Illinois Starts Sending Some Borrowed Ventilators Back

ILLINOIS — State officials have reached a point of confidence regarding their ventilator supply at hospitals that they've been able to pass the equipment on to others fighting the new coronavirus.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Sunday that 100 ventilators borrowed from California in recent weeks have been sent back "so they could be sent to someone else who may need them."

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Early on in the state's fight against the pandemic, data models predicting the spread of the virus and what that could mean for the state's hospitals showed Illinois could need more than 4,000 ventilators to adequately address a surge in cases. Currently, the state has more then 3,000 ventilators and, of those, 759 are being used by patients battling the disease in intensive care units across the state, Pritzker said.

"Our stay-at-home order and mitigation efforts have worked," Pritzker said Sunday.

He added that he hopes the number of ventilators still available will help if there is "another surge" in the fall.

The new coronavirus sickened 2,994 more people in 24 hours in Illinois and killed 63, state health officials reported Sunday. That brings the total number of people who have contracted the virus in Illinois to 61,499. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,618 people have died in the state.

During his daily briefing, Pritzker said 19,417 tests have been performed in the past 24 hours — the highest number of tests completed in 24 hours to date in Illinois.

• Illinois Coronavirus Update May 3: Nearly 56,000 Cases