Illinois Reports 2,126 New COVID-19 Cases, 59 New Deaths As Gov. Pritzker Decries House Party Video

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois reported 2,126 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday along with 59 deaths – as the total number of deaths creeps toward 2,000.

As of Sunday, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases amounted to 43,903 – many of whom have since recovered, Gov. JB Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday.

The fatalities now total 1,933 in Illinois.

Pritzker said the number of patients now hospitalized in any condition – whether mild or serious – totaled 4,595 as of midnight Saturday night. Of those, 1,267 were in the ICU, and 772 were on ventilators.

At the briefing Sunday, Pritzker was asked about video of a large house party in Chicago that has gone viral. The video, posted to Facebook Live by Tink Purcell, shows a large number of people crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in a room. Some are wearing masks, but most appear not to be.

Pritzker said he had not seen the video, but he had heard about it and he said the gathering was not acceptable.

"I want to remind everyone that by doing that – by standing together, not social distancing, many people not wearing masks – you're literally putting everyone around you in danger – you are. They are putting you in danger. And more importantly, all of those people are putting their families and friends who are not there with them in danger," Pritzker said.

Pritzker reminded everyone that COVID-19 is transmitted asymptomatically, and people who do not feel sick at all can still bring it home and give it to friends they see.

"The whole purpose of social distancing, of wearing masks, of staying at home, in fact, is that we don't want to spread this to our loved ones or to others in the community, so I would suggest all of those people have violated not only the intention of the order that they put out, but they also violated the trust of their friends and family," Pritzker said.

Pritzker was asked whether he thought violations of the stay-at-home order might rise due to fatigue with it, and if the state has a plan in place. He reminded the public that the state does have the ability to enforce the order – including the possibility of arrests.

The governor was also asked about what would happen to the staffers assigned to the alternative care facility at McCormick Place, where the number of beds is being scaled back by 2,000 based on the growth in coronavirus cases. Pritzker said the medical staff who were assigned to McCormick Place are being redeployed to other areas of need.

As to schools in the fall, Pritzker was asked whether students should be prepared for returning to school for in-person learning, for e-learning, or for both. Pritzker said both, because it is not clear what the pandemic will look like that far out, but he said e-learning is an important thing to develop either way.