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Slowed COVID-19 Spread Leaves 1,000s Of Makeshift Beds Empty

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In this April 10, 2020 file photo, construction continues at the COVID-19 alternate site at McCormick Place in Chicago. The city pared back plans for a 3,000-bed temporary hospital at McCormick Place, the nation's largest convention center, as infection numbers decreased. Opened April 3 instead with 500 beds, the $64 million facility treated just 12 people as of last week, with six of them being released.
  • Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh File

SPRINGFIELD — 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.”

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Reginald Hardwick

Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on six NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. Email: rh14@illinois.edu Twitter: @RNewsIPM