Pritzker urges hospitals to halt nonemergency surgeries amid COVID spike
CHICAGO - The effects of Illinois’ most recent COVID-19 wave were varied and widespread Thursday, with new daily cases breaking another record, the lieutenant governor announcing she has tested positive, the state shutting down in-person services at driver’s license facilities for more than two weeks and the governor urging hospitals to halt nonemergency surgeries.
Chicago Public Schools’ leader, though, said post-break in-person classes will resume Monday as planned, and an arbitrator has sided with the state of Illinois in its vaccine mandate for public employees.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office issued a release late Thursday asking hospitals to postpone nonemergency procedures and take any other measures possible to free up beds in anticipation of a post-holiday, omicron-driven surge and potential shortage of staffed intensive-care beds.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton announced on Twitter Thursday that she has contracted COVID-19, while health officials revealed the state has reached more than 30,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus for the first time.
Read more: https://thesouthern.com/news/state-and-regional/pritzker-urges-hospitals-to-halt-nonemergency-surgeries-amid-covid-spike/article_8a504995-9ac3-5b48-8197-b6d6e51bfdfc.html
(Carbondale Southern Illinoisan)