Highest number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois #pandemic

[VIDEO] Dr. Ngozi Ezike is the director of the Illinois Dept of Public Health who is often at these press conferences with Gov. J.B. Pritzker as part of this state's response to the coronavirus pandemic. She makes the announcement yesterday of the largest one day total of new cases for this virus at 2,754 in a one day period coupled with the largest number of tests in a one day period which is 16,316 tests.

It's heralded as a step in the right direction by the Governor, it may explain the high numbers of new cases over the past week or two. The main thing about getting out of this crisis is to insure people are tested, especially if knowing have been exposed to the virus or otherwise experiencing symptoms. It's one of the criteria to eventually end the lockdowns throughout the country as a few states are set to ease some restrictions such as Florida, Texas and Georgia.

In Illinois, however, on Thursday it was reported that the governor plans to extend the stay-at-home order through the month of May. It's also been reported that this order isn't completely written and he doesn't plan to sign it until next work. The original order from last month and was extended through April 30, 2020.

The main thing to bear in mind with this new order is that it mandate the usage of facemasks in public and allows some businesses to reopen only for pick-up outside by customers for both online and telephone orders.