March 17, 2020 – (AP) Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced the first coronavirus death in Illinois. Pritzker said announcing the death of an Illinois resident due to the coronavirus outbreak was something he has been dreading since the crisis began. The victim was a Chicago woman in her 60s who had an underlying health condition and had extended contact with another infected person. The governor added the woman was not a nursing home patient. The Illinois Department of Public Health is reporting 160 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state. Among them are 18 residents of a nursing home outside Chicago and four members of the facility’s staff. All of those infected have been isolated, officials said. The location of the facility wasn’t disclosed. Coronavirus infections across the country reached approximately 5,200, and the death toll climbed to at least 97, with more than half of the dead from Washington state. Worldwide, more than 7,300 have died.
