Chicago – Illinois has begun to turn the COVID-19 contagion curve and will no longer need the temporary field hospital at Chicago’s McCormick Place Exhibition Center, which is to be dismantled, state and municipal authorities announced Friday.
“We are pleased to report that the curve is flattening and that our local hospitals and health care systems continue to operate at capacity, therefore McCormick Place (alternative care facility) will cease to function,” said Governor Jay Robert Pritzker and the Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a joint statement.
McCormick will no longer accept new patients, and after the last of the patients he is currently treating leaves next week, officials will deactivate half of his 1,000 existing beds, said Dr. Nick Turkal, executive director of the site.
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Authorities plan to keep 500 beds active at the moment, Turkal added, without giving details of how many patients were treated at the interim hospital that was originally intended for 3,000 beds.
According to a statement, the alternative center was originally developed as a precaution, and based on projections that more than 40,000 hospitalizations could be registered in a matter of weeks.
Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois continues to grow, it has increased at a slower rate. As reported, confirmed cases stopped doubling every two to three days and now that happens every 12 days.
Illinois, which today records 56,055 confirmed cases, including 2,457 deaths, is reaching the peak of the pandemic’s growth rate.
According to the state Department of Public Health, hospitals still have nearly 11,000 beds available out of a total of 32,000.
“McCormick has functioned as an insurance policy for the state,” said Turkal, who opined that there is currently no adequate demand to keep this low-acuity model open.
The governor’s order to stay home will remain in Illinois until the end of May, despite some public complaints and a couple of lawsuits demanding a return to normality, and as of today the obligation to wear face masks was added. in supermarkets and public places.
