The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,585 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 125 additional deaths.
- Cook County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 30s, 3 males 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 4 females 50s, 6 males 50s, 9 females 60s, 11 males 60s, 8 females 70s, 20 males 70’s, 11 females 80s, 12 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 4 males 90s
- DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s, 3 females 90s, 1 male 90s
- Kane County: 2 males 50s
- Kankakee County: 2 females 80s
- Kendall County: 1 male 60s
- Lake County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- McHenry County: 1 male 70s, 3 males 80s
- Monroe County: 1 male 80s
- Peoria County: 1 female 80s
- Will County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Hamilton County is now reporting a case. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 29,160 cases, including 1,259 deaths, in 93 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
…Adding… Today’s graph of new cases, which is at the core of the White House guidelines for reopening…
Last weekend I announced that those who have COVID-19 and are recovering at home anywhere in southern and central Illinois have access to a terrific new telehealth program that allows remote patient monitoring for COVID-19.
That program now extends to the rest of Illinois. Rounding out our telehealth coverage around the state to remind you this program serves those potentially infected with a mild version of COVID-19, who will be able to recover from the safety of their homes. Again, that’s the vast majority of people who get infected. Patients will receive daily virtual visits by healthcare workers and receive wellness kits that include things like thermometers and pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs and alcohol wipes.
And to be very clear, the remote patient monitoring program is available to everyone who is COVID positive, and recovering at home, regardless of your insurance coverage.
More info is here. Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* The governor then went on to praise local organizations for stepping up during the crisis. Here’s one…
For many of you this pandemic has been draining emotionally and physically. And as I’ve said before it’s important to feel that, and even share that with a friend, a family member or confidant, but it’s equally important to look out the window to walk outside to look at all the hopeful signs, because those signs are all around us, and today I want to shine a spotlight on a few of those signs. Look at the creativity that people have brought to make sure that those in need are truly cared for, like the Clearbrook organization in Arlington Heights, where staff at the special needs nonprofit have done everything from performing Corona caroling with ukuleles in their neighborhoods, delivering activity care packages to over 60 families and sewing masks for their fellow employees.
* He closed with this example…
I’ll leave you with one last bit of joy, the Red Cross of Chicago, and Northern Illinois was slated to host its 18th annual heroes breakfast next week and event that had to be canceled because of COVID-19.
Instead, the Red Cross is featuring on their social media pages, members of the extraordinary 2020 class of heroes, people who make you proud that you’re from Illinois. […]
You are the difference makers. You are the helpers. You are bending this curve and helping out our healthcare workers and saving lives even just by staying at home. And I am so very proud of the state and of all of you
* Dr. Ezike commented about today’s new cases and deaths…
Although our numbers continue to climb, it is with some guarded optimism that we say that the growth is slowing. That is definitely a good thing, but we must continue to be strong and hold the line. I know people are getting tired of hearing the same message, but the same tactics continue to apply. Continue to stay home, continue to wash your hands, wear a mask if you go outside. Let’s keep up the progress we’ve made thus far.
* On to questions for the governor. What would you advise people who are hoping to have weddings reunions memorial services, other family gatherings this summer?…
It’s difficult for me to advise people because there’s so many uncertainties ahead of us you know we don’t even know exactly where the peak will be won’t really know until you’re past the peak that you’ve hit the peak.
And then as you’ve seen from various plans that have been put out, none of them really contemplate large gatherings, until much after, not just when you’ve gone 14 days in a row of diminished numbers of hospitalizations and other cases and so on. But, you know, long past that actually are when we would have large gatherings so depending on the size of things. [He went on, but that’s enough.]
* When do you think you will make a decision on whether to extend the stay at home order?…
You have to look at all the numbers and kind of all the trends and make a decision about whether and if so for how long, and under what conditions and so I promise you, I get asked this question virtually every day, and I promise I’ll give you the answer as soon as I know it
Dude is more patient that I would be.
* As the weather warms up, are you inclined to help give people more opportunities to enjoy outdoor activities by reopening state parks, golf courses, as long as people can do those activities while social distancing?…
Again, I’m personally inclined because I think all of us want to have a great summer. But I can’t rely on my own instincts and my own desires. And instead, as you know, I’ve been listening to the epidemiologists and the experts here in Illinois, as well as the advice that we’re getting from those who are not here in Illinois. And again, I’ll make decisions about that as you know as the data presents itself.
* Would you consider opening Illinois on a county by county basis or will it be a statewide action?…
I guess, in short, I understand there are differences of the number of cases that are occurring in different parts of the state. And so I understand the desire to try to regionalize and I’m looking at the data to try to make determinations. Remember a lot of this has to do with when you hit peak are hospitals going to be available to people who need hospitalization, ICU bedsm ventilators. And so trying to measure where we are and what the ascent rate is here, because we’re still increasing the number of deaths, we’re still increasing the number of, well, we’re increasing the number of total cases in the state. And so I’ve got to take all that into consideration, and then look at what hospitals are more available or less available as a result.
I want to point out one thing because people ask us all the time and I just want to make clear that the rate of ascent of cases in rural areas seems to be have caught up with and even surpassed in some areas, the rate of ascent of cases in urban areas, and there are a number of places you can go to read about that.
And so when I think about regionalization, I worry about that rate of ascent in rural areas where for whatever reason, maybe people aren’t following the stay at home order as much or for whatever other reason that rate of ascent is increasing. And so I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep the case load and case numbers down in rural areas.
* Regarding nursing homes, what can be done to get those numbers down so many people are losing their lives at those facilities?…
From the very beginning I mean really from before we had our stay at home rule in place, I called the governors of states where we saw terrible nursing home tragedies including Governor Inslee Governor Cuomo, and asked them, what did you learn, what should I know as we start to put orders in place to deal with nursing homes. And they gave me tremendous advic along the way and the CDC kind of has caught up with them, I have to say, and the advice that they gave me.
And so we’ve put that in place. I mean, way back when, in fact nursing homes were locked down in the sense of no visitors. We were taking temperatures of everybody entering. We were checking on everybody in the facility we’re doing testing and when there was, you know, a new a new couple of cases that could be identified we were you know trying to make sure that we were separating people out doing all the things that were being recommended by the doctors to do. So I’m frustrated by this I must say because nursing homes, it’s very hard to deal with congregate settings, this is just something, you know, to move them out, is a, is a challenge to separate them we can do that within facilities, families can’t take a COVID positive nursing home resident back into their homes. And then it’s very hard, many people need services beyond just a place to live. They need nursing services healthcare services, and you can’t just move them, you know into a hotel room somewhere. And so, so these are very challenging and we’re doing, I think the right things we have a strike team that goes into a hot story into a nursing home when we discovered that there’s an outbreak. [He went on, but you get the idea.]
* Why won’t the state buy PPE from local black vendors. Instead, the state has spent over $1.7 million to get PPE from China. [Willie Wilson put out a statement on this the other day. He has a distribution company that does handle PPE]…
We are, we will take anybody with PPE, we’ll look at them as a vendor. We’re not avoiding anybody at all. The challenge is that there are no local providers that can provide large amounts, or at least you know, many people have come and said they could provide a few thousand here or there. We need to acquire millions of masks for example, and so you know and that’s one part and the other part is, as you know when you get a larger number a larger quantity of something you can often get it at a lower price. I’m not saying the prices are low, they’ve been bid up to prices that are ridiculous, frankly, but oftentimes what’s being done by a small vendor is more expensive on a per mask basis than what we can acquire elsewhere, but I mean, anybody that has an idea. I mean a, you know, an opportunity to sell us PP should be contacting our procurement team and it’s easy to find us you can call the governor’s office. That’s very easy or you can call CMS.
* The Associated Press has a story out right now and the headline is Governor’s feeling the heat to reopen from the president. Are you feeling the heat to reopen?…
I don’t know what it means to feel the heat I’m listening to the scientists and the doctors I don’t feel any heat I I listen to the people who know, and who have informed opinions about what we ought to do. I will say that I think that the plan that came out yesterday that that Dr. Fauci and others presented, there are aspects of that plan that I think are pretty good. And so, you know, I don’t know if I feel heat, I, I’m going to do what’s best for the people of the state and you know we’re not yet at our peak, and so it’s very hard to make decisions about what happens you know 14 days or a month or two months after that.
* What are you going to do with the budget to address the need for increased child welfare services as the stay at home order is likely increasing child abuse in the state?…
Well I think you saw in the proposed budget and I’m not suggesting that our budget for 2021 is going to look exactly like the proposed budget we put forward in February, but you know that I have prioritized Child Welfare in our budget, increasing staffing increasing funding and so on. And so as we look to revamp the budget and make sure that we’re meeting the needs that we now know you know we need to, in terms of balancing the budget and the lack of revenues coming in. I want to protect as much as possible the dollars that we’re putting in to protect those children. So what I can assure you, is that all of what our intention has been in terms of revamping dcfs is still there I mean all of us are focused on making sure that we’re able to carry out the plans that we’ve put in place.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: Hi governor. Hi. Um, so, in our attempt to save lives. We’ve destroyed, millions of small businesses, millions of people’s lives, and you kept talking about the scientists and the different phases one where we’re going to get to phase one phase one phase one Trump’s plan phase one phase two and phase three? [Yes, that was the question.]…
We’re in phase one I think [actually, we’re not yet in phase one], but I understand what you’re saying. In other words, when do we move to another phase [that’s more accurate].
And the answer is if you read in the plan what they’re essentially saying is you have to get past your peak. And then you’ve got to have 14 days of declining case location numbers and and hospitalizations is really the way I would look at it. And as you have 14 days in a row of decline, then you can say, according to that plan, you can start to move into, you know, the next phase.
I want to get there as fast as anybody does we want people to get back to work. We want people to get back to their lives. The concern here is trying to balance and I think you raised it right at the beginning of your question, trying to balance the protecting people’s health and safety with trying to protect people’s livelihoods and very early on I said you know that the some of the toughest choices I’ve ever had to make these are choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: This is like an ongoing challenge in North Carolina and in Florida the governor’s there. They’re letting people use the lakefront or the beaches, is that, but they’re doing it you know from six to eight or six to 11 in the morning then five to eight at night, is there any way we can have our Lakefront back? You know that’s a lot of space that people use you know joggers bicyclists fisher fishermen, everything?…
I understand the question that I want you to know I’m frustrated as everybody else’s by the idea that that we can’t enjoy the things that we’ve been enjoying every summer.
You know, when is it that we’ll be able to do that again I’ve got to measure this and the answer to the first question that I get you know when I’m trying to measure this against the science you know I want people to go out and enjoy their lives.
I just had conversations with a number of downstate legislators who were talking about the fact that people can’t fish in the state parks because the state parks are not open, and couldn’t people fish because there’s enough social distancing. And of course I completely understand. Remember that we did that with state parks, because the people work at the state parks, because they have to congregate together there’s a place in which many of them have to congregate in order to manage the state parks and so, but I am looking exactly at those kinds of things.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: What are the rules going to be? You raise the question what if people spaced properly and wore a mask or whatever? I mean that warm day was bad, I mean people came in from Central Illinois to go to the lakefront. Yeah, I think we deserve a second chance…
I understand what you’re saying and I have every desire, I really do and so like I’ve said every day, we’re evaluating when, but I want to remind you that we are not even at our peak yet. And so we’ve got to get to the peak and start moving down the other side.
Jordan Abudayyeh then thankfully insisted on taking online questions from actual reporters.
* AP: What specifically do you like about the President’s reopening guidance? What points from it do you disagree with? What could Illinois incorporate?…
Well I think I just pointed out something that I like about it, which is looking at 14 consecutive days of reduction in cases or the reduction of hospitalizations, that would lead us to then be able to make some changes.
* Capitol News Illinois: Senate Republicans wrote a letter earlier this week which you’ve already addressed, but we’re going to continue asking this question why some prison sentences were recently commuted without informing or consulting judges, the General Assembly victims, or law enforcement, they know recent commutations include convicted murderers. [The reporter could’ve looked at the state constitution, but I digress]. With the recent commutations, are these related to COVID-19?…
So I just want to be clear that those go through the PRB [Prisoner Review Board]. So they actually have a presentation of each case at the PRB, they vote on those cases before they ever get to my desk.
* Politico: Did you talk to Senate President Dan Harmon about the letter he sent to Congress asking for a bailout and why weren’t you a part of that ask?…
I was not aware of the content of the letter before it went. And, there’s no reason why a senate president in Illinois I can’t send a letter to the delegation. And you know I don’t object to people communicating with our federal representatives, I do it all the time.
* Tribune: What were your thoughts on the letter, specifically the $41 billion ask?…
Well it’s different than what I have been talking to the federal representatives about.
As you know, and I’ve said it here in front of you talking about our budget, that I really believe the states need to have some unencumbered dollars that come in that will help us with the coming years budget. Every state has this problem, it just does and so, I don’t object like I said to people talking to our federal representatives with their opinions. I have certainly done that.
* Me to Dr. Ezike: A study [to be] published in the Annual Review of Virology claims that low indoor humidity could be a problem for the virus’ spread. 40 to 60% is apparently optimal. Is that being looked out for places like nursing homes, prisons etc.?…
It’s not currently, that’s an interesting fact that I’m not aware of.
There’s probably additional study that needs to be done. Probably not directly by IDPH but I hope that further research will guide us and we will follow results as they come up.
* WMAY: Protests are being planned in the coming days against the restrictions you put in place. What is your message to these protesters?…
That I want to remove the restrictions as much as anybody else does, and I’m going to do it based on science.
* Why didn’t the state release the nursing home data earlier, and when did you realize nursing home cases were exploding?…
We have followed nursing homes, like I said I made early calls about this. We knew that there were challenges in every congregate setting. And so we have paid close attention and in fact have, as I mentioned, we have strike teams and protocols and so on that we put in place very early on. So there’s no desire to avoid nursing homes. Our, in fact, every focus that we could have because we all know, very early on and all of us that it’s our senior citizens who are most at risk. And so that’s why we focused on nursing homes early and will will continue.
In terms of publishing the data, we’ve had the aggregate data published for people we were concerned about. In some areas, you’re stigmatizing people who work at those nursing homes when you publish that. That is a nursing home that has an outbreak. You can stigmatize the families of the people who have relatives in those nursing homes, and we were concerned about that.
But, look, we also are very much in favor of transparency. I’ve been here 41 days in a row talking to you about everything everything to do with COVID-19. And we’re pleased to put all that data online so that people can look at it now.
* Crain’s: Trump’s Special Assistant Judd Deere suggested you are either ignorant and incompetent or have a propensity to over politicize your criticism of resources from the White House. How short is Illinois from what is requested from the federal government today?…
Well, I think we’ve received in terms of PPE, we’re I think under 3% of the PPE that we asked for, has been delivered by the federal government.
Meanwhile, you’ve heard me say over and over and over again how proud I am of our Army Corps of Engineers, of FEMA and the work that they’re doing with us. I’ve been very pleased with a lot of the things that that we’ve gotten.
And the challenge has been when the White House makes a promise about something and then doesn’t deliver and then makes another promise and doesn’t deliver. And then the president stands up and criticizes people, but he’s not delivering. That’s obviously irksome. Having said that, I’m very proud of the people who work at the other levels of government who have delivered for the state of Illinois.
Illinois needs more than $40 billion in relief from the federal government because of the coronavirus pandemic — including $10 billion to help bail out its beleaguered pension system, according to a letter the Illinois Senate president sent to members of Congress.
The letter, sent this week by State Senator Don Harmon, also seeks a $15 billion grant to “stabilize the state’s budget,” $9.6 billion in direct aid to Illinois’s cities, $6 billion for the state’s unemployment insurance fund, and hardship money for hospitals and nursing homes, among other things.
The article is somewhat misleading on one point. The $15 billion state budget request is for parts of three fiscal years. From the letter…
$15 billion in block grant funding: A flexible block grant would stabilize the state’s operating budget and allow officials here to address unique needs for the current fiscal year, FY2021 and early FY2022. Added flexibility with new federal dollars would also allow the state to assist human service providers serving as the safety net for our most vulnerable population.
* But why Harmon thought to ask for this is just beyond me…
$10 billion in pension relief, directly for the state’s retirement systems: Illinois largest liabilities are its unfunded pension liability at $138 billion and other post-employment benefits liability at $54 billion. Illinois law has put the state on a path to fund the pension liability in a manner that is actuarially sound, and the state has been following the payment plan set out in that law. In a normal year the size of those payments crowds out funding for services and programs. Clearly this will not be a normal year and that crowding out effect will be exacerbated by significant revenue losses. I would ask that the federal government: 1. Provide direct cash assistance to the pension systems; or 2. Offer a low interest federal loan to aid Illinois in our efforts to restore and maintain retirement security for public sector workers, many of which are on the frontlines of this pandemic battle.
For those who might say “It never hurts to ask,” yes, it can hurt to ask.
Dick Durbin represents one of the most bankrupt states in America and the most bankrupt city, Chicago, in America behind those closed doors. They are demanding straight cash bailouts for states and cities that have been fiscally irresponsible for years.
There is a certain strain of wonky politicians who try to “start conversations” without first pausing to ask themselves if publicly sharing those ideas could hurt their own causes.
Illinois created this problem. It’s Illinois’ responsibility to solve it, not the federal government’s. This letter could even hurt all other states’ attempts to convince Congress and the president to back an aid package.
* I asked the governor’s office for comment about the Senate Democrats’ pension ask…
The Governor clearly outlined what he believes our federal partners can do immediately to assist the state earlier this week. We’re working with our congressional delegation, as well as Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer, to ensure another aid package includes funds for the state of Illinois and the flexibility to use them in our budget.
OK, but has the governor ever asked for federal help with state pensions?…
No we have not.
* There are some decent ideas in Harmon’s letter, but he’s asking for a lot. For instance…
Raise FMAP to 65 percent: Thank you for taking the necessary step in the CARES Act to increase Federal Medical Assistance Percentage to 56.34 percent for the duration of the coronavirus emergency. I ask your consideration of a further increase, taking Illinois to 65 percent, which is a 3.1 percent increase over the level afforded Illinois during the Great Recession. This increase will allow Illinois to continue paying health care providers in a timely manner for the services they deliver to the Medicaid system.
* And is this ask based on actual need? Harmon’s letter doesn’t say…
$6 billion in direct aid to the state’s unemployment trust fund
Another diplomatic statement from the governor’s press secretary…
Just like states around the country, Illinois is seeing an unprecedented number of unemployment claims. We’re working with our federal partners to ensure our program remains strong and we welcome any additional funding for our trust fund.
Two more Chicago suburbs are joining the growing trend of requiring people to wear face masks in public during the coronavirus pandemic.
The city of Highland Park is requiring residents to wear face masks when engaging in certain essential activities, starting Monday.
Mayor Nancy Rotering issued the order Friday, joining Skokie, Glenview and Cicero in mandating face coverings. […]
The village of Wilmette has also moved to make wearing a mask a requirement, not just a recommendation.
* If you’re starting to worry a little bit about the food supply, you’re not alone…
A cluster of COVID-19 cases has forced an Illinois food processing plant to shut down for at least two weeks.
Health officials in Ogle County, just west of DeKalb, say there are about 24 cases linked to Hormel Foods in the town of Rochelle. Those cases have shown up in Ogle County and other surrounding counties.
The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus since processing is increasingly done at a handful of massive plants. Another problem in the beef supply, according to Bormann, is something called carcass utilization — the use of the whole animal.
“The first problem is we don’t have enough people to process the animals, and number two is they can’t do carcass balance because restaurants are down,” he said. “What’s selling? Freaking hamburger.”
Restaurants typically use the expensive stuff — strips, ribs, tenderloins and sirloin, Bormann said, while retail takes the chucks and rounds and trims. With restaurants mostly shuttered, “all of a sudden 23 percent of the animal isn’t being bought because food service is gone,” he said.
Industry experts said that the shutdown of beef processing facilities could prompt another round of hoarding at the grocery stores, as with toilet paper and milk several weeks ago.
* Meat roundup…
* The US won’t run out of food during the coronavirus pandemic: “We admire the way that the system works,” Yossi Sheffi, a supply chain expert and the director of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, told Vox. “The virus is still moving from state to state and it’s not uniform all over the country, so the demand patterns are changing all the time. But at the end of the day, we don’t see it as a real danger that we will run out of food.”
* As meat packing plants close for coronavirus, will prices spike and shelves go empty?: Experts say the loss of production has so far been offset by meat stocked up in cold storage, according to The Associated Press. Additionally, companies are sending meat previously intended for now-closed restaurants to grocery stores, the AP reported. But experts warn extended closures could change that because individual plants account for a large amount of production.
* The Food Chain’s Weakest Link: Slaughterhouses - A relatively small number of plants process much of the beef and pork in the United States, and some of them have closed because workers are getting sick.
* Spread of coronavirus closes North American meat plants: Aurora Packing Company closed a beef plant in Aurora, Illinois, said Brad Lyle, chief financial officer for U.S. commodity firm Kerns and Associates. A security officer at the plant said it was closed due to the pandemic. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
The governor was palling around with penguins when the White House officially lost patience.
But the dust-up had nothing to do with the flightless birds at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, making cute cameos in a public safety announcement with J.B. Pritzker. What upset the White House happened earlier, when Illinois’ Democratic chief executive went on CNN to say that he had “given up” on receiving assistance from the federal government; he also announced that his state was “doing what we need to do despite” the president.
This, a White House spokesman tells RealClearPolitics, is more than inaccurate.
“Whether through ignorance or incompetence or a propensity to politicize everything, Governor Pritzker is not being truthful with the people of Illinois when he says his state has not been provided resources from President Trump’s administration,” said deputy press secretary, Judd Deere. Trump doesn’t see red or blue, Deere insisted, asserting that the president has directed federal aid to “every state regardless of the political affiliation of the state’s governor.”
And in the Illinois situation, the White House provided receipts. Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. The state followed suit on March 24. Supplies followed.
Hilarious. But if you’re going to do a hit piece for the White House, at least try to get some facts straight.
Setting aside the childishly over-heated DC rhetoric (nobody has ever said the federal government has supplied no resources, for crying out loud), the governor issued a state disaster proclamation on March 9th. A simple Google search would’ve found that, but why verify anything when the White House hands you “receipts.”
And the link in the RCP article to “the state followed suit on March 24″ line actually leads to a White House press release entitled “President Donald J. Trump Approves Illinois Disaster Declaration.” So, the RCP reporter either deliberately misled his readers or was too incompetent to know that what really happened was the president approved the state’s declaration 15 days after it was declared here.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased hospital capacity in the Chicago by more than 4,000 beds. The Defense Logistics Agency sent a decontamination system to the Windy City. As of last week, according to the White House, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had airlifted 1.1 million N95 facemasks, 4.3 million surgical masks, 1.9 million surgical gowns, and 65 million surgical gloves to Chicago.
The Corps of Engineers has done a remarkable job at McCormick Place to create 3,000, not 4,000, beds. But maybe when the RCP reporter wrote “the Chicago” he meant the Chicago area. But these are overflow beds for low-acuity patients. McCormick Place is not a hospital.
Also, as has been said time and time again, the number of delivered federal supplies is a small fraction of what the state has requested. I don’t doubt that the state has over-requested. But it’s still important context.
…Adding… Pritzker’s deputy comms director…
Article, like you and your boss, ignores basic facts. Illinois, along with every other state has received a fraction of what its asked for from the White House and been left to compete in an insane market the President could have stepped in to prevent, but go off Judd. #twillhttps://t.co/fIkGExEPR9
Wisconsin teen files suit, saying she was threatened with jail over COVID-19 Instagram posts
Groups to give away free masks and gloves in South Shore
Gov. J.B. Pritzker shut down Illinois schools for the rest of the academic year.
State officials reported 1,842 new known infections — a new single-day high in coronavirus cases.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced $68,000 in fines for the demolition of a coal power plant’s smokestack in Little Village that sent massive dust clouds into the working-class community amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Inside Roseland hospital’s battle against COVID-19 in one of Chicago’s hardest hit areas: “We are outgunned, outmanned, underfunded”
A third Chicago police officer died from complications stemming from COVID-19.
Downstate Illinois counties spared by COVID-19 — so far — are still ailing
Durbin: Democrats should hold virtual convention, not gather in Milwaukee
Parents ponder holding kids back a grade after coronavirus school closings
Chicago’s federal high-rise jail sees surge in coronavirus cases
Illinois voter turnout not among the casualties of COVID-19
FitzGerald’s takes weekly ‘Stay-At-Home Concert Series’ to the streets
Thank you, Chicago, for the light show that helped me through a tough time
* Roundup of other stories written by capable reporters…
* How DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry jails are avoiding an outbreak: Sheriffs are thwarting an outbreak — for now — with strict screening and cleaning protocols, they say. All four suburban departments have also worked with local police to issue citations rather than make arrests, and they have released as many inmates charged or convicted of nonviolent crimes as possible.
* The Mask Mover: Today on the show, we take you into one high pressure deal where the difference between life and death comes down to a locked room filled with computer servers, [Illinois] bureaucrats willing to bend the rules, and a guy… who knows a guy.
* No Plan In Sight: Test Troubles Cloud Trump Recovery Effort: Trump on Thursday released a plan to ease business restriction that hinges on a downward trajectory of positive tests. But more than a month after he declared, “Anybody who wants a test, can get a test,” the reality has been much different. People report being unable to get tested. Labs and public officials say critical supply shortages are making it impossible to increase testing to the levels experts say is necessary to keep the virus in check. … Trump’s plan envisions setting up “sentinel surveillance sites” that would screen people without symptoms in locations that serve older people or minority populations. Experts say testing would have to increase as much as threefold to be effective.
* 5 Rockford-area mayors request authority to reopen businesses: “Earlier this week, I reached out to Gov. Pritzker about safely and responsibly opening more local small businesses, which have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Protecting the health of our residents remains the top priority, but we need to ensure that small non-essential businesses are treated fairly,” McNamara said in a statement. “Now is the time to follow science and medicine. What we have been doing is working. Now is not the time to reverse course. A plan to open all businesses on a single day – or to allow a hodgepodge system where each city makes its own rules — is not responsible when we know it will be right in the middle of our surge.”
[This post’s timestamp has been altered for Saturday visibility.]
* As expected, the governor is keeping the schools closed…
Folks I’ve said time and time again my decisions are hard ones, but they will follow the science and the science says, our students can’t go back to their normal routine. Therefore I am suspending in person learning in schools for the remainder of the 2019 2020 school year.
We know that there are many school districts with unique challenges, and we will work with them on any issues that may arise. I know that many have felt that this was inevitable. But trust me when I say this was not a decision that I made lightly.
The importance of our schools and our in-person school days is not just a question of tradition and sentimentality. As essential as those things are, the shutting of in-person classroom time also risks a drop in instructional time, an extended window in which students can potentially experience summer learning loss and an educational landscape in which some districts have more experience with remote learning than others. These challenges weighed heavily on me as we came to this decision, but my priority remains unchanged. How do we save the most lives during this very difficult time?
The answer to that question leaves us with only one path forward. Over the last month, Illinois schools have stepped up and faced the many challenges of COVID-19 with generosity and creativity, and a resolute focus on caring for students and parents and communities. And I’m confident that our schools will manage and expand the learning opportunities for all of our children, who will be working from home over the coming weeks.
Remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* Announces a new EO…
And to begin the work of preparing our classrooms for students eventual return, I will be signing an executive order to modify licensing requirements for future educators who are nearly finished with their studies, like our student teachers, to ensure that this situation does not impact school’s ability to hire the qualified teachers that they need when students come back.
* Federal money…
There is $569 million to support our K-12 schools from the federal CARES act in response to COVID-19, dollars that can help equip students with technology and internet access to enhance remote learning support teachers and developing their remote instruction skills and assist schools and continuing to provide meals to children and communities. Public school districts will receive a portion of this funding proportional to the number of low income students that they serve, and ISBE will direct the remaining funds towards supporting our districts that need those resources most.
* Grades…
My office and the Illinois State Board of Education is recommending that any grades given during this pandemic reflect the unprecedented circumstances in which students are attempting to continue their studies. That is, grades should deliver feedback, and not be used as a tool for compliance. COVID-19 is forcing far too many of our students to deal firsthand with concepts that even adults find nerve wracking. Let’s recognize that and be supportive of all of our students.
* To teachers…
I want to offer a few thoughts to some of the people impacted by this decision. To the teachers who feel like they didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to their students. My heart is with you. Know that your efforts reach your classrooms through new creative ways, and that that means the world to your students and to me. To the special education instructors who might be facing particular challenges and making meaningful remote connections with their kids. I know you’re working to build a unique response to a unique situation, and I’m so grateful for that. We must continue to reach all of our students in any way that we can to the administrators who have dedicated themselves to transforming their districts overnight and doing everything that it takes to implement look remote learning, whatever it looks like in your community. Thank you, every minute of instructional time that you can keep running will make a real difference for our children to the parents who find themselves experiencing a world of emotions because, because of this pandemic, along with some extra stress with your kids at home all day. I promise you, you will get through this.
* To students…
To our high school seniors who are leaving this phase of their teen years behind in a way that they never expected. I know you’re feeling sad about missing the rituals of senior prom, and senior pranks, senior nights and of course graduation. Hearing from me as your governor, there’s room for you to feel all those things, big and small, you will get through this too. You will talk about this for the rest of your lives. And you will go on to do amazing things. I am very, very proud of you.
And to children of all ages. This is a very strange moment that you’re living in. Your parents and I didn’t experience something like this when we were kids. But I can tell you for sure that the hard things we did live through, we learned from. And you’re going to learn from this.
You’re going to see what it looks like when the world comes together. When it looks what it looks like to put your faith in science and research. And the teams of people here in Illinois and beyond, we’re working on treatments and vaccines to save lives. We will get to the other side of this and that other side will be a place that appreciates the best of the before, but with a greater sense of compassion and connection.
And the best part is that you are going to be the ones guiding us forward. All of you, with your creativity, your passion and your care for others are going to shape our future. Let me be the first to say, I can’t wait to see all that you will accomplish.
* Illinois Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala…
Since the suspension of in person instruction, when it began on March 17, Illinois schools statewide have risen to the challenge of holistically serving students in new and in different ways. Decatur public schools for example, has partnered with local radio stations to provide stories and lessons on the air. Vienna High Schools has parked school buses equipped with Wi Fi hotspots in strategic locations throughout Johnson County to boost internet connectivity for students at home. And the Northwest suburban special education organization has pre-recorded videos using American Sign Language to read and sign stories to students with disabilities.
This pandemic has altered the fabric of how we teach how we learn and how we connect, but it has not shaken the core of what our schools do. And that is to take care of Illinois children and prepare them for what is next. Our schools focus on social and emotional skills like resiliency empathy and adaptability. So when the unpredictable events in life knock us down, we have the strength and the mindset to get back up.
* More from the superintendent…
Many families also do not have sufficient access to computers or internet at home. And we’re going to tackle this digital divide head on. As part of a strategic effort that will extend beyond the end of this pandemic, we will use the Illinois State Board of Education, federal CARES act dollars to increase access to technology and devices in our least resourced districts, and we encourage school districts to use their CARES act funding allocations for this purpose as well. Closing the digital divide will be pivotal in fulfilling the agency’s new post pandemic strategic plan. […]
Will students returned to school totally caught up? We’re not expecting them to. … We’ll be releasing transition guidance to help schools address learning loss and students social emotional needs when they return to the classrooms, whenever that is safe to do so.
* On to questions for the governor. Are you tracking the cases of positive cases of coronavirus among health workers healthcare workers? Do you know those numbers here in Illinois and also how many health care workers in Illinois have died?…
Dr. Ezeki: We have all of those numbers in our database, our databases are populated with information from our local county health departments as they manage the individual cases. So we know that there have been numbers of individuals who are health care workers, different, different types of health care workers, and we can get to those numbers. Specifically, so that you can keep those I haven’t reported out specifically on those but I can get those for you.
* Why haven’t you reported that yet?…
Dr. Ezeki: I actually haven’t broken it out like that so it’s not it’s something that my team can assemble we have, you know, occupational status for many of the, of the cases that are in the database, but we haven’t broken it out like that so we can get that for you.
* How about McCormick Place? We understand that now there have been patients admitted. Are they only coronavirus patients how sick are they and tell us a little more about that?…
Pritzker: There are five patients there, so far, and they are all people who have a low acuity COVID 19.
* Are some hospitals full?…
Dr. Ezeki: We divide our hospitals, our 211 hospitals into 10 to 11 regions … There’s no region that has no beds, but individual hospitals can get to capacity and so that would have resulted in some of the transfers that we have seen.
* Was there any talk about extending the school year into the summer or adjusting next year’s school year and also what does this do to the stay at home order to the state?…
I’ll make decisions about the stay at home order, as I do, you know, everything else on a day by day basis following it and I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
I did not consider what would happen mid summer. There are summer school programs and other things that may take place but at the moment we felt like this was the right answer.
* Can you expand on the grading the non grading and really what does compliance mean?…
We’re not intending to say non grading or grading, it’s just a, we want students to be treated with enough understanding that teachers are not using it as a compliance tool to give them a bad grade because they don’t have an internet connection or the internet connection is spotty or these are sometimes difficult circumstances people are not used to kids are not used to being home and doing schooling. And so there needs to be more understanding that’s really the point of the comments.
* Governor DeSantis in Florida is letting parents choose whether or not to redo the school year. Is that a possibility here?…
I haven’t looked at what Governor DeSantis is doing. I guess the basis of your question, certainly something we could look at. I mean it’s not something that we’ve contemplated right now, given the amount of time that’s left in the school year and the fact that some school districts many school districts do have a pretty good elearning program in place so they can get much of the instruction done, but I recognize that there are kids who may not get as much. And therefore, you know, something like that might work but I’ll go look at what Governor desantis has done.
* Today was the biggest one day jumping cases, do you expect this to keep happening and if so, and are you showing the curve is flattening if the, you know, numbers keep increasing and do you expect those numbers to keep increasing?…
Pritzker: You saw that this was our second highest day for testing. We had I think 7300 tests that were that came back today. And that leads to of course, a higher nominal amount of people who tested positive. There are lots of people out there, unfortunately, who don’t get tested who are COVID positive. And so the more we test the more we’re gonna see test positive. So the thing I would track and then that’s a, we look at it. But the bigger, more important number is really the number of hospitalizations and ICU beds, for several reasons but the most important of which is, if people are sick enough to go to the hospital. That’s a definite signal, you know that someone is, you know, COVID-19 positive likely you know if they have a respiratory issue. And then of course ICU beds are, you know, a worsening of that condition document.
Dr. Ezike: So, one of the byproducts of being able to flatten the curve is that you will delay the peak, and maybe it’s not a peak where you go straight up and down, but maybe if I can use a term plateau, where you’re kind of flattened for a while. So again we’re looking at all these numbers to figure out exactly where we are in our curve, and it is really a day by day thing and then you look at week trends. So, we’re not exactly surprised that we would see more cases. There is the extra factor of how many tests were done versus on one day versus another so again we’re following all that we are continuing to increase our amount of testing. So, if the denominator, if you will, of total people being tested is increased, we will see higher numbers so we’ll take that into account but definitely all the numbers are being evaluated every single day, and we are making the best educated guesses out of the trends that we see from the data.
I don’t think we’ve peaked.
* With the highest to date number of known cases being reported in a single day and the high number of deaths in a single day reported yesterday. What do you attribute that to and what evidence shows that the state is in fact bending the curve or no?…
Well, first thing that people should take note of is that we talked about this the other day, the doubling times. How long does it take to double the number of cases in a state, how long does it take to double the number of fatalities in a state. We have seen that the length of time it takes to double increase significantly, even more than I reported the other day it’s actually increasing that, doubling time. And that’s a very good thing, that’s a good thing.
We have not peaked, I think you just heard Dr Ezike say, and I will repeat it.
* Are the scientists you consult saying anything about actions you can take to cause a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14 day period” to quote the new White House guidance?…
There isn’t some specific action that you can do that leads to a downward trajectory. What you can do is keep doing the things you’re doing that are slowing the center of the curve.
And there are a few other things you can do. You know I talked the other day about one of the state reps who suggested that people who work in grocery stores and other stores should be required to wear masks. I have encouraged everybody to wear a mask when they’re out in public. And you know if we perhaps if we enforced that more, or if people just enforced it by talking to people as they see them on the street.
I think that’s another way that we could do it, but there isn’t something specific. I wish I could tell you, we don’t live in a dictatorial society, we don’t live in an authoritarian world. This is a free country and we want to make sure that we are observing people’s civil liberties while keeping them safe and that’s the balance that we’re trying to strike here.
* Is Randolph county on the state’s radar given that you have two large facilities there … Can you describe what efforts you may have in place there, given that they are somewhat of a hotspot in Southern Illinois?…
So just so you know we’re watching every county in Illinois. You hear us reporting on cases in counties, and the numbers of counties in part and you can read about it at IDPH, in part, we make sure you know about the number of counties because we want people to know what’s going on across the state and this isn’t just a Cook County or Chicago issue this really is happening everywhere. That’s number one.
And number two, with regard to congregate facilities we’ve talked about this quite a lot like the congregate facilities of every type are being surveilled by us all the time. We are talking to the leaders and managers of those facilities, we are delivering PPE or making sure that there are guidelines for them to follow guidance given by IDPH, to make sure that we’re caring for those people as best we can. Those are very difficult circumstances, just to be clear, it’s happening all over the country. When you put for example, seniors together in a congregate facility, they can’t easily be moved around. And you know in a nursing home just as one example. …
Same thing for a correctional institution. You’ve seen that we brought the National Guard in to Stateville. We’re looking at other places where we might want to deploy them and making sure that we’re bringing even more medical facilities or making more medical facilities available to the staff, and to the inmates themselves.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,842 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 62 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 female 60s
Cook County: 2 females 40s, 1 male 40s, 2 males 50s, 2 females 60s, 5 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 4 males 70s, 5 females 80s, 5 males 80s, 3 females 90s, 4 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 3 males 80s, 2 females 90s
Kane County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 90s, 1 male 100+
Lake County: 1 male 90s
Macon County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Madison County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s
Monroe County: 1 female 80s
Randolph County: 1 male 80s
St. Clair County 1 unknown 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s
Will County: 2 males 80s
Henderson and Wayne counties are now reporting cases. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 27,575 cases, including 1,134 deaths, in 92 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
Hospitals in New York City are running out of dialysis fluids as thousands of coronavirus patients develop kidney failure, an unexpected development that could presage the next critical supply shortage nationwide.
Approximately 20 percent of coronavirus patients in intensive care around the city need the kidney treatment, often for weeks, a development that many providers did not see coming. FEMA held a call Monday with FDA and CMS to discuss the possibility of issuing emergency use authorizations to import more dialysis fluids, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
But shortages are already testing hospitals in New York, where more than 202,000 people have become infected and almost 11,000 have died. The same day that federal regulators met, major New York hospital systems convened to discuss the emerging dialysis crisis. Some are struggling with dire shortfalls of dialysis fluids and trained nursing staff, and have reached out directly to manufacturers for help, according to two people on the call.
* I asked the Illinois Kidney Care Alliance’s spokesperson if that was happening in Illinois…
Some of our coalition members have been involved in the response to the increased need for renal replacement therapy, which has put pressure on many hospitals in New York and elsewhere.
In New York and New Jersey, patient numbers requiring renal therapy are five or more times normal volumes. We have not yet seen this phenomenon in Illinois, but that doesn’t mean we won’t. Illinois already has more than 30,000 patients with serious kidney disease, and a sharp increase in demand for equipment, supplies, solutions and nursing support could bring unprecedented challenges. But our coalition members stand ready to bring our experiences and lessons learned in New York to assist in the crisis response in Illinois.
As hydroxychloroquine has been touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19, patients with autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis have struggled to fill the prescriptions they rely on to keep their condition manageable. The Food and Drug Administration reported March 31 there is a shortage of the drug.
A French study of 36 COVID-19 patients last month found those given HCQ and an antibiotic saw a reduction in their viral load — results President Donald Trump has highlighted. Other studies have found mixed results for HCQ’s ability to treat or prevent COVID-19, and a larger French study this week found the drug didn’t have a significant effect on the disease.
Dr. Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, a professor of rheumatology at Northwestern, says hydroxychloroquine is an essential medicine for lupus patients.
Sold under the brand name Plaquenil, HCQ helps treat symptoms such as fatigue and joint pain, lessen flares and prevent organ damage. And HCQ has fewer side effects than other drugs lupus patients take, Ramsey-Goldman said.
Three Smithfield Food employees have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting extra precautions at the meat-processing plant, according to the Warren County Health Department.
The department said Friday it is conducting “extensive contact tracing” regarding the employees, one of whom lives in Warren County while the other two live in Rock Island County. The department did not describe their health status. […]
A Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota has been shut down since last week. Thursday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff toured the Sioux Falls plant, three weeks after the first COVID-19 case involving a Smithfield employee was determined on March 24. The CDC team is assessing conditions and developing an action plan needed to safely reopen the hog harvesting facility.
McCormick Place field hospital now accepting COVID-19 patients
Antiviral drug being tested at UChicago Medicine shows promise against COVID-19
COVID-19 SBA loan funds exhausted: At Devon Bank, ‘applications with no place to go’
Chicago COVID-19 survivors share their stories
‘I feel like I lost the battle for my husband,’ widow of dead Cook County Jail detainee says
Chicago police announced Thursday 49 more confirmed cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of cases in the department to 288. Of the cases, 276 are officers and 12 are civilian employees, Chicago police said.
A four-year legal battle that pitted a suburban teacher against her employer ended Thursday when the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the school district, ruling the teacher was not entitled to all of her paid sick leave because she gave birth just before summer break and had ample time to recover before her job resumed.
The ruling, which sets a precedent for most of the state’s public school teachers, held that Wood Dale District 7 doesn’t have to let teachers carry over benefits to the new school year for births that occurred during or right before summer break. Nothing precludes teachers, however, from taking unpaid time off through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Anne Burke wrote that a measure in the Illinois School Code granting 30 days of paid sick leave to male and female teachers for “birth, adoption, or placement for adoption” must be used immediately.
A statute dating back to the early 1800s cannot be applied to daily fantasy sports betting, Illinois’ highest court ruled Thursday. Fantasy sports, the court ruled, are games dominated by skill, not by chance.
In April 2016, Colin Dew-Becker and Andrew Wu competed in a fantasy NBA contest through the website FanDuel. They each paid $109 — a $100 wager and $9 fee to the company. Wu’s team scored almost double the points Dew-Becker’s team did, making him the winner.
Dew-Becker filed a lawsuit three days later to recover his bet. Under a centuries-old Illinois law called the Loss Recovery Act — passed in 1819, one year after Illinois became a state and 40 years before the Civil War — those on the losing end of an illegal wager have a legal avenue to get their money back.
In order for that to be a possibility, however, that money had to be lost while gambling. The state Supreme Court, after consulting recently-published peer-reviewed studies, ruled that while nothing in the act’s language omits internet contests from its purview, daily fantasy sports bets do not fit the definition of gambling as dictated by law.
A team at Southern Illinois University Carbondale this week delivered its first round of a key substance needed for COVID-19 tests to health authorities in Springfield. SIU was the first university in the state to do so.
Andrew Wood, director of the School of Biological Sciences, on Tuesday hand-delivered the first 10,000 vials of Viral Transport Medium formulated at SIU to the Illinois Department of Public Health. SIU researchers, along with several other state universities, are working on making up the shortfall of the substance.
Gary Kinsel, vice chancellor for research at SIU, said he is proud of how well faculty are performing in meeting the ongoing challenges presented by the health emergency.
“It’s a source of great pride that our faculty have stepped up to provide such an important contribution to the state of Illinois during this pandemic,” Kinsel said. “I know that their efforts expand the state testing capacity and ultimately save lives.”
Viral Transport Medium (VTM) is a pH-buffered fluid with a specific formulation of salts, protein and other chemicals that maintains the genetic information of a virus until it can be tested. Faculty have been working around the clock organizing the effort to make the substance, which is in short supply because of the ongoing health emergency and large need for testing.
The batch was manufactured by a team of microbiologists and several students last week at SIU.
Scott Hamilton-Brehm, professor of microbiology and a leader of the effort, said the SIU team intends to keep the pace of 10,000 vials per week
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is planning to close the state’s schools for in-person instruction through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The governor and his team have worked through the details of the extended closures this week and will announce the decision Friday afternoon, sources said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fully on board with the move but isn’t expected to attend the news conference with the governor because of scheduling conflicts, sources said. Lightfoot on Thursday hinted strongly that the decision was coming but said it was up to Pritzker and she would like to be part of that discussion.
Pritzker’s original stay-at-home order was to expire April 7. He already has extended it once — until April 30 — and has hinted for days about a second extension deep into May.
* The Question: Agree or disagree? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Governor Pritzker provided the first estimates of how hard the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will hit Illinois. According to the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB), General Fund revenue in the current fiscal year will be at least $2.7 billion less than initial the initial projection of $40.2 billion. That is cause for significant concern, because — as shown in Figure 1, the revenue shortfall amounts to fully 10 percent of what Illinois budgeted to spend on General Fund services this year — where 96 cents of every dollar of such spending goes to the core areas of: education (inclusive of early childhood, k-12, and higher ed); heath care; human services; and public safety.
Figure 1: FY 2020 Enacted General Fund Appropriations ($ Millions)
As shown in Figure 1, of the $40.8 billion in total General Fund spending budgeted for FY 2020, $13.6 billion is for “Hard Costs” or mandatory spending obligations over which decision makers have no discretion, because they are required to be paid either by law or contract. Once those Hard Costs are paid — as they have to be — that leaves only $27.01 billion appropriated for services.
Given that there are only two and one-half months left in FY 2020, it would be incredibly difficult to implement a 10 percent cut to core services — especially when considering the increased demand for health and human services caused by the pandemic. [Emphasis added.]
And because only two and a half months remain in the fiscal year, a 10 percent cut to core services for the remainder of FY20 would be the equivalent to a 50 percent or so slash in annual expenditures. Impossible.
(T)he Pritzker Administration has decided to cover over half of the $2.7 billion revenue shortfall now projected for FY 2020 by incurring $1.2 billion in new short-term borrowing plus deferring $400 million in investment fund repayments from FY 2020 into FY 2021, while transferring $323 million via interfund borrowing.
The bad news is the pandemic’s impact on the economy and hence state revenues is not limited to FY 2020. Governor Pritzker also announced that revenue projections for FY 2021 have been revised downward by $4.6 billion, which, when coupled with repayment of the $1.2 billion in new short-term borrowing that will be incurred this year, plus the deferral of $400 million in repayments that were due in FY 2020 into FY 2021, will drive the total revenue shortfall for FY 2021 up to around $6.2 billion.
And that hole will be $7.4 billion without passage of the graduated income tax, which, the CTBA points out “is almost 36 percent of the current year’s General Fund appropriations for the core services of education, health care, social services and public safety.”
As Americans continue to shelter in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 22 million people have filed for unemployment over the past four weeks, and many more have struggled to access benefits. But some of the very workers who process those claims have started to fear for their own health.
Multiple employees with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) told The Daily Beast they were being forced to work in an unsafe office environment even though they could theoretically get their jobs done from home.
“A quarter of our office is not coming in because they don’t want to die,” one IDES employee told The Daily Beast. […]
“Nobody is wearing masks,” said another IDES worker. “There is no social distancing.”
After this story was published, a spokesperson for IDES told The Daily Beast the agency had been deemed essential. “Because of this, there are essential employees who are required to report to their physical work location, although we are working to provide as many essential employees as possible with the proper IT, privacy, and confidentiality resources to continue and complete their work from home.”
* I checked in with AFSCME Council 31 to see what the union knows. Here’s Anders Lindall…
AFSCME represents more than 900 employees in IDES. Responding to the historic surge in unemployment claims and getting jobless folks the benefits they need and deserve, union members in IDES are doing vital work to help their communities in the wake of the pandemic crisis. And they’re doing it under intense stress caused by the enormous volume of claims and the knowledge that applicants are desperate for income.
As with every employer, we have urged IDES to move as many employees as possible to work remotely. Right now 40 percent of our members in the agency are teleworking, with another 20 percent set to move to remote next week. We continue to push for that transition wherever possible, not only to maximize social distancing but to respond to concerns from members including high-risk health conditions and lack of child care.
For those employees still required to come to the worksite, at our urging every IDES office should be implementing staff rotations to reduce the number of people and their proximity in any location, providing adequate supplies of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, reimbursing employees for masks and gloves and ensuring regular deep cleaning of every office.
We believe those practices are being followed in most instances and we’re continually following up with management in locations where members have raised ongoing concerns. Whether in IDES, throughout state government or in any other setting, no one should be put at unnecessary risk, their family exposed, or their community introduced to viral spread as a consequence of doing the essential public service work that must go on.
OK, but in my opinion, the state should be requiring its workers to wear masks in the office.
The national average for testing is 10,417 per million people. Illinois’ is 9,561 per million. Gov. Pritzker has said time and time again that the state needs to be testing at least 10,000 people a day, but the state has never really come close to that.
Gov. Pritzker announced a breakthrough with testing several days ago, only to walk it back, claiming that a Thermo Fisher testing machine did not work as advertised. Last week, he announced increased testing for African-Americans and other vulnerable populations, but those tests were not done because the local health centers haven’t been given the supplies and Lurie Children’s Hospital, which was supposed to test the swabs, hadn’t yet set up testing protocols.
Ford said the governor’s broken promise on providing testing isn’t just troubling, it’s personal. The Democratic state representative said he knows at least 15 African Americans who have died from COVID-19. They were healthy or had only minor health troubles, Ford said.
“But they weren’t going to die if it wasn’t for coronavirus. And one of the reasons they died is because they were not tested,” Ford continued. “I’m seeing long lines for drive-up testing in other areas and none here in Austin. This is an indication of how the black community at large — and not just over the coronavirus — are treated by government.” […]
“Life expectancy in Austin is 20 to 25 years less than it is nine miles to the east, downtown. Black people are already dying. Now, if you have an underlying condition and you get COVID-19, we don’t know if you have a life expectancy,” Ford said.
“How can the governor say we’re bending the curve when they’re not testing an entire segment of the population? It’s false narrative. [Pritzker] has got to step up and make sure that he’s taking care of people on the West Side and the black community at large.”
Though some reporting had suggested the machines and testing supplies had still not been delivered to health centers six days after the governor initially made that announcement, Ezike on Thursday said if any testing site didn’t have supplies “it must be en route or on its way or coming today.”
“We definitely are trying to make that available immediately so that we can get the testing up,” Ezike said.
For everyone’s sake, I hope that turns out to be true. Black people get the okeydoke far too much as it is. If the governor is going to make promises like this, he needs to make sure he keeps them.
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Chicago and Cook County account for 70% of the state’s 25,733 infections. But some people — mostly Republicans — complain that [Pritzker has] neglected the rest of Illinois, even as it shares in the economic pain and social disruption from measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Thursday marked Pritzker’s 40th daily televised update, and the 29th in a row from his office in downtown Chicago.
“Mostly”? Not a single member of the super-majority party is quoted with a complaint.
Pritzker’s briefings are available statewide and while it’s not his preference, the governor is following his own recommendation by “staying home as much as possible to limit exposure,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said.
That touches another downstate nerve that has stung for decades: Chicago-based governors who spend too little time in the capital and its Governor’s Mansion. He could be just as effective in Springfield, according to GOP Rep. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro.
“I don’t want him to do a tour around the entire state with an entourage, but I’d like to see him conducting the business of the state at the seat of government,” Bryant said. “It would give everyone in the state access to him instead of just Chicago.”
That would mean moving his staff and his family and his agency directors to Springfield.
And, to be clear, I have said for decades that governors should live wherever they want as long as they’re in town for session.
Elections have consequences.
…Adding… Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) was on Sam Madonia’s show today. Madonia said he’s heard “there hasn’t been a lot of communication between the governor’s office and maybe some people on the Republican side of the aisle. How do you react to that?”…
I respect all the individuals, especially downstate Republicans, who have expressed that. I get along with almost all of them. I just don’t see it, though. I mean, I’m staring right now, I’m sitting in my house in front of my computer, I’m staring at email after email. [One] email has 22 attachments from the governor’s office in my inbox, either last night or this morning with everything that was announced or executed by a state agency yesterday, down to minute details. So I think the governor’s office is inundating legislators with information. So, I just don’t see that Sam and I don’t understand. I just, for the life of me don’t understand that criticism.
…Adding… Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville) on Facebook…
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Governor Pritzker said he’s not holding any of his daily press conferences from Springfield because he’s following his own advice and staying home as much as possible. Today, the Governor released a self-promoting ad he filmed with penguins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and he’s using taxpayer dollars to promote it. We all love penguins and we all need a little levity, but come on - you can’t say you don’t have time to come downstate.
Travel time between the James R. Thompson Center and Shedd Aquarium: 11 minutes.
Travel time between the James R. Thompson Center and Morrisonville, IL: 3 hours, 29 minutes.
Nearly 300 Illinois nursing home patients and staff have died from COVID-19, but exactly where still remains largely cloaked in secrecy.
Unlike some states, Illinois hasn’t named specific facilities where the virus has been detected. That’s been true even in cases of significant clusters of deaths.
Several other states do publish those lists.
* Nursing homes are not required to report cases and deaths to family members or employees. But they do have to report the data to the state. IDPH, however, is only releasing totals to the public…
As of Thursday, in Illinois, the Pritzker administration reported 587 patients and nursing home staffers who tested positive, at a total of 305 nursing homes. At least facilities have had at least one patient or staffer die.
That’s almost 42 percent of all nursing homes in Illinois with positive cases and 17 percent with reported deaths.
Most counties aren’t releasing that information, either.
* A Tribune reporter asked IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike about this yesterday. Her reply…
We’re working on getting information out regarding the nursing homes. I think there might be some delays in keeping up with that but working on that in terms of our approach to dealing with really one of our most vulnerable populations.
A department spokesman later told the Tribune the agency was “working on compiling a listing of the locations,” which it hoped to provide “as soon as possible.”
Look, IDPH is stretched to the max. A year of partial rebuilding undoubtedly wasn’t enough to fill in the hollowed-out organization. But this isn’t a matter of reaching out to nursing homes to gather data. The information is already supposedly being reported to the state. Families, residents and workers need to know what the heck going on.
Though Illinois hospitals are, in many ways, busier than ever as they care for patients with the new coronavirus, they’re also taking a financial beating that’s affecting their workers and raising questions about how the institutions will recover once the worst of the pandemic has passed.
The Illinois Health and Hospital Association estimates that hospitals statewide could now be losing about $1.4 billion a month. That’s the money hospitals are missing out on because of canceled elective surgeries and fewer visits by other patients, many of whom may be avoiding medical care for fear of catching the virus. […]
In Illinois, hospitals are trying a number of tactics to stanch the bleeding, including reaching into their reserves, halting improvement projects and furloughing workers — sometimes with pay and sometimes without. Hospitals are sidelining workers because, without elective surgeries and with declines in outpatient care, there may not be enough work for them, at the moment. They also want as few extra people in hospitals as possible, to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. […]
Illinois hospitals also continue to contend with the same financial challenges they faced before the coronavirus. Before the pandemic, about 40% of the state’s hospitals were operating in the red or close to it, according to the Illinois Health and Hospital Association.
Friday, Apr 17, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Beyond communicating the immediate facility changes deemed necessary by the stay-at-home order and new services offered, social media has also been utilized to share online and mobile features. In line with the People Helping People philosophy that drives the credit union movement, credit unions have emphasized their position as a true financial partner to members and the entire community.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had some words of advice for Wellington when he visited the famous penguin at the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday.
“All right now, 6 feet apart, everyone,” Pritzker tells a group of penguins in a new video for his social media campaign, #AllInIllinois.
“Wellington, come on back,” Pritzker says, as the Shedd’s oldest — and perhaps most popular — penguin listened and rejoined a group of penguins walking in order — 6 feet apart.
The 60-second video — which also features the governor preaching to sea otters and garden eels — is the latest in Pritzker’s attempt to get residents to stay home and follow health guidelines, like social distancing and washing hands, as the battle continues in the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The latest pitch is intended for the state’s families and children.
