SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois has spent tens of millions of dollars building makeshift field hospitals to prepare for an anticipated flood of coronavirus cases.
But Gov. J.B. Pritzker contends that prevention strategies such as a statewide stay-at-home order have worked so well that the plan for a small city of beds at McCormick Place in Chicago has been dramatically reduced. Additional beds at closed hospitals are on standby.
Pritzker said last month that in a worst-case scenario, the state would need 38,000 more hospital beds than it has. He has said if the extra beds are never used “then we will have done our job.”
