Governor Pritzker gave his daily coronavirus address from a a different location on Friday, April 3rd: the new alternate care medical facility at the McCormick Place in Chicago.
The governor gave his address with a crowd of workers behind him, highlighting the important work they had done constructing the 500-bed makeshift facility, which is now larger than Illinois's largest hospital. Pritzker says work will continue on the facility, building out to reach 3000 beds by the end of April.
Pritzker also mentioned three facilities being worked on in the surrounding Chicago area, and also announced a new site in Springfield to increase medical capacity in central Illinois.
Pritzker then announced the day's case number update, revealing 1,209 new cases of COVID-19 and 53 additional deaths, bringing the totals to 8,904 cases and 210 deaths. He also mentioned that the virus has now spread to 64 of Illinois's 102 counties.
