The number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois has passed the 5,000 mark. With 460 new cases reported during Monday’s state briefing, Illinois has confirmed 5,057 cases. State health officials reported eight additional deaths including an 84-year-old man at Passavant Hospital in Jacksonville Monday afternoon, Morgan County’s first death of a person confirmed to have the coronavirus. A Stateville Correctional Center inmate was one of the deaths, bringing the Illinois total of fatalities to 73. An additional 12 Stateville inmates are hospitalized with some on ventilators. Five additional counties are now reporting COVID-19 cases as 52 of the state’s 102 counties have confirmed the virus.
State, City of Chicago and federal officials have announced plans to temporarily convert parts of McCormick Place Convention Center into a 3,000-bed alternate care facility. Governor JB Pritzker said the McCormick Place site would take low to mild cases that still need care to free up hospital beds for more serious cases.
