Illinois Launches 12 New Mobile COVID-19 Testing Teams; 980 New Confirmed Virus Cases, 36 Additional Deaths
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday announced the state is expanding its COVID-19 testing efforts, with 12 new mobile testing teams focusing on hard-hit communities across Illinois.
The governor said the mobile testing sites can be moved as needed to areas with "emerging outbreaks" of the virus; such as at meat packing plants, nursing homes, migrant worker housing, or other communities with less access to traditional testing.
The mobile testing sites will offer free drive-through and walk-up virus tests to any Illinois resident who wants one, according to the governor's office.
Pritzker toured one of the sites Wednesday afternoon at Coles Elementary School in the South Chicago neighborhood. Other mobile testing sites are being deployed in the Brighton Park neighborhood, as well as Rock Island, Cicero, Springfield, and East St. Louis.
The mobile testing sites are in addition to the state's 11 free drive-through and walk-up testing sites, and hundreds more testing sites at various health clinics, hospitals, and other locations.
The governor also announced more than 500 Illinois National Guard members who had been deployed to help with the state's COVID-19 response efforts will end their missions at 11 state-run testing sites this month. Contract workers will run those sites going forward.
"These citizen-soldiers spent months away from their families, and their regular civilian jobs, to see our state through the worst of this pandemic, what I hope is the worst of this pandemic," Pritzker said.
The governor said the National Guard has helped administer more than 200,000 free virus tests so far.
The announcement of the new mobile testing sites came as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 980 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, including 36 additional deaths.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Illinois has had a total of 149,432 confirmed virus cases in all 102 counties since the start of the pandemic, including 7,099 deaths.
In the past day, Illinois has conducted 32,742 virus tests; and a total of 1,842,576 during the pandemic. The state's 7-day average positive test rate for the past week is 2.6%.
As of Tuesday night, 1,518 virus patients were being treated in Illinois hospitals, including 331 in intensive care, and 151 on ventilators.
Pritzker said new COVID cases in Illinois are down 71% from a peak nine weeks ago; hospitalizations are down 70% from early May, and the 7-day average positivity rate is down to 2.6% compared to a peak of 23% in late April.
However, the governor said the virus isn't going away anytime soon, and urged people to continue wearing masks in public, observing social distancing guidelines, and regularly washing their hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"We've still got a long journey ahead of us," he said.