She identified that disease as NL63, a coronavirus that emerged well before COVID-19 spread across the globe.
Arwady said examination under a microscope didn’t show “signs that any of the COVID-19 had actually gotten into the cells of the baby.” Read more here. —Dan Hinkel
1: 17 p.m.: Illinois Senate President Don Harmon asks feds for $41 billion coronavirus bailout
Democratic Illinois Senate President Don Harmon is asking federal lawmakers to provide more than $41 billion to the state as part of the next coronavirus relief package, including $10 billion to stabilize a massively underfunded pension system.
“I realize I’ve asked for a lot, but this is an unprecedented situation, and we face the reality that there likely will be additional, unanticipated costs that could result in future requests for assistance,” Harmon wrote in a Tuesday letter to members of the state’s congressional delegation.
The first-year Senate president noted that last year’s passage of a bipartisan state budget and comprehensive infrastructure package helped the state “turn a corner.”
“This outbreak and its lingering effects threaten the progress Illinois has made,” he wrote.
Republicans, a minority in the state House and Senate as well as in the congressional delegation, immediately seized on Harmon’s request as an attempt to leverage the pandemic to engineer a federal bailout. Read more here. —Rick Pearson
11: 50 a.m.: Wisconsin teen files suit, saying she was threatened with jail over COVID-19 Instagram posts
A 16-year-old high school sophomore alleged in a federal lawsuit against a Wisconsin sheriff on Thursday that she was threatened with jail if she didn’t remove social media posts saying she had COVID-19.
The Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law filed the lawsuit against Marquette County Sheriff Joseph Konrath and a patrol sergeant. The lawsuit alleges that the sergeant went to the home of Amyiah Cohoon of Oxford, Wisconsin, last month and demanded that her Instagram posts be deleted or she and her parents would face arrest.
No one was threatened with arrest, and an “aggressive defense” is planned, said an attorney for the sheriff, saying the girl’s messages “caused distress and panic within the school system and law enforcement acted at the request of school health officials in a good faith effort to avoid unfounded panic.”
The school administrator sent a message to school district families saying “there was a rumor floating out there that one of our students contracted Covid-19 while on the band trip to Florida two weeks ago” and “there is NO truth to this.” The message called her posts a “foolish means to get attention” and that “the source of the rumor has been addressed.”
The girl posted about her experience on March 26 on Instagram. Her first post showed her looking out a window with the message, “i wont be back for a while longer due to me … having the COVID-19 virus….I dont want the attention it’s just the truth.”
A second post, showing her in a hospital bed hooked up to what appears to be an oxygen mask, included the caption “Winning the fight with Covid-19.” It was that post that the sheriff’s deputy had a screenshot of and demanded she remove, according to her attorney. Read more here. —Associated Press
8: 50 a.m.: Groups to give away free masks and gloves in South Shore
Community groups are giving away free masks and gloves Saturday afternoon in South Shore as part of a community wellness effort, officials said.
People can pick up the supplies starting at 1 p.m at Local Market at 2101 E. 71st St.
Local Market, an organic grocery store, opened in December, helping to fill a gap in a food desert after the South Shore Dominick’s closed in 2013.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended people cloth facial coverings when they leave their homes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has given similar guidance. —Madeline Buckley
Breaking coronavirus news
Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Friday that you need to know:
Here are five things that happened Thursday that you need to know:
Here are five things that happened Wednesday that you need to know:
Here are five things that happened Monday that you need to know:
Here are five things that happened Monday that you need to know:
