Illinois up to 64 coronavirus cases, first reported downstate

Posted on March 15, 2020
Gov. JB Pritzker and state health officials will give a daily briefing on COVID-19. (Photo Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Hours after the governor announced coronavirus cases in three downstate counties, Sangamon County officials added their county to that list.

“We have been preparing for this situation, and it has arrived,” county board of health president Dr. Brian Miller said Saturday evening. “We confirmed cases of COVID-19 here in Sangamon County.”

“On the evening of Thursday, March 12, a patient presented to Memorial Medical Center’s emergency room,” said Dr. Raj Govindaiah, Memorial Health Systems’ chief medical officer. “This patient has deteriorated and was placed in our intensive care unit” where she is reported in critical condition and in “heightened isolation.” She is visiting from Florida and is in her seventies.

The other case, apparently reported shortly before Saturday’s news conference, is an outpatient who is now at home.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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