The governor said on Monday that the capacity of the intensive care unit in parts of the state has been left "frighteningly limited".
He said at a press conference on Monday that Illinois has regions where the availability of an intensive care unit bed is "frighteningly limited."
According to the data from the state's Department of Public Health, just 316 of 2,977 intensive care beds are available statewide.
The capacity of the ICU is in the single digits in three of those regions.
Last week, he urged providers to delay non- emergency surgeries so they can use existing staff to expand the capacity of the intensive care unit.
The governor said that hospitalizations are higher than they were last year.
He said that he was worried that the climb would continue as the virus would start to grow in those who were exposed at the end of December.
According to the latest data from the health department, Illinois has an average of 23,000 COVID-19 cases a day.
The country faces a surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant.
