Biggest Bump In Hospital Patients

Hospitals throughout the state added 333 more COVID- 19 patients Monday, the largestsingle-day increase since the Illinois Department of Public Health began keeping track in early April. By Monday s end, 4,742 COVID-19 patients were being treated in Illinois hospitals, up 7.6% from the previous day. The state is averaging more than 4,200 COVID-19 patients hospitalized each day over the past week. At the height of the pandemic, hospitals were averaging about 4,800 patients, state officials said. Several regions are running just above theworst that they saw in the spring, with no sign of slowing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday. We renow just hundreds short of our worst hospitalization numbers from last spring. Of those hospitalized, 911 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care. COVID-19 patients now occupy 13.5% of all the hospital beds and 24.1% of all ICU beds, according to IDPH records. Hospital administrators throughout the state have expressed concerns a and the effect it will have on hospital resources. Unlike the initial surge the country experienced last spring, where large amounts of cases were seen in a few urban areas, most states are experiencing surges and rural areas are feeling the effects as well. Hospitals are less likely to find outside backup staffing to help care for infected patients like they did in the spring. State health officials reported Tuesday that 79 more residents died from COVID-19, while there were 12,623 new cases of the disease.