Pritzker: Coronavirus-related restrictions will likely last into summer

Gov. JB Pritzker expressed hope Thursday that the state is starting to bend its COVID-19 curve, but cautioned that some restrictions aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus would likely continue into the summer.

“The fact of the matter is that we are not going to be truly able to begin to move on until we have testing, much greater testing, contact tracing and treatment,” he said.

State officials confirmed 1,344 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 66 additional deaths. There have now been 16,422 cases, including 528 deaths, in 81 counties in Illinois. Hancock, Pulaski and Schuyler counties reported their first cases. There have been 80,857 total tests.

The number of new deaths is down from Wednesday’s record 82-person increase. The number of new cases in the state is, recently, nearly doubling every six days.

“The curve is still on an upward trajectory,” Pritzker said. “Just because we are bending the curve does not mean we are bending down yet.”

Pritzker said it’s “unlikely” that he would be able to lift the state’s stay-at-home order before April 30 and will need to consider what restrictions remain once the order is lifted.

“It isn’t going to be that all of the sudden you are going to be able to drop the stay at home and every other restriction,” he said. “If you do that, we are going to see a big spike upward and once again hospitalizations, ICU beds filled and more deaths.”

Pritzker said that restrictions would likely continue into the summer, and that organizers should consider canceling large events.

“From my perspective today, I don’t see how we are going to have large gatherings of people,” he said. “Until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away, I would not risk having large groups of people getting together in any way. That’s hard for everyone to hear, but that’s just a fact.”