A second shipment of personal protective equipment arrived in Illinois early Monday to assist in the fight against the deadly coronavirus, according to the governor's office.
The airlifted shipment of millions of masks, gloves and other equipment arrived via cargo plane from China very early Monday, a spokeswoman for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
The Illinois National Guard will handle the logistics of all the personal protective equipment in that airlift, Pritzker said Sunday, coordinating distribution to healthcare workers and first responders who need it most.
“These millions of masks and gloves will be taken to our state warehouse where inventory and performance quality checks are done, before we ship them out to keep our first responders and healthcare professionals protected as they work to keep us safe," he said.
Last Thursday, the first airlift of supplies arrived to the state and was also loaded with millions of masks and gloves for first responders and medical staff. Its shipment was sorted at a warehouse in suburban Elk Grove Village and then sent by the truckload to area hospitals.
Pritzker was again critical of the federal government's response Sunday, this time using the state's need to airlift supplies from another country as a backdrop.
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“That’s the landscape we’re operating in, competing with other states, other countries, and even our own federal government for supplies – so if an airlift is what it takes to bring the PPE to protect our nurses, firefighters, police officers, and other essential workers, then it’s an airlift we’ll use, without hesitation," he stated.
Illinois health officials announced that the state was reporting 1,197 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 30,357.
Authorities also reported 33 additional deaths, bringing the state's total number of COVID-19 fatalities to 1,290.
