jb pritzker

ILLINOIS (WAND) - Summer events in Illinois might need to be canceled as the state battles COVID-19, Gov. JB Pritzker said. 

The governor made these remarks during his Thursday press briefing, when a reporter asked if organizers of summer events should think about limiting crowds or making changes. He urged caution from the public and said everybody "needs to think seriously" about cancellations. 

"Until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away, I would not risk having large groups of people getting together anywhere," Pritzker said. "And I think that's hard for everybody to hear, but that's just a fact. They're just, you know, even with testing and tracing and treating, it's necessary for us to begin to make changes. It isn't enough for me to say that it's okay to have a big festival with a whole bunch of people gathering together."

Such events would include a well-known four-day music festival like Lollapalooza in Chicago. Organizers tweeted they are planning for the festival to happen "as soon as it's safe for us all to be together in Grant Park". Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said earlier in April the festival was still "on schedule".

The lineup announcement, which usually is released this time of year, has been delayed.

Illinois continues to see COVID-19 case numbers rise. The state passed 16,000 cases on Thursday and had 528 total deaths. 

State health officials said despite this data, they're seeing some hope in where virus numbers are trending. 

"The rate at which they're increasing is less and that is a good sign," IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Wednesday. "We're not seeing the exponential growth we were seeing before."

Pritzker said the stay-at-home order is very likely to be active until April 30. The state will consider potential restrictions for May as it approaches that date.

"Look, you know, we talk a lot about peaking and we talk a lot about how we're bending the curve, the curve is still (on an) upward trajectory," he said. "And so just because we're bending the curve does not mean it's bending down yet. And so people need to understand that, that it is unlikely we will be able to lift this stay at home before April 30."