Pritzker says coronavirus peak could be mid-June

Posted on May 11, 2020
Live from his house, Gov. JB Pritzker resumed his coronavirus briefing Monday. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Now the coronavirus peak for Illinois could be mid-June.

Gov. JB Pritzker says stretching out the timeline gives the health care system the time to treat complications “and giving our pharmaceutical researchers time to develop effective treatments, and potentially a vaccine. Pushing the peak down, and therefore to a longer time frame, might not sound like good news to some, but I promise you it is saving lives.”

But the voices seem to be getting louder: Open Illinois now!

“There are those who advocate removing all restrictions now or at the end of this month, rather than taking the gradual course that our Restore Illinois plan does,” acknowledged Pritzker. “If we were to lift all our mitigations now or at the end of the month, modeling shows there would be a new surge of COVID-19.”

Pritzker says with the surge would come a higher R0 (“R-Naught”) number – that is, a higher level of contagion.

Illinois reports 3,459 deaths … among more than 79,000 positive cases.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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