16 Comments - Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 12:14 pm: positivity rate down - fs - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 12:18 pm: Numbers were almost guaranteed to increase some when the State opened up more without a vaccine, or reliable tracing. However, the numbers Statewide seem to be within the same consistent range over the last few weeks. Maybe a sign that this is a baseline for Phase 4? - Dread Pirate Roberts - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 12:22 pm: We should change or motto to “State of Denial.” Time is our most critical resource’ and Pritzker has allowed weeks to slip through his fingers when it was evident people were not going to comply with mask and social distancing requirements that were the foundation of his reopening plan. Schools cannot reopen now, and it is his administration’s fault. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 12:25 pm: === Schools cannot reopen now, and it is his administration’s fault.=== No. Schools open and there’s an outbreak or worse… that’s a fault a governor can’t have. A national response woulda helped. It never came. Prolly why Pritzker polls incredibly higher than the President, but please, try to make it about this Governor or governors overall. Tough sell. - Dance Band on the Titanic - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 12:32 pm: ===Schools cannot reopen now=== Schools are going to reopen. Just not in the actual school buildings in most cases. Teachers will still teach. Students will still learn. - Demoralized - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 1:00 pm: ==Schools cannot reopen now, and it is his administration’s fault.== No. The reason for the problems we are having is due to the Bailey’s of the world who refuse to wear a mask and act responsibly. Your problem should be with those people and not the Governor. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 1:07 pm: =Schools cannot reopen now, and it is his administration’s fault.= Stop. Attending school and understanding how to run one are not synonymous. Many large schools/districts have opted for remote learning. I think that is a smart choice. Large enrollment numbers are strongly indicative of a high population density. A significant factor in spreading the illness. The risk decreases with size. Hard to control/monitor 4,600 students and staff at A E Stevenson High School. Add in a building that is more than 1,000,000 square feet. A school of 350 kids is a different animal, especially if you split the students into two groups. Some in person time is better than none. We can keep students and staff safe in that environment. - Dread Pirate Roberts - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 1:16 pm: If my plan for winning a campaign called for 30 percent of the African American vote switching to support my white, male, Downstate Republican former state’s attorney for the US Senate, should I blame Black voters when I lose? Trump was still Trump and Bailey was still Bailey back in mid-June when we we reported fewer than 600 cases and the positivity rate was somewhere below 2. What has changed since mid-June is that contact tracers were not hired, people were not wearing masks and social distancing as needed, there was widespread evidence of cracks in the dam everywhere, and Pritzker did not adjust the restrictions. Consider that things have flipped now, where in the beginning JB was dragging Lightfoot kicking and screaming, now Lightfoot is imposing much tougher restrictions than JB. - pool boy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 1:17 pm: My concern is ICU and ventilator numbers have increased substantially from a day ago. - Dotnonymous - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 1:50 pm: The problem is the virus…the stalled solution is due to the failure of leadership from our Federal government. - lake county democrat - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 2:11 pm: Positivity rate is important, but we should also look at the r0, which is estimated at 1.12 on rt.live - we’ve gone from one of the lowest in the US (slightly under 1.0) to one of the highest. - Harwood - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 2:24 pm: My concern is that the testing is still inadequate and poorly executed. My experience at an IDPH site included being told testing operations had ceased for the day even though I arrived before the published closing time and was told that testing supplies were still available. Later, the automated system that called to link me to my results disconnected me. All of this is better than what happened to a relative in another part of the state, who was exposed and has still not received results after 7 days (and has spent most of today trying to get through to various help desks). We’re in the 5th month of this! This is a fundamental problem. And is happening with contact tracing? I haven’t heard much about that. - Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:08 pm: Lake County is correct. Positivity rate is not nearly as important as the R-naught. Pritzker keeps talking about how great our R-naught is compared to neighboring states but never mentions the R-naught. He either has forgotten the importance of the R-naught or he is being disingenuous. We need to get our R-naught under 1. - Hank - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:14 pm: Am I missing something? The comments section here seems panicky with each day’s report, yet the positivity rate has stayed below 4 percent a month after the Phase 4 reopening. I’m not trying to undersell the pandemic, far from it, but y’all are acting like Illinois is on the road to becoming Florida…based on what exactly? - Lynn S. - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 7:55 pm: Hank, just a few weeks ago we were under 1000 cases a day. Now we’re seeing days between 1200-1600. That doesn’t worry you? If not, why not? And how the positivity rate has gone up, in roughly the same time? I had a great-great-grandmother who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. Her 16 year-old son died 6 days later. This virus is nothing to (banned word) around with. What are high school kids going to remember more in 50 years: not playing a sport, or losing friends and classmates who got sick playing sports? The children are insisting nothing change. The adults are installing guard rails and taking precautions, including limiting or cancelling sports and other activities. And you are assigned to “child” or “adult” based on your actions, not your age. - Cadillac - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 9:47 pm: I thought we were “spinning up” and “standing up” contact tracing in late April. In fact, Phase 4 required 90% contact tracing. Plans changed? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.