CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Illinois currently has 1,197 new COVID-19 cases and 33 new related deaths, a drop from the previous day's reported numbers, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Sunday’s update brings the state’s total reported cases to 30,357 cases and its total deaths to 1,290.
“I don’t want to be an agent of doom and gloom. People do recover from this disease,” IDPH head Dr. Ngozi Ezike said during Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Sunday coronavirus press briefing. Ezike delivers the state's coronavirus updates, including new deaths and cases, during the daily news conferences.
Ezike reminded that people who suffer from comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension and respiratory illnesses like asthma are more at risk for contracting and dying from COVID-19.
These latest numbers come as Pritzker announced that an airlift of personal protective equipment for the state will arrive on Monday from China, following the first flight of PPE that landed earlier last week.
“Most of the PPE that is manufactured in the world — and, again, we're talking about disposable PPE, not the fabric masks and other things, which are much more expensive but the disposable PPE which is needed by healthcare workers and first responders— that comes from China,” Pritzker said.
Those millions of masks, gloves and other PPE will be taken to state warehouses where they will be inspected before being distributed to first responders and healthcare professionals, the governor said.
Pritzker opened up Sunday’s briefing by recognizing the 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry Regiment of the Illinois Army National Guard that had returned home after serving in Afghanistan.
The governor spoke on these 400 "remarkable individuals" who served in Afganistan to advance Operation Freedom Sentinel. The 178th Infantry also descends from the country's first all-black National Guard unit, the Fighting Eighth, he noted. Pritzker continued his praise of the 13,000 women and men comprising the state’s National Guard, listing the ways these citizen-soldiers are contributing during the coronavirus pandemic.
"They're an astonishingly humble group even though they've earned the right to take extraordinary pride in what they do," Pritzker said.
The National Guard sets up drive-thru testing sites, helped to build the alternate care facility at the McCormick Place and provided critical surge support as the state-managed COVID-19 outbreaks in its facilities, he said.
"It's the Guard who deserves our deepest reverence and gratitude," Pritzker said.