Gov. J.B. Pritzker again pleaded with Illinoisans on Tuesday to stay home and not gather for Thanksgiving.
During his daily COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, Pritzker said Illinois hospitals are already taxed and we can’t afford to make things worse.
“The doctors are asking all of us to skip the big group dinner this year,” Pritzker said. “The vaccines that seem to be on the horizon can’t help you if you get sick now.”
As of Monday night, over 61-hundred patients were in the hospital with COVID-19, with about 12-hundred of those in the intensive care unit.
"Our hospitals are still under siege by this latest upswing of COVID cases, and with the latest mitigations not expected to show up in the numbers for at least another week or ten days, Thanksgiving needs to be different this year,” Pritzker said.
The Illinois Department of Public Health Tuesday reported 9,469 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including 125 additional deaths. Only nine deaths were people aged under 60.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of the total tests from Nov. 17 to Nov. 23 was 10.4%, down from 10.9%.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said it is not too late for people to change their Thanksgiving plans.
"We have to accept what we are dealing with, a global pandemic the likes of which no one has seen before,” Ezike said. “That does deserve a change from the norm.”