The Illinois Department of Health said that there has been a significant spike in the past couple days of calls to the poison control center from people who have ingested bleach or other cleaning agents.

"Injecting, ingesting or snorting househlod cleaners is dangerous," said Illinois Department of Health Director Ngozi Ezike. "It is not advised and can be deadly."

One of the callers had asked about gargling with a bleach and mouthwash mixture in an attempt to kill coronavirus.

"Please listen to scientists and health experts about how to stay healthy," Ezike said.

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President Donald Trump had suggested on Thursday that people should consider ingesting or injecting bleach or other cleaning agents to kill coronavirus. His exact comments were: "And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”


On Friday, he said his comments were meant sarcastically.

If you need to speak with Poison Control, experts can be reached at (800) 222-1222.

There have been at least 1,874 coronavirus-related deaths in Illinois, state officials said Saturday afternoon.

About 41,000 people in Illinois have tested positive, and almost 202,000 tests have been performed.