- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Sixty-four more people died of coronavirus in Illinois over the last day, officials announced Wednesday.
Among the victims were 39 people in Cook County, including a man in his 30s. In all, at least 6,770 people have died from COVID-19 across the state.
Illinois has also had 138,540 confirmed cases of the virus, with 715 new cases reported since Tuesday.
The state has been seeing declines in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, officials said Tuesday. Every region of Illinois is on track to move into Phase 4 of reopening come Friday.
But it’ll be a while before Chicago and the rest of Illinois are ready for Phase 5 — the final stage of Gov. JB Pritzker’s reopening plan, when things will return to “normal.”
RELATED: When Will Illinois Return To Normal? Phase 5 Requires Vaccine Or Treatment, And Those Are Far Off
Phase 5 can only come when there’s a widespread, effective treatment for coronavirus, if there’s a vaccine or when there are no new cases of COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time in Illinois, according to the state’s plans.
Work on vaccines and treatments is progressing, but health officials have recently said a vaccine is still months from being approved.
“If the question is, ‘When can you drop your face covering? When can everything go back to what it was like in January … ?’” Pritzker said during a Tuesday press conference. “The answer is, that’s an answer that scientists would tell you and that I’m listening to, which is it takes either a very effective … treatment [or a vaccine].
“I think we’re all watching, hoping, praying that there will be something developed in the near future.”
Block Club Chicago’s coronavirus coverage is free for all readers. Block Club is an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom.
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