Pritzker: Illinois testing capacity ‘not there yet’ as state falls short of 10,000 tests per day goal

Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday the state won’t reach his goal of testing at least 10,000 individuals per day for COVID-19 by the end of this week.

“We are not there yet,” Pritzker said. The labs in the state can currently process 6,000 tests per day.

He said that five new robotic machines acquired from Thermo Fisher, which were intended to run 200 tests per hour at the state’s three testing labs, have not matched the level of output originally anticipated.

Additionally, Pritzker said the machines have not produced “valid results in a way that meets our exacting standards.”

“I am as impatient as the rest of you are wanting to increase testing, but I will not sacrifice accuracy for the sake of speed,” he said.

The recently released machines from North Chicago’s Abbott Laboratories that can produce results within 13 minutes have also not come in the numbers that Pritzker had anticipated. The federal government has redirected most of the early testing kits to private systems and hospitals across the country, he said.

Illinois has so far received 15 of the machines, but only 120 tests. Officials said they are working to acquire more tests to run the machines at “full bore.”

The state has started running three shifts at one of its three labs and plans to ramp up staff to a similar level soon at the other two labs. Pritzker said they will continue to work with the state’s universities, research laboratories and other innovation facilities to increase testing capacity.

Officials announced 82 more deaths Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of single-day deaths set on Tuesday. The state’s total death count is 462.

There were 1,529 new cases reported Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 15,078 in 78 counties.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said there was a “glimmer of hope” in that they are not seeing an exponential increase of cases as before.

“With guarded optimism, we’re hoping that we’re getting close to either the peak or the plateau,” she said, adding it is still difficult to predict exactly when that may occur.

There have been 75,066 total tests completed in Illinois. The department originally tracked the number of individuals tested, but Ezike said Wednesday the language has been changed due to improved testing that typically allows one swab for each test, rather than multiple swabs per test.

Ezike said her department continues to keep an eye on the number of cases and hospital bed availability in the downstate region of Illinois. Chicago has continued to be the state’s hot spot for the virus, but she said they will look at the potential needs of southern Illinois, such as alternate care facilities, as warranted.

“We know that the population density will affect the rate of spread, but we also know that they have a shortage of hospitals and beds there (in southern Illinois),” she said. “So we’re keeping a close eye on that.”

Pritzker also praised some of the work done by the federal government in helping the state acquire personal protective equipment. Though he has been critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, Pritzker said he has nothing but praise for the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as those “on the ground level” who are working hard to help state officials get supplies.

Health News Illinois is removing the password on all stories related to the coronavirus. For the latest developments follow us on Twitter at @healthnewsil or check out our website. For complete healthcare coverage, sign up for a free trial to our daily email newsletter.