Illinois schools to remain closed through end of school year

Illinois schools will remain closed through the end of the academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Friday.

“The science says students cannot go back to their daily routine,” he said.

Remote learning days will continue for all pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students.

Schools have been closed since March 17.

Officials reported another 62 deaths Friday, bringing the state’s total to 1,134. Additionally, there were 1,842 new COVID-19 cases reported, the single-highest number in one day since the pandemic started. There have now been 27,575 cases in 92 counties.

Asked whether he was still optimistic that Illinois has started to “flatten the curve” in COVID-19 cases, Pritzker said he’s focused on hospital bed and ICU bed capacity.

“The bigger, more important number is really the number of hospitalizations and ICU beds for several reasons, but most important of which is if people are sick enough to go to the hospital, that’s a definite signal that someone is COVID-19 positive,” Pritzker said.

He and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the high number of new cases reported can partially be attributed to the 7,574 new test results that have been conducted in the past 24 hours. A total of 130,163 tests have been completed.

Both said that the state has likely not yet reached its peak for COVID-19 cases.

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