The State is deploying more than 2,000 health care workers to help hospitals with surging Covid-19 cases.
At last count, there were more than 7200 Covid patients in the hospital and Illinois Public Health Director Doctor Ngozi Ezike says this is overwhelming the health care system.
“We have never had this many Covid patients at any point in the pandemic. Not in Spring or Winter of 2020, this is the absolute highest number and not just by a couple.”
Ezike says staffing has become a big problem.
“They have a significant number of staff who have left the profession due to the exhaustion and the stress and the trauma they have endured over the last 2 years. We have a large number of people who are quarantining or actively infected themselves. So that decreases the total number of beds that are even available.”
In response, additional medical staff are being sent around the state and Covid Response Teams are also at the ready. Ezike says just 9% of ICU beds are currently available in Illinois.
