* Press release…
After a member of Governor JB Pritzker’s senior staff tested positive for COVID-19, the Governor’s Office employees will follow Illinois Department of Public Health guidance and work from home for an appropriate isolation period. The asymptomatic staff member tested positive late last week and was in close contact with the Governor and other staff members. The Governor and all other staff reporting to the office tested negative. The Governor was tested again early on Sunday and tested negative.
Approximately 20 staff members have been regularly reporting in person to work in the James R. Thompson Center during this crisis while the remainder of Governor’s Office staff work from home. Staff members have followed all IDPH safety protocols including daily temperature checks, wearing face coverings, social distancing and strict hygiene procedures. The office will undergo deep cleaning, and staff are monitoring themselves for symptoms. The Governor and staff will return to the office when IDPH deems appropriate.
The Governor will continue to hold daily press briefings via video conference which are live-streamed at illinois.gov/LiveVideo as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
Best wishes to everyone. Stay safe!
- @misterjayem - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:05 am:
Awful news.
Just awful.
– MrJM
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:15 am:
To the post,
The foolish trying to have religious services, gatherings, opening up businesses, trying to “open the economy”…
… it’s those “not you” that you may be infecting or worse.
This is awful news.
Whenever there’s an infection, that’s terrible news.
My prayers to the Pritzker Crew, the staffer, really to anyone needing to be out doing work, essential workers… keeping you all in my thoughts.
- Nick Name - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:24 am:
===Approximately 20 staff members have been regularly reporting in person to work in the James R. Thompson Center===
What about the Springfield staff?
God bless the Pritzker team. Stay safe. Get well.
- Token Conservative - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:28 am:
==What about the Springfield staff?==
Where?
- A Guy - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:28 am:
Hope that person recovers quickly and well.
It may be time for the Governor of the State to be in his office in the State Capitol of the State. I believe that’s where Gov. Cuomo’s daily briefings are coming from: Albany, not Manhattan.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:34 am:
=== Albany, not Manhattan.===
(Sigh)
Cuomo, a can’t miss watch, has been in many, many locations, so if you’re gonna beef on the idea where *our* Governor is, at least know your own example.
The Cuomo example is a governor showing off temporary hospitals (Pritzker did that too), and other sites in New York he (Cuomo) wanted as a backdrop.
If the argument is “the capitol is in Springfield”… ok…
Where are the most infections and where is the virus most prevalent?
Chicagoland.
Can you imagine… “Chicagoland is facing the most cases… and there sits the Governor, in Springfield… far away from the crisis”
Can’t win.
- Soccermom - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:36 am:
Oh gosh. Now is not the time to criticize the governor and his staff for staying in Chicago. He can lead from anywhere. For goodness sake — are you saying you wish that the staffer who tested positive had brought it to Springfield?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:37 am:
- A Guy -
Governor Cuomo is in Rochester, New York today…
- Amalia - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:38 am:
hoping the staffer who tested positive gets through it easily. wishing all of them well.
- khill - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:39 am:
Go ahead and give the entire JRTC a deep cleaning.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:51 am:
This was an inevitability, so I hope they planned for it and the transition will be as smoothly as possible.
I hope that they all fair the situation well.
===Go ahead and give the entire JRTC a deep cleaning.===
Once every 35 years?
- 32nd warder - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:53 am:
the JRTC wouldn’t need a deep cleaning if it was a water park! That chlorine would kill that virus right away!
- OK Boomer - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 10:55 am:
The psychology of this crisis is rather fascinating/horrifying. People demand “reopening,” forget about socially distancing, and rail against wearing masks in the name of freedom. All the while the circle of those who are infected creeps closer and closer to us all. The President’s small circle, now the Governor’s. I have family who now have co-workers that were diagnosed last week. Why do we feel safer, though the threat persists? Sending prayers to all who are affected by this nasty virus.
- Ok - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:03 am:
Maybe if they run high pressure water up to the 16th floor, add in some kind of chlorinated substance for disinfectant, and flooded it….
- DuPage Dave - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:15 am:
Even in times like these, they can’t let go of the Springfield thing. Geez…
- @misterjayem - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:21 am:
“It may be time for the Governor of the State to be in his office in the State Capitol of the State.”
So THIS is what we’re bellyaching about now?
Carry on, Governor.
– MrJM
- Nagidam - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:33 am:
First, stay safe Governor and Team.
Second, burn the Thompson center to the ground just in case.
Third, transfer some of the Thompson embers to Springfield and burn the Stratton to the ground.
… I’ll bring the marshmallows.
- Demoralized - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:33 am:
Some of you really need to move past this juvenile argument about the Governor being in Springfield as if it affects anything he is doing. Get over it.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:39 am:
=Staff members have followed all IDPH safety protocols including daily temperature checks, wearing face coverings, social distancing and strict hygiene procedures.=
Problem is everyone they come in contact with must also follow the safety protocols and everyone they come in contact with, and so on and so on.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:41 am:
==It may be time for the Governor of the State to be in his office in the State Capitol of the State.==
Please don’t listen to -a Guy -, that’s just crazy talk. Nobody wants Pritzker and his staff to come spread this thing around the Capitol building right now. Keep that stuff up there
- Huh? - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 11:42 am:
“give the entire JRTC a deep cleaning.”
What? Tear it down and start over again? Come on, the grime is all that keeps that building standing. /s
To the post - as others have mentioned so clearly, as the disease creeps closer to the inner circles of government leadership, it is obvious that no one is going to be safe from covid19. No matter how many times you are tested.
- Token Conservative - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 12:00 pm:
==Go ahead and give the entire JRTC a deep cleaning==
I’ll bring the C4. (Joke.)
- Give us Barabbas - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 12:12 pm:
Of all the people you *don’t* want taken out of the loop to fight illness, the Governor would be the worst case. Not that he does it all himself; far from it. But everything his team is doing is backed by JB’s authority. Like that bible story about Moses holding up his arms to help his people win a battle. When the arms faltered from fatigue, the battle started to go badly.
Be Well and stay well, J.B.
- Huh? - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 12:17 pm:
“When the arms faltered from fatigue, the battle started to go badly.”
The rest of the story is that his people saw his fatigue and held Moses arms in the air. The battle was won.
JB’s staff can carry on. It is the people who are faltering.
- Nagidam - Monday, May 11, 20 @ 12:47 pm:
===Of all the people you *don’t* want taken out of the loop to fight illness, the Governor would be the worst case.===
Especially in light of the fact that the Lieutenant Governor has been nonexistent as far as I can tell.