* The governor began his press conference today with an observation that “We saw a lot of people out and about today”…

We can have a massive positive effect on bending the transmission curve, thereby saving lives. If people will take this seriously. We have seen positive results in countries that took aggressive action, and we have seen tragic outcomes in countries that did not.

If you are young and healthy, listen up. We need you to follow social distancing guidelines, too.

You may only have mild symptoms for a few days and may think that you’re just fine. But you can have the unintended tragic effect of spreading COVID-19 to others who may be more vulnerable. Please, please, do the right thing for your community for your friends, and for your family.

So once again, no matter how healthy you feel if you can stay home. If you are able to telework do so. If you don’t have to travel, don’t. This isn’t forever. This is a sacrifice in the short term, to help our hospitals our healthcare workers, our testing labs and are vulnerable and elderly residents. Every action that we take to control the spread of this virus and prevent our medical infrastructure from dealing with too many cases at once, is an action that saves lives.

Remember that I’m using Otter for transcription, so blame obvious typos on the app, not the speakers.

* Pritzker on the national emergency declaration…

I’m doing everything that I can to help our working families through these unprecedented challenges with the federal government’s newly declared state of emergency. Under the Stafford Act, my administration is filing a request for a federal waiver to allow our Medicaid program to more freely respond to the mid 19 crisis. By expanding medical services during this crisis, my administration is working to ensure that those who fear that they may be getting sick, will have access to the testing and treatment that they need without being saddled with costly medical bills for their care. When the federal waiver is approved, we’ll be able to expand Medicaid services to fight this epidemic through the addition of new medical providers, increased access across the state, and ramped up services to many of the state’s most vulnerable populations.

*** UPDATE *** Oh, man…

I want to provide an update finally on the number of cases here in Illinois.
Yesterday we announced a total case count of 46, including individuals who have made a full recovery.

Today, we have an additional 18 cases, bringing our total count to 64. While the majority of our cases remain concentrated in Cook County. Our patients now span eight counties of Illinois, including central and southern Illinois. In addition to Cook, Kane, McHenry and Lake, Cumberland, DuPage, St. Clair and Woodford counties.

* Uh-oh…

One of these cases is a woman in her 60s who resides at a private long term care facility in DuPage County.

I want to assure the public that members of my administration, including an infectious disease team from the Illinois Department of Public Health are on the ground working with area officials. The facility has been locked down to outside visitors and internally. And we are monitoring every residents health carefully with a heightened vigilance to minimize any further spread. As a reminder to our elderly residents and to their loved ones we’ve issued strict guidelines around restricting visitors at long term care facilities that we control, and we continue to collaborate with the various statewide associations to ensure that they are following our efforts with similarly strict guidelines across other facilities.

The IDPH director said some of these cases could be the result of community spread.

* Press release…

The Illinois Department of Public Health today announced the first cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in central and southern Illinois. A Woodford County resident in his 70s and a Cumberland County resident in his 70s both tested positive for COVID-19. Additionally, two St. Clair County residents have tested positive – a woman in her 60s and a woman in her 70s. Possible exposures and travel histories for the two individuals are still being investigated and public health officials are working to identify and contact all individuals who are close contacts for these two cases. […]

The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 64. In addition to cases in Cumberland, DuPage, St. Clair, and Woodford counties, there are seven new cases in Chicago, four in suburban Cook, one in Kane, and one in Lake counties.

* The governor was told by a reporter that he saw long lines of people waiting to get into taverns on his way to the press conference. Pritzker’s response…

I want to ask you for your help in this … You heard me just moments ago talk about that exact problem. I see those same people on the street.

The fact is that people need to act properly at this time people and others should be talking to those people about acting properly.

I have, you know, made it very clear that gathering in crowds is not a good idea. And of course we’ve mandated very large crowds, you know not gather. So we’re doing the best we can, but it is very helpful if members of the media will repeat this message for us. I think that there are young people who hear that, well it’s not affecting as many young people as it is older people or it’s not as impactful and young people and they think well it’s okay to just go on about their business the way they were before, that’s just not true. You could be a carrier yourself. So when you go out in public, whether you’re 20 years old 30 years old, when you go out in public you are potentially giving somebody else COVID-19. So, please, go home. Please gather in smaller groups. […]

Look, we don’t want to put people out of business, but we do want people to act properly in this moment to keep the public safe and healthy.

* Prizker was asked why pre-schools weren’t shut down. He pointed to the guidance barring crowds of 250 or more…

There are preschools that are in those K-12 facilities. Those are shut down. too. But the independent childcare, and daycare and preschools, the ones that operate separate from K-12, typically are much smaller.

And so we’re, because of that 250 rule and because we’re looking at least at this moment and again we can evolve our guidance here, but at this moment, it does not look like we need to shut those down or ask people to close.

And I think, you know, it would additionally be a hardship, given the schools are closed. So, those are remaining open and again they’re smaller groups. You have to remember, we operate today on the scientific evidence that exists, which is somewhat limited because of the limit on the tests. You’ve heard me talk about this every day. I won’t go on about it today but we have a limit to the number of tests that we have currently. And so we have to operate a little bit on the basis of statisticians and mathematicians, working with the scientists to determine what size crowds are okay and what size crowds are probably not okay. And those are estimates, we’re operating on those estimates, those are again made by experts, but that’s why you see a number like 250, and not 200 or 150 or 50. Right now that guidance is 250 and we’re following that.

* Sigh…

* Press release…

During the administration’s daily press briefing on the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Governor JB Pritzker announced that his administration will file a federal waiver to expand Medicaid coverage as COVID-19 continues to spread and affect the daily lives people across the nation.

“With the federal government’s newly declared state of emergency, under the Stafford Act my administration is filing a request for a federal waiver to allow our Medicaid program to more freely respond to the COVID-19 crisis by expanding medical services,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “During this crisis my administration is working to ensure that those who fear that they may be getting sick have access to the testing and treatment that they need without being saddled with costly medical bills for their care.”

Building on the state’s earlier measures to help working families through the expansion of unemployment insurance and calls for utilities to halt shut-offs and late payment fees, the Pritzker administration started working on the waiver application as soon as the federal government declared a national emergency and activated the Stafford Act.

If the federal waiver is approved, the state will be able to expand Medicaid services through the addition of new medical providers, increased access across the state and ramped up services to many of the state’s most vulnerable populations.

The press conference has ended. -30-

*** UPDATE 2 *** Oy…

*** UPDATE 3 *** WTAX is reporting two…