*** UPDATE 1 *** From the committee’s chair, Rep. Chris Welch…
“As of 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, the Special Investigating Committee has received no formal indication of any witnesses planning to testify.
“The committee will proceed as scheduled with our Tuesday, Sept. 29 hearing at 2 p.m., and I ask all members to come prepared to conduct themselves in a manner reflective of the serious business before us.”
The correspondence received by the committee is here. Still no statement from Rep. Welch on the planned appearance by an as-yet-unnamed witness from ComEd.
*** UPDATE 2 *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
Speaker Madigan continues to take the path that his own House Rules apply to all except him. The House Democrats and Governor Pritzker must step up and demand answers about Madigan’s involvement in ComEd’s admission of guilt in a bribery scheme lasting nine years.
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state.
The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce launched an initiative Wednesday to get the state to spend a larger share of its advertising dollars on Black-owned media.
The Coalition for Black Media Equity is seeking at least 8% of the state’s annual $2 billion marketing budget, or about $160 million, be spent on Black-owned media, in line with the state’s minority procurement guidelines. […]
Larry Ivory, president and CEO of the chamber, said the state’s actual Black-owned media spend is closer to $10 million a year, or about 0.5% of the total budget. […]
There are 15 initial members in the coalition, Ivory said. Chicago members include Dorothy Leavell, publisher of The Chicago Crusader; Melody Spann Cooper, chairman of Midway Broadcasting Corp., which owns WVON-AM 1690; and Carl West, publisher of TBT News.
Wait. The state is spending $2 billion for advertising/marketing in a $40 billion budget? I found that difficult to believe, to say the least.
* So, I asked the governor’s office to check with its budget office and here’s what GOMB could find for advertising/marketing…
Lottery — $41.4 Million for FY20 and this was paid to the Private Manager, Camelot, and they directly pay for marketing.
DCEO — $18.2 million in FY20 for tourism that’s being used for mask/COVID stuff this year
IDOT – about $4 million for their safety media program
Tollway - they were waiting on this, but isn’t going to make $2 B
DHS – about $3 million
DPH - $717,729.98, which is made up of $64,486.23 in newspaper notices plus $653,243.75 in COVID PSAs
That totals $67.3 million, plus whatever the Tollway spends, and the state has no direct control over Tollway spending. Same with universities.
Black-owned media and PR firms should most definitely be getting every dollar of their fair share. But the terms need to be set using reality.
As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle at the Illinois statehouse continue to offer up ideas they believe must be implemented to curb corruption and clean up ethics, one is looking to give local prosecutors power to wiretap public corruption suspects. […]
State Sen. John Curran Thursday with other Republicans laid out measures he said would help combat such behavior. He said local prosecutors can get wiretaps for drug and gang investigations, but not for public corruption investigations, and that needs to change.
“The federal government has shown us how they effectively use wiretapping evidence to break through the system of corruption here in Illinois, our local prosecutors need to get in the game,” Curran said.
Curran said there’d be judicial oversight to ensure such power wasn’t abused for political reasons.
* The Question: Overall, would you trust state’s attorneys with this power? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. Stratton threatened Illinois citizens with at least a 20 percent across the board income tax increase if their cherished tax increase hike amendment fails in November. That 20 percent comment is just a starting point, it is just the beginning, if you believe. Her intimidation and scare tactics used yesterday against Illinois citizens, employers, employees, retirees are a clear sign of desperation by the governor, lieutenant governor, Speaker Mike Madigan because their tax hike amendment is failing and the election is around the corner. […]
Here’s the message in no uncertain words: If you do not pass my tax hike amendment, we will annihilate you with a 20 percent tax increase across the board, across the board, when we return to session.
I spent yesterday with a group of Will County farmers, they all spoke about one thing: That was the fear of this tax amendment. These are not men and women of means, they work with their hands, with a job they love. Same goes for my hardware store owner in my town. The bakery owner. The restaurant owner in my town. Each one of them fears what this is going to do to their livelihoods, particularly at a time of pandemic, with the state of Illinois has forced so many closures upon them. They’re struggling to make ends meet. They’re struggling to keep people on the payroll. But to threaten Illinois citizens with a smile on their face, that if you pass this tax amendment we’re going to oppose a 20 percent income tax increase, increase against you, we will punish you for not following us. It speaks volumes that this tax amendment is failing and the Democrats are desperate.
The comments that were issued yesterday by Lieutenant Governor Stratton were problematic for a couple of reasons. First, because they portrayed a false choice to Illinois voters between one tax hike or another tax hike. And what that misses is a couple of key points that taxpayers across Illinois have been pushing Springfield to consider for years. First, if the choice is only between two tax hike hikes, it means that the administration is not considering any number of meaningful reforms, spending reductions, or efficiencies that they should find within the agencies that they control and operate. It means that any of those meaningful reforms are not coming to the major cost drivers that have pushed us year after year into facing these financial challenges. But second, it misses a very important message that voters have been sending to Springfield for over a decade. And that’s don’t tax more. It’s not that voters who are saying no to the fair tax are getting caught up in the details of this, voters who are saying no to the graduated income tax are saying no because they’re sending a message to Springfield, that says stop coming back to Illinois taxpayers every couple of years to raise income taxes because you refuse to deal with the underlying issues that are causing so much hardship and so much pressure for families across the state of Illinois.
* The House Republicans originally scheduled their press conference for 11 this morning, but then late last night Gov. Pritzker decided to schedule his own presser at 11. The HGOPs changed their start time to 10:30 and I asked Leader Durkin if he did that to avoid appearing at the same time as Pritzker…
We did. I wanted the governor to be able to explain why his lieutenant governor has threatened Illinois citizens that if you don’t vote for this tax amendment we’re going to tax the heck out of you with 20 percent. That is a scare tactic that was done on the same day that early voting is starting in Cook County. That was all planned yesterday, but that was to get into the heads of people who are uncertain, people who are scared about what the future is going to be particularly in a time of a pandemic. But I want the governor to explain why they’re using this intimidation, this scare tactic with Illinois citizens in Illinois voters. I want to hear the answer to this question today.
* OK, on to Gov. Pritzker. The governor was asked today if he thought Stratton’s comments seemed like a threat…
No, that’s your characterization. Here’s what I would tell you. And I said this from the very beginning that there are three choices that are facing the people of Illinois right now, in order to deal with the structural deficit, that’s putting aside the need for state and local funding from the federal government because of the failure of revenues because of COVID-19. We already had a structural deficit in Illinois that you’re aware of. And there are three choices that people have. It’s either you’re gonna see a 20% increase, meaning one full percentage-point increase, in order to cover that structural deficit - by the way, that structural deficit that was there under my predecessor, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. Either that, or you’re going to see a 15% cut in government in our budget, which would significantly reduce education funding at the state level, and significantly, therefore, increase property taxes in the state, and would reduce funding for our public safety, all of which we need to address. And then the third, [crosstalk] and then the third choice, if I may just finish my answer, the third choice the third way, frankly, that we need to go not that the traditional routes, I agree with the you know, with people who understand the three, that we need to go another direction. And the best direction that we should go to deal with this is to make sure that we’re asking those who are most able to step up to pay to do so those are the wealthiest in our state, and to give a tax cut to 97% of people in Illinois. And that’s the direction that I think we ought to go in.
They haven’t been listening, because we’ve been doing it all along. You saw that we negotiated a contract with the unions that cut about $750 million in total from the budget. That’s something that Bruce Rauner never did. Never was willing to sit down at the table. Because of the health care cost cuts that we were able to bring enormous savings. That’s just one item in a whole panoply of other areas. We’ve done that. That’s not something Republicans have ever been interested in engaging in. All they want to do is attack, attack ,attack, and they want to take services away and pensions away from people in the state.
No, they’re the ones that are proposing annihilating the working class and the middle class in Illinois, because they have no solutions. I’ve said from the very beginning that the reason we need the fair tax is so we can avoid these other solutions. These are the ones the Republicans are leaving you with, the idea that you’re going to raise taxes on the middle class, working class; or that you’re going to cut the education, public safety, healthcare services that people rely upon. I mean, the developmentally disabled, all those line items would all be significantly cut if the Republicans had their way. I’m proposing something that will help us get past this problem, a problem that was in part created by them. And that left us with eight downgrades of our credit rating in the state of Illinois, just over the previous governor’s term.
He also said he remained hopeful that Congress would come up with a funding package before the election.
Before we begin, I want to acknowledge some news that came out this morning. We’ve learned that the courts have ruled against the Trump administration’s unjust attempts to and the census earlier. Here in Illinois, we are working diligently to ensure an accurate and complete count. And we will do so until the very end. And that means until the end of October.
* Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law press release early this morning…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last night issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to rush the 2020 Census to a close while a legal challenge to that plan plays out in the courts. The court’s order preliminarily enjoins the Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce from using a Sept. 30, 2020 deadline for the completion of data collection and a Dec. 31, 2020 deadline for processing and then reporting the census count to the President. Under the Court’s Order, the census count will continue through Oct. 31, as the Census Bureau had earlier planned, and its data processing will continue under a timeline that allows for a full, fair and accurate overall tabulation and reporting of the total population to the President..
District Judge Lucy H. Koh issued her ruling after a hearing Tuesday afternoon in National Urban League et al. v. Wilbur L. Ross Jr. et al., the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups, civil organizations and tribal and local governments on Aug. 18 to block the administration’s attempt to rush census operations to a close by Sept. 30 and send population numbers for apportionment to the President by Dec. 31. The plaintiffs sought to stop the Trump administration’s plan to force the Census Bureau to shorten the 2020 count against the judgment of the bureau’s own expert staff and in the middle of a pandemic. The court had already issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from shutting down its census operations while the court prepared the ruling it issued today.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are membership and advocacy organizations, counties, cities, federally-recognized Indian tribes and individuals whose communities will be underrepresented in the final census count if the administration succeeds in ending the 2020 Census data collection and processing prematurely. The plaintiffs are the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the League of Women Voters, the Navajo Nation, Gila River Indian Community, Harris County in Texas, Commissioners Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia of the Harris County Commissioners Court, King County in Washington, the city and county of Los Angeles, the cities of San Jose and Salinas (California) and the City of Chicago, Illinois.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Latham & Watkins, LLP, Public Counsel, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, the Office of the Salinas City Attorney, Edelson P.C., the Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Holland & Knight LLP.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges to the decennial census, including massive displacements of people, just as the count was getting underway. It upended all census field operations and undermined outreach to populations that the bureau has long struggled to count, including racial and ethnic minorities, non-English speakers and undocumented persons.
Bureau officials requested an extension of census data collection, processing, and reporting deadlines to accommodate a Covid-19 plan that President Trump publicly supported, and spent multiple months acting on that plan. But on Aug. 3, Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham abruptly announced that the data-collection would stop on Sept. 30, a full month short of the time census officials had previously said was necessary to complete the count.
The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s new, accelerated census timeline cuts a crucial four weeks from the actual count and four months from the time for processing and reporting the data used to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives. The abrupt change disregards the bureau’s own plans for dealing with the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also undermine the quality and accuracy of the census as well as produce a massive undercount of communities of color.
The lawsuit argues that the administration’s attempts to rush the census to a close pose a grave threat to the vital functions that rely on census data, from reapportioning the House of Representatives and redrawing state and local electoral districts to equitably distributing over $1.5 trillion annually in federal funds that support basic needs like education, food and health care.
The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare the decision to scuttle the census COVID-19 plan unlawful because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the Enumeration Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
The suit asks the court to keep the 2020 Census on the schedule proposed by census officials in April in response to Covid-19. Under that plan, the bureau would complete the census, including door-knocking, by Oct. 31, 2020, and deliver apportionment numbers to the president by April 30, 2021. Redistricting data would be reported to the states by July 31, 2021. [Emphasis added.]
* This is just a stay, but if that July 31st redistricting data reporting timeline holds up, it would not be good for Illinois. From the state constitution…
In the year following each Federal decennial census year, the General Assembly by law shall redistrict the Legislative Districts and the Representative Districts.
If no redistricting plan becomes effective by June 30 of that year, a Legislative Redistricting Commission shall be constituted not later than July 10. The Commission shall consist of eight members, no more than four of whom shall be members of the same political party. [Emphasis added.]
Notice, though, that the constitution doesn’t specifically require that the latest census numbers be used for the new map. They might try to use the 2010 census if push comes to shove - at least for the first two years.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,514 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
• Cook County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
• Cumberland County: 1 female 80s
• DuPage County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s
• Green County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s
• Jersey County: 1 male 90s
• Kane County: 1 male 50s
• Menard County: 1 male 90s
• Richland County: 1 male 80s
• Saline County: 1 male 70s
• St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
• Tazewell County: 1 female 70s
• Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
• Williamson County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 283,885 cases, including 8,563 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 18 – September 24 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 69,793 specimens for a total of 5,363,471. As of last night, 1,637 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 371 patients were in the ICU and 124 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 17 counties in Illinois are considered to be at a warning level for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A county enters a warning level when two or more COVID-19 risk indicators that measure the amount of COVID-19 increase.
Seventeen counties are currently reported at a warning level – Bond, Boone, Cass, Christian, Clinton, Crawford, DeWitt, Fayette, Grundy, Hamilton, Macon, Menard, Peoria, Putnam, Washington, Wayne, and Winnebago.
Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with university and college parties as well as college sports teams, large gatherings and events, bars and clubs, weddings and funerals, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools, and cases among the community at large.
Public health officials are observing people not social distancing, gathering in large groups, and not using face coverings. Some communities lack access to convenient testing before people become symptomatic. In some counties, local law enforcement and states’ attorneys are not enforcing important mitigation measures like social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. Additionally, some people refuse to participate in contact tracing and are not providing information on close contacts or answering the phone.
Several counties are taking swift action and implementing mitigation measures to help slow spread of the virus, including increasing testing opportunities, stressing the importance of testing to providers, hiring additional contact tracers, working with schools, meeting with local leaders, and educating businesses and large venues about the importance of mitigation measures.
IDPH uses numerous indicators when determining if a county is experiencing stable COVID-19 activity, or if there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county. A county is considered at the warning level when at least two of the following metrics triggers a warning.
COVID-19 County Metrics
• New cases per 100,000 people. If there are more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county, this triggers a warning.
• Number of deaths. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly number of deaths increases more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly test positivity. This metric indicates a warning when the 7-day test positivity rate rises above 8%.
• ICU availability. If there are fewer than 20% of intensive care units available in the region, this triggers a warning.
• Weekly emergency department visits. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly percent of COVID-19-like-illness emergency department visits increase by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly hospital admissions. A warning is triggered when the weekly number of hospital admissions for COVID-19-like-illness increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Tests performed. This metric is used to provide context and indicate if more testing is needed in the county.
• Clusters. This metric looks at the percent of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks and is used to understand large increase in cases.
These metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do. The metrics are updated weekly, from the Sunday-Saturday of the prior week.
A map and information of each county’s status can be found on the IDPH website at https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics.
If you live in Reid McCollum’s neighborhood you’ll want to keep an eye over your shoulder.
The 37-year-old Democratic activist has a habit of taking photos from his house Bodin Street home overlooking Dietz Park in Hinsdale.
McCollum has taken to snapping photos of children in the park, sometimes those in early grade school, and posting them to Facebook asking for his followers to shame the children and their parents publicly for not wearing masks and playing outside.
“Dietz Park right now,” Reid said in a recent Facebook post. “This is almost every day. If you know their parents shame them.”
Reid has also been posting the photos to Twitter.
Not cool. At all. Creepy, even. Yuck.
* Jeanne Ives followed up with a Facebook video. Here’s the intro…
One of Sean Casten’s operatives recently took photos of other people’s kids playing in a Hinsdale park and posted them to Twitter, saying “If you know their parents, shame them.” Reveille is a wake up call, but the attitudes of Casten’s Crew are truly alarming.
Who puts innocent pictures of children playing on their Facebook and says, ‘I’m going to shame you’? That is terrible.
I actually agree with her. However, there’s just one little thing.
* Prairie State Wire is a publication owned by the same folks who own the DuPage Policy Journal. And you may recall this recent PSW story…
While Gov. J.B. Pritzker has used his executive authority to cancel high school sports for kids across the state this fall, apparently this rule does not apply to his daughter.
Parents have been rallying across the state and at the state capital in an attempt to have the football season reinstated.
Meanwhile, Pritzker’s 18-year-old daughter, Theodora “Teddi” Pritzker, who formerly attended Francis W. Parker in Chicago, has continued to engage in equestrian sports across the country since the state was locked down, including in Illinois.
Teddi is the only daughter of Illinois’ billionaire first family. She jumps horses competitively in the Medium Junior division with Team Welles and is featured on the team’s website.
The story includes photos of the governor’s kid.
* One of those photos was used in a recent Ives tweet about that story…
The number of patients in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19 hit 1,713 as of Wednesday night, the highest number since mid-June, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
On June 18, there were 1,852 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and tallies had diminished since then. The state’s hospitals were most crowded with virus sufferers in the spring with counts in the high 4,000s and more than 5,000 on a few days.
The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds as of Wednesday was 400, the highest since June 29 when 401 people with the virus were in intensive care. However, 35% of Illinois’ hospital beds and 38% of ICU beds were available as of Thursday, the IDPH reported. […]
The spike in hospitalizations could be connected with Labor Day, Sept. 7, said Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital physician Daniel Boyle.
According to the latest IDPH numbers, Region 8, which encompasses DuPage and Kane counties, is down to 25 percent availability for intensive care units. Region 6, which is eastern and southeastern Illinois, is down to 24 percent ICU availability.
* As we discussed the other day, a poll conducted September 17-20 for the Betsy Dirksen Londrigan campaign has President Trump trailing by 7 points in the 13th Congressional District, 51-44. Trump won that district four years ago by 5.5 points. With that in mind…
Today, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign released its fifth television ad, “Real,” which dives into Congressman Rodney Davis’ record of voting to gut health protections for Central Illinois families. Illinois Trump Campaign Co-Chair Rodney Davis has voted with the Trump agenda 91% of the time, including the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, in contrast to Dirksen Londrigan who is committed to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care and preserving the ACA and the Essential Health Benefits that Illinois families rely on.
The 30-second ad will air in the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur media market as part of a districtwide buy that includes broadcast, cable, and digital platforms.
Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement and repeatedly voted in support of a lawsuit that could lead to the Supreme Court overturning the Affordable Care Act by the end of 2020. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would strip health care coverage from millions, including more than 31,000 in the 13th District, and remove protections from more than 282,500 13th District residents with pre-existing conditions. The repeal would also roll back funding for Medicaid Expansion and risk the closure of rural hospitals, including many in Central Illinois.
“A Supreme Court controlled by Donald Trump could overturn the Affordable Care Act by the end of the year,” said the narrator. “Rodney Davis won’t help us. He votes with Trump and the drug and insurance industries that gave him over $770,000. Davis voted 11 times to gut protections for pre-existing conditions.”
“With the fate of the Affordable Care Act now more uncertain than ever, we can’t trust Rodney Davis to protect our health care,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “Davis has voted 11 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement which would gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and strip health care coverage from millions. We need representatives like Betsy Dirksen Londrigan who will fight to ensure everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Executive Director at St Clair County HD admitted negative test results are not factored into positivity rate
The video below shows a question and answer to what is going on with the bad math on the positivity rate.
Barb Hohlt, executive director at St Clair County health department basically says no the negatives aren’t counted. You can hear her answer to the question at 18:35.
Here we go again.
* From the referenced video…
Q: Is it true that private testing companies are not required to report negative results to the state of Illinois? And if that’s the case does it screw up our numbers?
A: In the state of Illinois, all labs are required to report positive cases of communicable disease to the local health department, the positive cases. The majority of the labs in Illinois report to what we call the ELR - Electronic Lab Reporting System. The majority of them do, especially the larger ones that do the majority of testing in Illinois. Our friends across the river and here at Memorial, BJC is working on becoming a part of that electronic lab recording system. So when we do our daily stats for St Clair County, we get a separate report from BJC that we report in our daily stats, along with the ones that we get through ELR from IDPH. But our daily reports are as accurate as they can be. Because they’re measured on the actual lab report, positive or negative, that we get into our health department. So those are the ones we were acting upon but again those positive ones are all reported, are they’re negative ones that aren’t? That is true. We’re trying to work on that to get everyone into the ER system.
Q: Barb, you’re not just sitting there, the health department’s not just sitting there waiting for information to come in. All of your people are out working hard, mining this information every day to put forth the most accurate number possible. So you’re grabbing numbers from everywhere and putting them in a system to get this number that we talk about every day, which is you proudly say is the most accurate number that you can get on St. Clair County’s positivity rate.
A: Absolutely. Every single day, seven days a week we have staff that are working on what’s coming in as paper reports and fax reports, and what’s coming in through the [garbled] computer system, and on a daily basis we call long term care facilities to get their updates as well. And we gather the most current up information we can every single day. So those are the numbers we report to you.
* Jordan Abudayyeh from the governor’s office…
We don’t use positives that are not on the ELR system to calculate regional positivity rates. We only report data when we have complete sets. People who report positives manually are not counted towards a region’s positivity rate. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
To be clear, this was not an “official” response. We were texting about the situation and there was no groundrule set about off or on the record.
