* Gov. Pritzker began his news media briefing today by talking about this press release…
Building on a robust, statewide effort to ensure Illinois can safely reopen, Governor Pritzker announced the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative, a locally-driven approach to scale up contact tracing in Illinois.
“With Illinois’ daily availability of testing among the best in the nation, we want to grow our voluntary contact tracing so we can further control and reduce the rate of spread of COVID-19 and stop outbreaks in their tracks,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Knowing if you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 gives everyday Illinoisans the ability to keep their families and co-workers and friends safe by helping them seek testing or self-isolate, and it helps us build a public health system that truly supports them if their exposure leads to actual infection.”
The state is immediately engaging two local health departments to pilot this initiative: St. Clair County in the Metro East region and Lake County in the Northeast region. These local health departments were chosen for having significant needs in terms of case numbers in vulnerable populations, a robust capacity for tracing, and great existing collaborations of public health personnel, medical students and volunteers already on the ground.
Additionally, IDPH sent assessments to the state’s 97 local health departments with half already sending back their initial assessments regarding their ability to expand and deploy their contact tracing capabilities. Beginning today, IDPH will be sending out asks for workplans and budgets from all of these departments – allowing Illinois to incorporate their plans into the state’s overall plans and bringing them online in the coming weeks.
In every region and across the state, the curriculum, software, and technology will be IDPH-driven, and IDPH will support the funding for new hires at local health departments where needed through federal CARES money and Disaster Relief Act funding.
This will be a tech-based approach that will innovate and scale up existing systems. Illinois will be implementing a state-of-the-art project management and comprehension tool, to collect and hold all raw information relating to contact tracing for COVID-19 and providing forward-facing relationship management software for deployment throughout the state. This personal contact management software will allow all local health departments to work on one platform, and allow IDPH to operate with an aggregated, real-time sense of where COVID-19 is in Illinois.
IDPH has also brought on Partners in Health –a world-renowned organization for building strong community-based health systems. Partners in Health is behind what has become known as the “Massachusetts model” for what scaling up a contact tracing operation looks like. As one of the group’s earliest out-of-state collaborations, Illinois has learned what worked, what didn’t, and what challenges they continue to face as they design a community-based program in Massachusetts. Partners in Health will continue to advise IDPH on the state’s program design and how best to tailor it to all of Illinois’ communities.
All hires will be made locally, not through IDPH, and salaries will be determined by local health departments in accordance with salary rates in the region. Those interested in becoming a contact tracer can indicate their interest through IDPH, which will deliver names and resumes to local health departments. That interest form can be found on the IDPH website at dph.illinois.gov/COVID19.
Now that testing has ramped up, only about 29% of our known cases are engaged in a tracing process. That’s a number we want to push as high as possible, to the industry standard of over 60%. Given the sheer scale of our population’s widespread susceptibility to COVID-19, we can’t get there with our existing infrastructure alone. So what we’re building in Illinois is a tech-based approach that innovates and scales up an existing system. Illinois has 97 county and city health departments. They are the foundational elements of the new Illinois contact tracing collaborative.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* Back to the governor…
For business owners who have decided to put people at risk by not following our gradual reopening plan or a limited set of warnings, and then penalties that can be invoked. Let’s use a restaurant and bar as an example. Before today for a restaurant and bar that refuses to comply after communication from law enforcement or even after a cease and desist letter, the state can revoke the business’s liquor license or impose a closure order by IDPH. Those are expensive measures for a business to come back from. They’re not preferred by anyone, least of all me.
Under the current Illinois Department of Public Health Act, the business violates an IDPH rule puts public health at risk, the business has committed a class a misdemeanor. That’s the existing law, in fact, last week and last year. Under that existing law, law enforcement can issue a citation to the business.
An emergency rule requiring businesses to follow the existing stay at home border has now been put in place. This additional enforcement tool, the citation is less harm to a business than a total shutdown, or a loss of a license. It gives local governments and law enforcement the ability to do their job. Many other states have enforcement tools like this. Not Illinois until now. This rule can only impact a business, not individuals, and is a response to only a select type of violation. It cannot be used for example to regulate individual conduct like not wearing a face cover.
As with any misdemeanor offense, local officers can use their discretion and state’s attorneys can apply the facts and the law, fairly on a case by case basis, like they do every day.
For those businesses operating in the best interests of the health of their communities, nothing has changed. You’re part of the 99% of Illinois businesses that are following our gradual reopening plan, a plan that is based on the data and is likely to move all of Illinois into phase three and reopen thousands of businesses, only 11 days from now.
* What encouraged you to make this emergency rule, what was the straw that kind of broke the camel’s back?…
Really, it was just to give another tool to law enforcement, it wasn’t that there was a straw that broke the camel’s back, it was that you know we don’t want to have to pull licenses for people. We don’t want to have to shut a business down. What we really want is for people that comply. And we want to give them, this type of citation as an alternative.
* How far are you willing to go to enforce your orders. And also, will you direct state police forces and communities that have said they’re either will not or cannot enforce your executive order?…
Well this is within the existing law, the Illinois Department of Public Health Act. So, that’s the extent to which we’re seeking to enforce the law. You’ve seen that I’m very interested in reopening businesses across the state in a safe and healthy fashion. And we’re on our way to being able to do that. But there are people who are endangering people in their own communities. And we want it to be able to give again, local officials local law enforcement, the ability to do what they need.
* Has anyone received misdemeanor charges over the weekend? And can you respond to criticism that this is an overreach of your authority?…
Well, again, this is a citation you know you’ve heard of a traffic citation. This is another kind of citation. I do not, I’m not aware of anybody having received one over the weekend. […]
Well it’s in the law today it’s in the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, so there’s not an overreach here. And in fact, it gives us a lighter enforcement mechanism than the ones that already exist.
* Ford workers have reached out furious that the company is reopening, are worried that they may contract COVID-19, is this type of work appropriate during this phase of the stay at home order, what’s your message for concern for workers?…
Well, actually vehicle manufacturers are covered under the Department of Homeland Security’s list of essential businesses, so they already did have the ability to remain open all of this time. I’m hopeful that people can get back to work at the Ford plant in Illinois and not to mention the Chrysler Fiat plant in Belvidere. And so you know I want to see manufacturers and other businesses open up as we hit as we get to phase three about 11 days from now.
* A question about harness racing, many owners believe that they can do it safely through social distancing no crowds at the track, are you looking at, possibly, allowing Hawthorne and Arlington to reopen for online gambling?…
Yeah, we’re looking at all the alternatives here, you know you’ve heard that major league sports, for example, I think rightly so have said, well we can’t get crowds together in a stadium, but they can run their games and and televised and so on. And that’s true with horse racing potentially as well. So we’re definitely having conversations, they have the racing board, our office as well as the leaders in the horse racing industry, including harness racing.
* Your reaction to businesses adding surcharges to bills, added expenses due to COVID-19?…
I don’t know how to react to that I mean I know that businesses are suffering and they’re trying to figure out how they can open. You know and operate profitably with downsides number of people potentially in their business so I you know I don’t want to encourage that people are hurting people are shopping especially for essential items certainly should not be charged a surcharge for that. But I’m not aware of what the businesses are that are attempting to do that. And I would just suggest that they’d be careful about it.
* Can you provide more specifics on Friday [IDES] system data breach? How long was the sensitive information out there, many people’s information was exposed, what’s been done to fix this issue?…
Well first of all, we are doing and have been doing a full investigation of the matter. It’s important that we identify all of those who are affected by that breach of this is, as you know, has happened in large corporations and other aspects of other governments around the United States and we don’t like it happening here. Deloitte which built that system and obviously the glitch that was in there is something that that was a result of the work that was done to build it, but they are offering credit reporting for all of those who are affected by it to make sure that they can monitor their credit, in case there’s any problem that they may undergo. But we are still investigating the number of people who are affected by it and want to make sure that we that we get the system, completely kind of half proof and and safe.
* There are questions that have surfaced about several companies have [ties] to health as well the third business that are providing COVID testing in Illinois and elsewhere, are owned by the Pritzker group, are you personally profiting in any way?…
Well, as you know, Marianne, you know, three years ago when I decided to run for governor, I put it all assets in the trust form, and they continue to be in that form. And so I’m not involved, I really don’t even know the engagement of those businesses and any thing that has to do with this and you know, I’m really three years from having had any knowledge about any of those.
* Will you shut down general iron in Chicago after this morning’s explosion. Why is it being considered an essential business?…
The EPA is looking into it, I know the city of Chicago has jurisdiction as well. So you know we’re actually, as you can imagine, paying very close attention. I want to make sure that people are kept safe. I’m unaware of what the latest is on the matter but it’s certainly something of great concern to me.
But why is it being considered an essential business that’s being allowed to stay open right now?…
Let me just say that the Department of Homeland Security’s list of essential businesses is roughly what we use as the baseline for our list of essential businesses. And I would have to refer you to the Department of Homeland Security for the reasoning behind that particular business. Again we were trying to find kind of followed national emergency protocols here when we’re in. And that’s the essential business lists that we used as our base.
* Churches in Chicago continue to host services. Is there anything you’re looking to do to increase enforcement enforcement and to stop that from happening in Chicago and elsewhere?…
I’m extraordinarily reluctant to, you know, talk about whether it’s the city of Chicago or anywhere in the state, to interfere with a service that’s ongoing. What we have tried to do is communicate and educate leaders and parishioners. Look, the job here is to keep people safe. I want people also to be able to worship. There are many ways in which to do that. [Audio degraded and transcription wasn’t very good, so I’m skipping the rest of this answer.]
* Data shows fewer people are obeying the stay at home order. Do you expect another surge in cases this summer?…
I don’t know if I expected exactly but I’m deeply concerned about it’s the reason why we’re following this very gradual plan. It makes sure that we have a health care capacity to deal with any kind of surges. But yeah, if people don’t follow the plan, or if people don’t wear face coverings when they’re out in public as directed, more people are going to get coronavirus, COVID-19 and I’m deeply… honestly it’s when I wake up thinking about, go to bed thinking about, you know, how do we keep people safe. I know that it’s, we have beautiful days that are coming throughout the summer and people want to be outside wherever they are in the state, they want to be together gathering. And we just want them to do everything they can to keep themselves safe. So, we’ll keep monitoring and hope people will follow the rules, and I think we’ll be able to make it through the fall and then I must say that I’m concerned about all of the warnings that have been given by epidemiologists about the potential first surge this fall. Because if people don’t learn the lessons over the summer that we’ve learned over the last couple of months and we hit a fall surge, I mean, we’re going to be in big trouble.
* Could you please explain why without any public notice or discussion you over the weekend filed a new regulation establishing a misdemeanor offense for businesses which reopen despite your shutdown order? Even if this is needed why do it this way?…
I think you understand why we put it in place. It was a tool, as I described for law enforcement. We were working on it during the week, we issued it on Friday. And it’s something that, it doesn’t establish a new misdemeanor. The misdemeanor is already in the law so it was simply a change of rules.
* Do you think there should be legislation passed this week during session to further clarify your powers under the stay at home order extension or also your reopening plan?…
I think that we’re on a good path, we’ve got a Restore Illinois plan, and that puts us on a good path to reopen it. And so I think existing legislation has been good enough.
So I’m not seeking anything from the legislature. And to be honest with you, there’s so little time that the legislature is likely to be in session here, I think it’s going to have to be focused on the very basics like a budget.
* Are you worried about you or your family’s safety after anti semitic hate speech was used during protests over the weekend?…
Yes, I have to admit that I am worried about my family’s safety. You saw some of the signs, you saw the vehemence that people are carrying those signs with swastikas and pictures of Adolph Hitler, references to me and my family.
Yeah, I’m concerned. But I also want you to know that I am undeterred, the path that we’re on. I think we’re doing the right thing and the vast majority of people in Illinois are doing the right thing, and indeed you’re seeing it in the numbers. Just look at what is happening, and it’s happening because everybody banded together, following the rules. Do you know to do what was necessary to keep each other safe.
I hear that there are people that are planning to show up in Springfield in the legislature not wearing a mask. I’m thinking about what that says, right, because a mask isn’t designed to protect you. It’s designed to protect the people you’re with. So, like callous disregard for people’s health that those legislators demonstrate is, you know, and those were the same legislators that showed up at those rallies with those swastikas and those pictures of Hitler, and they were perfectly willing to stand up and speak in front of that crowd, that was okay with them. I mean, you know it’s not okay with me, and they are in fact putting people in danger. One of those speakers, the GOP US Senate candidate actually called out Senator Dick Durbin’s home address and told people they should go to his house and surround it. Dangerous.
* On Friday at a hearing over representative Darren Bailey’s lawsuit, the Clay County Court deputies were not enforcing social distancing or mask rules. Will ISP get involved with local officials who do not enforce your new rule or if the social distancing or mask rules as well?…
That’s not the role of ISP. We know that state’s attorneys and law enforcement around the state, vast majority of them are doing the right thing and enforcing the right way. In Clay County, I mean, it speaks for itself but the decision that was made in that courtroom a couple of weeks ago and you know continuing a, say, disregard for the law in Illinois.
* Governor since the beginning of this you have said quote lives over livelihoods, why are they mutually exclusive?…
They’re not. What I have been focused on Dave is making sure that the balance weighs in favor of keeping people safe. That the job here is to make sure that while we’re reopening the economy. At the beginning of this thing, we didn’t know how fast it was this was going to affect the population and you’ve seen it move pretty fast. We didn’t know how fast it was going to take people from being well, to being on a ventilator and dying, and it moves reasonably fast. To say we’ve learned a lot in this process. But what I know is that every decision that I’ve had to make has been a difficult one, in part because I know there are things that we’ve had to do in CDC guidance that has affected people’s livelihoods and that disturbs me. And I want very badly for us to move ahead and let people get back to their livelihood. But most of all, I want them to stay alive while we do it.
* What are your thoughts on the 11 North Central counties part of Illinois reopening plan they say their plan includes more metrics than yours, but moves a little faster. They say IDPH approved of the methodology, why not allow them to proceed?…
Well, again, we’re talking about many many plans that have been submitted and I’ve read most of them, if not all. Some of them are well crafted there’s no doubt about it. But ultimately a decision had to be made about that, put a plan together for the entire state of Illinois and regionalize it. That’s what we did. And again, I know there are people who might like this to be done on a different grouping of counties or they might like to see certain cities open and not the rest of their counties. You know, I’m sure there are lots of ways to do this. But what we did was driven by again science and epidemiologists also with a [garbled] by me, for the real desire to open businesses, again with safety precautions and every step of the way.
* Some Republicans want the graduated tax off the ballot. Is there any chance you think the resolution gets a vote in the upcoming session? Are there any revised estimates to what anticipated revenues from a graduated tax would be for next fiscal year?…
I believe that the estimate for the revenue from the graduated income tax is over a billion dollars just for next year because it’s a truncated year as you know, and also a very unusual year in the history of the state.
But as to the likelihood of a vote being taken or a decision being made like that. I can’t speak to it, I can only say, I think it’s, you know, the GOP wants to keep people from voting on this, to keep people away from the ballot box says something about their lack of confidence in their position.
* About the new IDPH enforcement rule, do you think that that means the state’s getting tougher on enforcement given so many local jurisdictions and others are thumbing their nose at your EO, and how do you recommend social distancing and mask wearing during the legislative session?…
I think I answered the first part of that question earlier. And so I’ll just take the mask. I think, as I understand it, the House and the Senate both have required or asked all of their members to wear face coverings. I mean it makes eminent sense to me. I put a rule in place that requires people in public, where they can’t socially distance, groups of 10 or more to wear a mask. So I hope they will. I don’t know whether people will follow it or not. Most of the legislators that I talked to understand that it is necessary, it is something that is again about keeping the other people that you’re with safe.
* The Illinois restaurant association expects 20% of restaurants not to reopen following the shutdown, what has been done to help keep them afloat to avoid such a drastic closure?…
Well I think you’ve seen what the federal efforts have been, I would describe them as not good enough. PPP still has not reached many small businesses, many people couldn’t hire lawyers or accountants to get that PPP money. And so I think we here in Illinois, as we get support from the federal government for state local governments, and I’m somewhat optimistic that we will, we should use some of that to support these restaurants, particularly and bars, people that have had to stay closed longer than others. But it’s very important to me that we lift up these small businesses. It’s something I believe deeply and it’s something that I was engaged in before I became governor helping small businesses grow. And I know that the lifeblood of our future economic growth is in those small businesses, so we’re going to work on that in Springfield. I’ve talked to legislators about it. I’ve also talked to our federal officials about trying to get specific provisions in support laws that are being passed for restaurants, in particular.
* An agenda item for lawmakers this week is potential election legislation. What specific things would you like the General Assembly to address in an elections bill that might get sent your way?…
Most important thing and I’ve talked about it some number of times now, is we’ve got to give people the ability to vote by mail, make it much easier for people. Because at this point, I know that fewer people going to the ballot box in November, is better for all of us in terms of keeping people healthy and safe and so I’ve called upon the legislature and I know that many many members agree with this to pass legislation that will make it easier for people to vote by mail. So that’s the primary thing that I think we ought to be focused on when we get to Springfield. But no doubt there are some smaller important provisions. In order to keep our elections, safe, and I mean safe in a different way from hacking from, you know, interference, and so on. So, looking forward to seeing those ideas in legislation next week, or this week, later this week.
* Give a speech at a rally and then expect to be treated like a reporter? Nope…
I’ve been BLOCKED from @GovPritzker ‘s daily briefings. “Some”fellow reporters, egged on by Rick Pearson, have convinced @JordanAbudayyeh not to take my ?’s ever again. I WANT it in writing from their office! @MorningAnswer This was a ? I wanted answered. Got link from a friend pic.twitter.com/baCpOwvubc
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,294 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 59 additional deaths.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 96,485 cases, including 4,234 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 21,297 specimens for a total of 603,241. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate, May 9-15, 2020 is 14%.
*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. Information for deaths and counties previously reported have changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
As of last night, regarding hospital statistics, we had 4120 individuals in the hospital with a COVID-19 diagnosis. And of those, roughly a quarter, or 1096, were in the intensive care unit and 636 of those in the intensive care unit were on ventilators.
The new coronavirus has spread like wildfire, killed — and spared — people of all ages and all health conditions, baffled doctors, defied guidance and conventional wisdom, and produced an unprecedented array of symptoms.
There’s never been a virus like it.
“This gets into every major biological process in our cells,” said Nevan J. Krogan, a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied HIV, Ebola, Zika, dengue and other viruses over the last 13 years.
“At the molecular level, it’s something we’ve never seen before, and then look at what it does to the body — the long list of symptoms — we’ve never seen that before.”
A federal judge has modified her ruling that gave third-party and independent candidates for Illinois’ Nov. 3 election until Aug. 7 to submit petitions, instead ordering a deadline of July 20 to allow time for challenges and for the ballot to be printed.
But U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer left intact the portion of her April 23 order that those candidates only need to collect 10% of the previously required number of signatures and can collect them electronically because of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order.
Pallmeyer’s revised decision Friday came after attorneys for the state asked for a rehearing on her April order, which moved the filing deadline from June 22 to Aug. 7 and lowered the number of valid signatures needed to gain access to the ballot.
Residents of Chicago and the surrounding Cook County suburbs are now getting a D in social distancing from a New York City data firm that’s been grading the country on compliance with stay-at-home orders.
That’s a significant drop from late March, when the area got an A, but the difference is more about revisions to the grading system than a huge change in behavior. Unacast, the firm drawing the measurements from a sampling of cellphone data, toughened its criteria based on input from public health experts.
Grades also fell in many other locales across the country, including Chicago’s collar counties and Illinois as a whole. Some areas, however, fared better than the Chicago region. New York City, perhaps hit harder by COVID-19 than anywhere else in the United States, scored a B as of Monday.
* Gov JB Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh sent me a detailed response to some questions that I and others have raised about the governor’s Restore Illinois plan…
REGIONAL MAP
One of the points of the critics is that the regions are too big and it’s holding areas with few cases back.
• But right now, every region is in the green and on pace to move forward to the next phase, so this criticism doesn’t really hold up.
• We’ve heard criticisms from the suburbs that they don’t want to be grouped in with the city, but their own hospital capacity numbers are very similar to the city. If you look at a snapshot of numbers from this weekend of hospital capacity by the 11 EMS regions, pasted at the bottom of this email, you’ll notice that the capacities in the regions that have been grouped together for Restore Illinois are quite similar.
• We recognize the different experiences that more rural counties in the Northeast region have in comparison to the City of Chicago — but in terms of their EMS hospital capacity breakdown, they don’t have dramatically more capacity to handle moving forward before the rest of the region.
5.17 Hospital Data:
*This data is reflective of a snapshot in time on May 17th
Northeast Region:
• Southwest Suburbs/EMS Region 7
o ICU Beds: 23.9%
o Med/Surg Beds: 23.5%
• West Suburbs/EMS Region 8
o ICU Beds: 19%
o Med/Surg Beds: 19.8%
• Northwest Suburbs/EMS Region 9
o ICU Beds: 24.5%
o Med/Surg Beds: 20.5%
• North(east) Suburbs/EMS Region 10
o ICU Beds: 21.8%
o Med/Surg Beds: 17.7%
• City of Chicago/EMS Region 11
o ICU Beds: 21.7%
o Med/Surg Beds: 21.2%
None of the EMS regions in the Northeast Region have an ICU or Med/Surge capacity above 25 percent — a number not tied to Restore, but a stage that IDPH considers with an additional level of concern. Regions 8, 9, and 10 all have at least one measure where their availability is lower than that of the City of Chicago – only Region 7 can claim otherwise, and that’s by approximately 2 percentage points.
For the remaining three regions: all the EMS regions are well above the 14 percent capacity threshold for moving forward under the Restore Illinois plan. In other words, no EMS region is holding back the other EMS region it’s grouped with.
North-Central Region:
• Rockford Region/EMS Region 1
o ICU Beds: 45%
o Med/Surg Beds: 45.8%
• Peoria Region/EMS Region 2
o ICU Beds: 36.6%
o Med/Surg Beds: 36.9%
Central Region
• Springfield Region/EMS Region 3
o ICU Beds: 55%
o Med/Surg Beds: 54.6%
• Champaign Region/EMS Region 6
o ICU Beds: 52.2%
o Med/Surg Beds: 46.6%
Southern Region
• Edwardsville Region/EMS Region 4
o ICU Beds: 39.1%
o Med/Surg Beds: 44.9%
• Marion Region/EMS Region 5
o ICU Beds: 54.7%
o Med/Surg Beds: 58%
14 VS. 28 DAYS
The critics want regions to move forward in 14 days, not 28. They say 28 days is too long to wait.
• The experts don’t agree with those who want to move to reopening quickly.
o The shelved guidance from the CDC would have required a 14-day downward trajectory in health metrics.
o https://apnews.com/d4fb9744fb3524b6aaff1036f3ba9cd2
o The experts have said under this guidance no one is ready to move forward.
• The White House plan does mention a 28-day timeline when talking about travel. So, it’s not like it’s a made-up number.
o The White House plan recommends that communities “minimize” travel in Phase 1, and that in Phase 2, after 28 consecutive days of decline, “Non-essential travel can resume.”
o In fact, the shelved CDC guide advises communities to avoid all nonessential travel in phases of reopening until the last one, when cases are at the lowest levels. Even then, the CDC is cautious and advises only a “consideration” of the resumption of nonessential travel after 42 continuous days of declining cases of COVID-19.
o It’s clear the CDC would lean on the side of longer timelines, rather than shorter ones.
But other states are using 14-day metrics
• It’s important to note, that a lot (I’ll admit, not all) of the states using a 14-day timeline require a DECLINE in metrics, while our plan only requires stabilization.
• If we used a 14-day measurement Illinois wouldn’t move to the next phase anytime soon. Instead, our public health experts determined that as we phased out some restrictions if we could hold stable for 28 days (two incubation periods) we could move to a new phase.
• Also, important to note when comparing us to other states is that some of these states have peaked and are on the other side of their curve. There is no evidence that Illinois is coming off our peak or plateau yet.
o IN requires a 14-day decline in cases – IL would not meet that metric at this time
o KY requires a 14-day period of decreased cases
o NY requires a 14-day decline in hospitalization rates
o NC requires a decline in multiple metrics
o UT requires decreasing trends for 1 week and observe a decreasing trend for 5 weeks to reach a normal risk level.
• Not every state is using 14 days
o WA uses a 21-day metric
o Washington state did three weeks with this reasoning: “The state will stay in every phase for a minimum of three weeks. During that time, the Department of Health and the Governor will re-evaluate the above indicators and determine if the state should remain in the current phase, advance to the next phase or return to the previous phase. No phase will last less than three weeks before moving to the next phase, in order to allow one complete disease incubation period plus an additional week to compile complete data and confirm trends.
o https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/SafeStartWA_4May20_1pm.pdf
• We don’t pretend it’s a good thing that there’s such a patchwork of requirements and phases across the nation. In a scenario of proper national governance — one where the CDC playbook doesn’t get shelved — we wouldn’t have a situation where Illinoisans can hop across the border into Missouri or Indiana and live a different lifestyle. The rules might be different, but the consequences are the same.
• Data lags and it could take longer to see the impact of lifting mitigation measures appear in the data. More time means we know more, especially since moving to the next phase doesn’t require a decline.
o Scientists learn new things about this virus constantly — to date, research indicates that symptoms tend to appear for people, on average, approximately 5 days after infection — but hospitalization looks to be around 8 days (former FDA commissioner). Given that infections that lead to hospitalizations are the driving concern of all our mitigation efforts, 14 days — less than one infection → hospitalization cycle — isn’t a lot of time to make sweeping decisions about reopening.
o The novel virus is still being studied and there are discussions about how long the incubation period might need to be adjusted: https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-symptoms-24-days-after-infection-2020-2
* From Rep. Edgar Gonzalez’s (D-Chicago) Facebook page…
In preparation for a special session to vote for much needed legislation to be convened in Springfield this Wednesday, May 20th, I underwent testing for COVID-19.
Unfortunately, I tested positive. I was hoping to return to Springfield and work with my colleagues to provide relief for all of Illinois. I will not be attending the session and I have immediately begun to self-quarantine at home for the safety of my colleagues, my constituents, my family, and myself.
My neighborhood has been one of the hardest hit by this pandemic, and it angers me that people are not taking COVID-19 seriously. People’s disbelief and indifference to the stay-at-home order and CDC guidelines is putting working families and frontline workers at risk. The intransigence of the president to acknowledge we have a crisis highlights the need for relief at the state level. I urge my colleagues to vote for the best package for all of Illinois and I urge you to take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
I will still be working from home during my self-quarantine. My team is still available for your concerns and needs.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Representative.
So, with Rep. Carroll self-quarantining after coming in close contact with someone who has the virus, that’s two House Democrats who won’t be at session that we know of so far.
A downstate judge on Friday denied the attorney general office’s request to move to Sangamon County a Republican representative’s lawsuit challenging Gov. JB Pritzker’s authority to issue successive disaster proclamations.
Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, filed his case on April 23 alleging the governor overstepped his power by declaring more than one state of emergency to address the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
The state argued the move was warranted because the county is the seat of Illinois government, the case has statewide implications and relevant witnesses are located in the county.
Thomas DeVore, Bailey’s attorney, argued in a court document that the state’s request reflects its “motion for substitution of judge cloaked as a forum change for ‘convenience.’”
Devore wrote that the appeal for venue change is being used as a “vehicle for Pritzker to forum shop for a favorable ear,” when such a request would properly be used as “a device to remedy a situation in which the existing forum is truly inconvenient for all parties.”
[Judge McHaney] referenced a 2002 Illinois Supreme Court case, First American Bank v. Guerine, which clarified the standard judges should follow when considering a forum non conveniens request to move a case from the plaintiff’s preferred venue.
In that ruling, the justices said one of their concerns was “curtailing forum shopping by plaintiffs.” Judges must give more weight to the plaintiff’s choice of venue unless the defendant can show that forum is inconvenient to the defendant and that another forum is more convenient to all the parties.
McHaney said the concern of forum shopping also applies to defendants.
“Now, I’m not accusing you, defense, of judge-shopping, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” McHaney said in court Friday.
Finally, McHaney said, “this case needs to be heard. I mean now.” Bailey attorney Tom DeVore told the judge he would file a summary judgment motion Monday, and the judge set a hearing for Friday.
The judge told the lawyers, “I don’t need to hear two days of testimony from a medical expert that if these executive orders aren’t continued the world is going to end. I don’t need to hear that. This is a legal issue, a legal argument on whether this governor had the authority to issue this executive order under Illinois law and pursuant to the Illinois Constitution. Period. That ain’t hard.”
The judge also overruled complaints from Verticchio that the state wouldn’t have time to prepare for the hearing by Friday, insisting that, “it’s not asking too much pursuant to the citizens of this state that every hour that goes by they’re being deprived of the right to leave their house or make a living.”
Lawmakers announced a resolution Monday to withdraw a $3.7 billion progressive income tax hike from the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot.
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Illinois Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady introduced the resolution to remove from the ballot.
The measure would ask voters to scrap the state’s flat income tax for a graduated one. The accompanying Senate Bill 687, also passed during the last legislative session, would implement introductory tax rates ranging from 4.75% to 7.99% starting Jan. 1, 2021.
Illinois Policy Institute pointed to the fact that small businesses and households have been significantly impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some lawmakers said a progressive income tax would exacerbate the economic downturn people are already enduring.
Illinois Policy Institute research shows more than 100,000 small businesses, which file as “pass-through” entities, would see tax hikes of up to 47% under the current proposed progressive income tax.
* Jordan Abudayyeh…
By pushing this resolution, the Republican leaders are using the coronavirus pandemic to advocate for silencing the voices of Illinoisans who now have the opportunity to vote on reforming our tax system. If the Republican leaders believe so strongly that the wealthiest Illinoisans can’t afford to pay their fair share then they should make their case to the voters instead of advocating for them to be removed from the process.
* From the Illinois Business Alliance, which claims to be a “member-driven business league” but doesn’t disclose its membership and is run by a former Illinois Policy Institute chief of staff…
“All across our state, thousands of small business owners dutifully closed their doors to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, and many remain closed today. Small business owners have been forced to lay off employees and over 1 million Illinoisans are unemployed today. Business owners have used personal savings or applied for loans to try and preserve their businesses so they can attempt re-opening when the governor’s closure orders are lifted. Sadly, many small businesses face the prospect of closing forever if they are not allowed to re-open soon.
“As the Illinois Business Alliance has said repeatedly, these are the very same small businesses that would face higher taxes under Gov. Pritzker’s graduated income tax. Raising taxes on small businesses at this time is wrong – morally and economically.
* From the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which I do not think has ever met a tax hike it didn’t find a way to like, but still has some reliable numbers…
Hypothetically, if all of the 189,133 taxpayers earning more than $250,000 in income were all sole-proprietors (which they are not), that would amount to just 15% of all small businesses paying more in taxes, while the remaining 85% of small business owners would still pay the same or less under the Fair Tax.
S-Corps and partnerships are taxed the same as sole proprietorships, with the addition of the PPRT. Under the current tax structure, S-Corps and partnerships are also subject to a flat rate income tax of 4.95 percent plus the additional PPRT rate of 1.5%. This is a combined rate of 6.45%. Under the Fair Tax legislation, the combined effective tax rate would range from 6.25% to 6.45% for taxable income less than $250,000 and 6.45% to 8.36% (8.6% if filing jointly) for taxable income greater than $250,000. […]
More so, in 2017, the median income for individuals self-employed at their own incorporated business was $52,020 and for individuals self-employed at their own unincorporated businesses, the median income was $25,453 — far below where taxpayers would see in increase in their marginal tax rates.
Furthermore, according to 2017 IRS data, the average income for partnerships and S-Corporations in Illinois was $65,883. The top 5% of those businesses had an average income of $201,878. The top 1% of those businesses had an average income of $433,299. This means that somewhere between the top 1% and top 5% of businesses, by share of income, would see a tax rate increase. While the businesses in the top 1% could see an effective tax rate increase from 6.45% to 7.62% (including PPRT), that is far from the misrepresented 47% increase often touted by the Illinois Policy Institute. That 47% increase would only apply to, at most, 0.3% of taxpayers with taxable business income over $1 million — assuming all of the 0.3% of taxpayers are small businesses, which they are not — leaving more than 99.7% of small businesses to see a far smaller percentage increase, and 97% of small businesses to see no increase at all.
…Adding… ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider…
If Governor Pritzker is so convinced that small businesses and people need to pay more, he should start the process of raising more revenue by bringing back to America the billions in inherited wealth he has stashed away in offshore accounts.
Unlike Pritzker, average Illinoisans don’t have billions of dollars in wealth to hide away in secret tax havens in low-tax countries in the Caribbean. Instead of asking middle class Illinoisans to pay more, he should lead by example and allow the state of Illinois to tax his billions at the same rate he wants small businesses to pay.
But alas, Pritzker never will because he believes in one set of rules for him and his family and another set of rules for everyone else.
Under a 2012 law designed to keep the company from leaving the state, Sears was required to maintain at least 4,250 employees at its sprawling offices in Hoffman Estates and a small satellite office in Chicago. In return, the retail icon received tax breaks worth an estimated $275 million.
But as the company fired hundreds of employees in the years leading up to its 2018 bankruptcy, Sears grew increasingly concerned about maintaining the tax breaks, according to interviews and internal corporate documents.
Company officials began counting baristas, fast-food workers and janitors who worked at Sears headquarters but weren’t employed by the company, records show.
Sears’ counting methods have raised doubts about the legitimacy of millions of dollars in property tax rebates that the company received from Hoffman Estates. A local school district has filed a lawsuit against Sears for $43 million, charging it overcounted the number of employees and collected public money that it should not have received.
The disputed tallies also reveal uneven enforcement by state and local officials, who allowed tax dollars to flow to Sears while ignoring signs — including substantial annual losses, store closures and public notices of mass layoffs — that the fading retail giant was struggling to maintain the required head count.
Politicians who helped draft the tax deals said they were designed to save thousands of well-paying corporate jobs at Sears. Contractors, landscapers and temporary employees deployed to work at Sears-owned properties were never meant to help the company qualify for tax breaks.
“The intention was to include, or count, jobs of Sears employees and staff,” said state Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates, who drafted the legislation to extend Sears’ tax breaks and once served on the village board. […]
To obtain the [$150 million over 10 years] state tax credits, Sears filed yearly reports with the economic development agency to show the company had maintained more than the 4,250-employee benchmark.
The economic development agency had the ability to review the count or conduct on-site visits. But when ProPublica and the Daily Herald asked the agency for evidence of its monitoring of Sears since the agreement began, the department provided a single, four-page audit, paid for by Sears and dated May 2015. The audit found that 25 employees randomly selected by Sears were listed on the company’s payrolls. But it also warned that the findings were not “an opinion on compliance.”
There is no other indication the agency tried to determine if Sears was holding up its end of the deal, even as it annually disbursed approximately $15 million in tax credits. […]
In June 2017, Sears eliminated 375 more corporate jobs. Now, there was little question. Sears was at least 215 employees short of its minimum head count for eligibility for the state credits — a fact acknowledged by Howard Riefs, a Sears spokesman at the time.
That month, state officials decided to suspend Sears’ tax credits, refusing to provide nearly $15 million in payroll tax rebates that the company believed it was owed. Sears fought back, threatening to file a lawsuit. The two sides settled in December 2017, splitting the difference. Sears got tax credits for 2016 but agreed not to ask for any more for 2017. Sears is no longer receiving the credits.
Meanwhile, Sears told Hoffman Estates a different story.
M.R.030382
- In re: Rod R. Blagojevich. Disciplinary Commission.
Motion by the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to approve and confirm the report and recommendation of the Hearing Board. Allowed. Respondent Rod R. Blagojevich is disbarred.
“They said this was all about flattening the curve. I think we flattened the curve,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said. “These are the snarky things he says: ‘This is all about science… and the peak isn’t going to hit until the middle of June.’ Why did they take down all the beds in McCormick Place already then?
“You know what this is all about. This is about taking down President Trump in November,” Schneider said.
Nothing like completely politicizing the state’s pandemic response.
Illinois Rep. Allen Skillicorn says a recall resolution is on the table if Gov. J.B. Pritzker fails to fix the state’s unemployment claims website, the representative announced Sunday. […]
The Illinois representative threatened to file a motion to recall the governor’s election if Pritzker does not fix the website soon.
The recall of the Governor may be proposed by a petition signed by a number of electors equal in number to at least 15% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election, with at least 100 signatures from each of at least 25 separate counties. A petition shall have been signed by the petitioning electors not more than 150 days after an affidavit has been filed with the State Board of Elections providing notice of intent to circulate a petition to recall the Governor. The affidavit may be filed no sooner than 6 months after the beginning of the Governor’s term of office. The affidavit shall have been signed by the proponent of the recall petition, at least 20 members of the House of Representatives, and at least 10 members of the Senate, with no more than half of the signatures of members of each chamber from the same established political party.
But by picking fights with the president, Pritzker also risks losing credibility at home, said U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a downstate Republican. […]
The congressman noted that Pritzker bristled when reporters asked about his wife traveling to Florida during the crisis.
“Frankly,” Davis said, “if you’re going to Monday morning quarterback a federal response to a disease we didn’t know existed seven months ago, then you open yourself up to criticism when your family decides to leave the state when you’re telling people to stay home. You can’t be offended by people criticizing your response if you’re so quick to criticize others during the pandemic.”
Criticize the president and it’s just fine with Davis to come after your family. Not to mention that they went to Florida before the order was issued.
* Speaking of which…
🤔 This isn't about family, it's about hypocrisy. Why is @GovPritzker's family traveling in and out of IL and multiple other states in defiance of his own stay-at-home order? https://t.co/cgccnuy1qn
Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why people are upset. I’m not at all happy with this situation either and I wrote about it in the subscriber edition today. But, if the governor is telling the truth then they’re not technically in violation of the order. And a statewide party dragging minor children through the political mud is just beyond the pale.
State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, has released the following statement regarding his attendance for session this week:
“Due to coming in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 on May 17, I’ve been advised by a physician to self-quarantine for 14 days and won’t be attending session. Last week, I tested negative for the virus.
While I wish I could be in Springfield, the health and safety of my colleagues and staff must come first.
Protesters should make their arguments on the merits, not with offensive slurs. Anti-Semitism and Nazi slogans and swastikas are contrary to the love taught by Jesus Christ and should have no place here in the Land of Lincoln. pic.twitter.com/PHRMSEy2XD
Protesters held signs expressing disgust for the way Governor JB Pritzker’s handling things.
Two protests, noisy, yet peaceful, for the most part. Chicago police broke up this fight between a guy holding a Nazi flag and a man who was upset by it.
WGEM’s Capitol Bureau Chief Mike Miletich asked Doug Walter why he was comparing Pritzker to Adolf Hitler. The Pana resident’s sign showed a photo of the governor with an equal sign next to the leader of the Nazi party. […]
“Is it okay to have an anti-Semitic sign like this,” Miletich asked. “You bet it is.” Walter then pointed to Pritzker’s photo. “He is Hitler. They are one in the same. They are one in the same.”
A separate participant at the rally held a sign with Hitler’s mustache drawn on a photo of Pritzker with swastikas drawn on both sides.
The Bureau asked Linda Scheaffer if she knew the governor’s family history.
She said it doesn’t matter, “because he’s a hypocrite.” However, Scheaffer added she would not partake in an interview.
* ADL…
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Midwest Regional Director David Goldenberg issued the following statement today in response to the continued presence of antisemitism, racism and Nazi comparisons at “stay at home” protests in Springfield and Chicago:
“The comparison of Illinois’s democratically elected governor to Hitler is antisemitic – period. Such vile comparisons trivialize and dishonor the memories of the millions killed by Nazi Germany.
With antisemitic incidents at an all-time high and up 340% in Illinois since 2016, these protests are becoming rallying points for hate and extremism. We are deeply concerned by the silence of speakers at these protests – including elected officials – who failed to condemn the antisemitism, racism and Nazi comparisons of attendees while stoking the flames of hatred. Leaders across the state and political spectrum must forcefully and unambiguously condemn this language.”
* Also ADL…
On May 18 at 11:00am CT, community and civic leaders from across Illinois will come together for a virtual news conference to condemn the antisemitism, racism, and extremism reported at recent “stay-at-home” protests in Springfield and Chicago.
Over the last two weeks, multiple protests concerning coronavirus restrictions have taken place across Illinois, with attendees calling for stay-at-home orders to be lifted. Media reports have shown some attendees displaying antisemitic, racist, and extremist-related signs and engaging in hateful rhetoric.
Community leaders will make opening remarks followed by questions from the media.
WHO: Nearly a dozen community and civic leaders from across Illinois:
• David Goldenberg, Midwest Regional Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• Very Reverend Dominic Barrington, Dean, St. James Cathedral
• Sindy Benavides, CEO, LULAC
• Jaime di Paolo, CEO, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Karen Freeman-Wilson, President and CEO, Chicago Urban League
• Maricela Garcia, CEO, Gads Hill Center
• Pastor Marvin Hightower, President, Peoria NAACP and Senior Pastor, Liberty Church of Peoria
• Andy Kang, Executive Director, Association of Asian Americans for Justice - Chicago
• Lonnie Nasatir, President, Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
• James Rudyk, Executive Director, Northwest Side Housing Center
• Michael Ziri, Director of Public Policy, Equality Illinois
It’s high time that the politicians who are speaking and hosting these rallies denounce these cretins and do something to keep them away from the events. But don’t hold your breath…
“The silver lining here is we are able to identify our enemies - both foreign and domestic,” [Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland] shouted. “We have identified China as a foreign enemy. We have identified our domestic enemies in Nancy Pelosi and JB Pritzker.”
For many weeks after the beginning of this COVID-19 crisis, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proved adept at telegraphing his every move.
Pritzker waited until people practically begged him to shut down the schools on March 15. He talked about issuing a stay-at-home order for days, and then acted on March 21 only after California jumped first.
It was clear for days that he would extend his stay-at-home order another month starting April 1. He talked for well over a week about a mask-wearing requirement, always noting that he was being lobbied by Republican state Rep. Mark Batinick before finally announcing the order on April 23.
People did not always agree with him, but they always had a sense of where he was going. Pritzker did get out over his skis when his Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission dramatically altered the burden of proof on COVID-19 illnesses in favor of employees without so much as a heads-up to business groups. But most regular folks never noticed that and a court intervened and stopped the order anyway.
Otherwise, the governor did a remarkably good job of making sure the public was always aware in advance of his leadership direction.
And then on May 5 he announced his “Restore Illinois” roadmap to gradually reopen the state.
To be fair, Pritzker did say for days that he was looking at a more regionalized approach to the stay-at-home order. But then he sprung his plan on the state without adequately laying the groundwork. Everyone was most definitely sure to complain about a regional map no matter what it was. People will always find a way to say they should be in a different region, particularly near borders.
But the governor has yet to come up with an easily digestible explanation for why he drew the map the way he did and, in the process, he’s left the door open to municipalities to try and form their own regions.
For instance, Peoria’s mayor is backing a regionalization plan developed in concert with his county’s public health director, a trained epidemiologist. They’re not ignoring science in Peoria, as the governor has accused local officials of doing as they push to reopen in defiance of his order. The Peoria area is using actual epidemiology to make the case for their own map because Pritzker’s map and his overall scheme don’t get them where they want to go and when they believe they should get there.
More importantly, though, Restore Illinois broke with Pritzker’s battle plan of copying others’ work. New York’s reopening plan has 10 regions to Illinois’ five, though New York is only half again as populous as Illinois. People see that and understandably wonder why our regions are so big.
New York’s plan also relies on two-week intervals to move to the next stage, as do most other state plans that don’t throw open everyone’s doors right away. Illinois’ plan includes a 28-day metric for hospitalizations. That 28-day requirement for no overall increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations has understandably rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way.
Pritzker has a nuanced explanation for this, but he’s struggled to get it across. I asked him last week for a succinct summation and he said his plan would allow the regions to move more quickly into the next phase than “under the metrics that the White House put forth.” But the White House essentially abandoned its two-week metrics the moment they were released. People are understandably focused on Pritzker’s four weeks.
I get the governor’s pitch, but I do this for a living and most people don’t. I am also no fan of reopening too fast. It makes me feel like we’ve gone through all of this for nothing and will have to do this all over again.
Anyway, Pritzker made the mistake of introducing brand new concepts into a process that had worked well for him and the state since March.
The governor could’ve accomplished the same ultimate goals with smaller regions and by sticking with two-week metrics, opening up a couple or three things in two weeks and then several more in another two weeks. Instead, Illinoisans, especially at our thousand-plus miles of borders, may understandably feel trapped while every one of our surrounding states are opening up.
If you can’t explain a surprise announcement in a sentence or two, then it’s too darned complicated and people won’t understand. The governor needs to get back to simple copycatting as soon as humanly possible.
*** UPDATE *** I was wondering why there were no comments on this and then I realized I had turned them off because I was going to post this piece on Sunday and then decided to wait. Oops. Comments are now on. Sorry!
The State Department of Public Health has general supervision of the interests of the health and lives of the people of the State. It has supreme authority in matters of quarantine and isolation, and may declare and enforce quarantine and isolation when none exists, and may modify or relax quarantine and isolation when it has been established. The Department may adopt, promulgate, repeal and amend rules and regulations and make such sanitary investigations and inspections as it may from time to time deem necessary for the preservation and improvement of the public health, consistent with law regulating the following […]
Sec. 8.1. Whoever violates or refuses to obey any rule or regulation of the Department of Public Health shall be deemed guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. The Director of Public Health shall institute prosecutions and proceedings for violation of the rules and regulations adopted by the Department of Public Health, provided that he may designate a local board of health or local health officer to institute prosecutions or proceedings for violation of those rules and regulations adopted by the Department. Each State’s Attorney shall prosecute all persons in his county violating or refusing to obey the rules and regulations of the Department of Public Health. All fines or judgments collected or received shall be paid to the County Treasurer of the county in which prosecution is conducted.
Keep that line about “Each State’s Attorney shall prosecute” in mind for future reference this week.
1) Businesses and establishments that serve food or beverages, including, but not limited to, restaurants, food buffets, self-serve areas, bars, taverns, pubs, wineries, breweries, or beer gardens, that operate under a permit or license issued by the State or local health authority, shall not allow indoor on-site consumption of food or beverages. Service shall be limited to drive-through, delivery, curb-side, or pick up only. Businesses and establishments located in airports and hospitals are exempt from the requirements of this Section.
2) Businesses and establishments that offer indoor fitness, exercise, physical workout or non-medical wellness services, such as health clubs or centers, fitness clubs or centers, gyms, tennis clubs, swimming pools, shall not allow on-site indoor fitness, exercise, workout or non-medical wellness options to customers, including but not limited to, classes, personal training, or individual customer use of exercise equipment or facilities. Service shall be limited to the sale of retail goods via drive-through, delivery, or pick up only, or the use of exercise equipment or the indoor use of facilities for the recording and streaming of online classes and instructional videos only.
3) Businesses or establishments that offer cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology, barber, tanning, body art, or similar non-medical personal care services, treatments, procedures or therapies shall not provide on-site services. Service shall be limited to the sale of retail goods via drive- through, delivery, curb-side, or pick up only
Any person who violates the provisions of this Section shall be subject to the penalties set forth in Section 8.1 of the Act.
Members of Pritzker’s cabinet described it as a new and gentler “tool” that law enforcement can use to keep businesses closed during the coronavirus pandemic – and therefore keep people safe – that’s less severe than other options, like closure orders or stripping establishments of their liquor licenses. […]
Pritzker’s top attorney, Ann Spillane, admitted a misdemeanor charge could be seen as “intimidating,” especially if it was targeted at bartenders or servers. But because it’s instead aimed at businesses, she said there’s no threat of jail time and believes it’s a “less dramatic” step than some other alternatives.
She described the charge as “very mild, like a traffic ticket … nobody’s getting arrested or handcuffed. But they are getting a citation where they would have to go to court.” […]
But if business owners continue to refuse, the next steps would have been to issue a closure order – meaning the establishment would have to shut down completely, including for curbside and delivery orders – or pull an establishment’s liquor license.
Spillane described getting a misdemeanor charge as less severe, and an opportunity for businesses to “pause to say: ‘OK, we’re going to close, this is not worth it.’”
“It’s going almost an extra step because we don’t want bars and restaurants that can do delivery and pickup, we don’t want them to be missing out on that business,” she said. “As a business dealing with this, it is probably much less expensive in terms of getting a lawyer to help you with a misdemeanor than getting a lawyer to deal with a license revocation hearing, or a public health closing hearing.”
* But not everyone sees it that way…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on the emergency provisions filed that would charge businesses with a Class A misdemeanor for violating the Governor’s stay-at-home orders:
“These rules are a legal overreach and beyond the scope of the Governor’s authority. It will be a dark day in Illinois when we charge small businesses with a jailable crime for salvaging their livelihoods.”
* This emergency rule is actually what Rep. Darren Bailey’s and Rep. John Cabello’s attorney Thomas DeVore has said the state ought to be doing…
DeVore is alleging Pritzker does not have the authority to enforce his stay-at-home restrictions because that power rests with the state and local health departments. He is also alleging that if the state is using the law dictating how the Illinois Department of Public Health enforces the restrictions, it should follow the procedure outlined.
“Pritzker has perverted the emergency provisions of the (Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act) in an effort to rip the sacred responsibility of the health and lives of the people away from where the Legislature placed it, being local control of county health departments or the (IDPH), and in doing so he took complete control of the free movement of every citizen within the state of Illinois,” DeVore argued in a related lawsuit he filed on behalf of Republican Rep. John Cabello, from Machesney Park.
I assume the state will now use that very logic against Bailey in Clay County court this coming Friday.
* Still, expect an uproar on this in the days leading up to reconvening the General Assembly…
The new emergency rule @GovPritzker that makes it a crime to violate his executive orders is an affront to the separation of powers. Legislatures make laws. Governors enforce them. Period. https://t.co/SfX7SXFoo4
The rule changes also call for heavy fines and charges under a Class A Misdemeanor for any violators. Additionally, the rule under 20 ILCS 2305/2(k) states: “Any person who knowingly or maliciously disseminates any false information or report concerning the existence of any dangerously contagious or infectious disease in connection with the Department’s power of quarantine, isolation or closure order is guilty of a Class A Misdemeanor”.
“The Constitution of the United States is under siege here in Illinois,” Representative Cabello said. “We have a dictator Governor who is weaponizing our Department of Public Health to treat our citizens like criminals. The pure irony lies in the fact that the Governor is doing this at the same time that he is commuting sentences for murderers and rapists. The greatest danger today from the COVID-19 is the alternative universe that is being created here in Illinois.”
“People are resisting because they view the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan, and his general approach to the COVID-19 health crisis, as a hodgepodge of arbitrary rules and restrictions placed on citizens and businesses by a hypocritical leader,” Cabello added. “Recall the news stories about the Governor’s wife traveling to Florida while the rest of us are being told to lockdown. Now we are hearing that the Governor’s family has been up in Wisconsin too. In another case of irony those two states have been easing their restrictions.”
“I think our Governor needs to look in the mirror when he starts to criticize the people of Illinois for their lack of compliance and confidence in his approach to the COVID-19. Telling a family of four who just drove in the same car to the boat dock that only two of them at a time can be on a boat is not only stupid, it is just one example of things that undermine confidence in the way the entire issue is being handled. Perhaps the Governor should travel to Florida with his family next time and get some advice from their Governor,” Cabello concluded.
The “rule under 20 ILCS 2305/2(k)” doesn’t say that. The statute says that. And that particular statute went into effect on August 25, 2009.
* Related…
* Churches to reopen for Sunday service in defiance of Illinois’ stay-at-home order: Meanwhile, a northwest suburban church backed off its plan to host public services Sunday morning. Northwest Baptist Bible Church in Elgin said they were warned in a letter from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office that they would face criminal enforcement of state health guidelines.
* Keep in mind that weekend data reporting from the field is often on the low side. Here’s Saturday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,088 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 74 additional deaths.
- Clinton County: 1 female 60s
- Cook County: 2 males 30s, 2 males 40s, 4 females 50s, 3 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 5 females 70s, 7 males 70s, 8 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 4 females 90s, 2 males 90s, 3 females 100+, 1 male 100+
- DuPage County: 4 females 80s, 2 females 90s
- Jasper County: 1 female 90s
- Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s
- Lake County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 70s
- LaSalle County: 1 female 60s
- Madison County: 1 male 90s
- St. Clair County: 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
- Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 80s
- Winnebago County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 92,457 cases, including 4,129 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 23,047 specimens for a total of 561,649. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is 15%.
The Illinois Manteno Veterans’ Home (IVHM) is reporting the passing of a third resident with COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 63 individuals at IVHM have contracted COVID-19, including three cases who have passed away.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,734 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 51 additional deaths.
Cook County: 2 males 30s, 1 male 40s, 3 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 3 females 70s, 4 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 7 females 80s, 3 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 female 100+
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 90s
Kendall County: 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Madison County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
McLean County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s
Stephenson County: 1 male 70s
Winnebago County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 94,191 cases, including 4,177 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 20,295 specimens for a total of 581,944. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is 15%.
*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. Information for deaths and counties previously reported have changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
Statement from 115th District State Representative Terri Bryant on a possible massive data breach involving the private information of thousands of Illinois unemployment applicants.
“On Friday, May 15, 2020, a concerned constituent made me aware of a potential data breach at the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Through a series of just two clicks, this constituent stumbled upon the personal information of thousands of unemployment applicants on the IDES website. This came up in a spreadsheet with thousands of names containing sensitive information. The information she was able to access included the name, address, social security number, and unemployment claimant ID number of thousands of people.
My constituent was visibly shaken, and worried, and shared her discovery with me. My office immediately brought this to the attention of IDES officials and the Governor’s office. We have since demanded answers multiple times. I sent the Governor and the director of the IDES a letter earlier today demanding answers. As of now, the only official response I have received from the Governor’s office has been an email reply to my letter that said, “Thank you Representative. We are aware and fixing the problem.”
The people of Illinois deserve better!
Hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans are stressed and struggling! It is imperative that Governor Pritzker and his administration answer my questions immediately.
Here are the questions I asked:
1. Is IDES aware of any potential data breach involving the personal information of thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment?
2. Is Governor Pritzker or his staff aware of any potential breach involving the personal information of thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment?
3. How long was the personal information of unemployment applicants available for other applicants to see?
4. Has the problem been resolved? Is there any possibility that thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment assistance through the IDES website have had their identity compromised?
* From Jordan Abudayyeh…
IDES is aware there was a glitch in the new PUA system that made some private information publicly available for a short time and worked to immediately remedy the situation. A full investigation is under way to assess exactly what happened and how many people were impacted. Those who were impacted will be notified.
* IDES…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has confirmed a limited data access issue within the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) system. An analysis found that one PUA claimant was able to inadvertently access personal identifying information of a limited number of claimants. That claimant notified the Department of the issue and within an hour, it was corrected to prevent any future unauthorized access.
IDES has contracted with Deloitte to create and maintain the web-based PUA portal, which went live on Monday, May 11, and is working in partnership with the vendor to run a full-scale investigation into the matter while conducting additional testing to prevent any potential future occurrences. IDES will release results of the analysis once completed and notify anyone affected. IDES will also explore further remediation on the part of Deloitte upon completion of the investigation.
The Department encourages claimants to continue filing for unemployment benefits through the PUA portal if they are still in need or have not yet done so already. Though the system is only one week old, more than 50,000 claims have been processed through the PUA system. PUA provides 100% federally-funded unemployment benefits for individuals who are unemployed for specified COVID-19-related reasons and are not eligible for the state’s regular unemployment insurance program, the extended benefit (EB) program under Illinois law, or the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (PEUC), including independent contractors and sole-proprietors. Up to 39 weeks’ worth of benefits are potentially available under the program for COVID-19-related unemployment claims.
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
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Friday, May 15, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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* Gov. Pritzker began his briefing today by talking about testing. From a press release…
Expanding COVID-19 testing capabilities in the State of Illinois is a crucial part of the state’s plan to Restore Illinois. With increased testing we can make educated decisions that protect our state, our communities and our families. Today, the State is announcing new drive-thru COVID-19 testing facilities will be available in the coming days on Chicago’s southside (May 16), Champaign (May 19), Rolling Meadows (May 20), while drive-thru and walk-up services will be offered in Peoria (May 23). These free community services will be open seven days a week to test individuals with COVID-19 symptoms and those employees who support critical services.
“Not everyone with COVID-19 has symptoms. Without greater testing, it is difficult to know who is infected with this virus. This could mean a person who thinks they are healthy may unknowingly pass the virus to someone else, potentially with deadly consequences. I encourage residents in these areas to take advantage of this opportunity to get tested for free and to take action to help prevent further spread of the virus,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of Illinois Department of Public Health.
All individuals with symptoms are encouraged to seek testing at these Community Based Testing Sites. Additional accommodations have been made for the following individuals with or without COVID-like symptoms.
• Healthcare workers
• First Responders
• Employees of Correctional Facilities
• Individuals exposed to confirmed COVID-19 patients
• Employees that support Critical Infrastructure (grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, public utilities, factories, childcare and sanitation)
• All local and state government employees
• Individuals with compromised immune systems, chronic medical conditions
Our current seven day average is 12%. The cumulative statewide positivity rate since way back in February is 16.8%.
Looking back, remember that our peak positivity rate was on April 4, when 23.6% of tests back positive on a rolling average. I would urge caution and reading too far into this decline as there is a strong inverse correlation between the number of tests taken per day, and the associated positive rate, meaning that part of the reason for the lower positivity rate can be attributed to our increased testing.
Remember, we surpassed 10,000 tests per day for the first time on April,24, and we’ve stayed above 11,000 every day since then. Over the last seven days we’ve nearly doubled that, with an average of 20,000 tests per day. The good news is that our current statewide positivity rate, under 14% on average for the last 14 days, that’s likely becoming a better indicator of the true infection rate from the general public than it was when testing was probably limited expanding testing.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* On to questions. The question was about Iowa and his concerns…
We’re not collecting the data about people who are crossing over from Iowa. But there is a lot of data about people who are gathering together in large groups. We know that there is a widespread positivity rate everywhere in the nation. There are COVID positive people that are walking around, and maybe not taking the proper social distancing or precautions. But either way, I am concerned, I am genuinely concerned that with no stay at home order in place in Iowa people who are traveling across the border and in gathering in large groups or going into restaurants or bars or getting in close contact with others will come back to Illinois and spread it. And there is lots of evidence of that sort of spread taking place not necessarily across that border because there isn’t data about that border in particular, but there’s lots of evidence of asymptomatic spread. And that’s the reason remember originally for a stay at home order. We still have a lot of people are walking around untested, who have COVID-19.
That’s why I’ve told you more testing leads to more positive results. Because we know people are out there but haven’t been tested. They are in fact symptomatic carriers. That’s my concern and I would just warn the people of the Quad Cities region, be extraordinarily careful I would suggest that if you’re looking for the opportunity to get together to do the things that you’ve been doing in the past to go into a retail store or something like that. We’re 14 days away according to the data from you being able to do that and we’ve done so well up to now I hope you’ll continue on the same course.
* In light of you saying you’re worried about neighboring states opening too early and people crossing the border into Indiana and Wisconsin and bringing the virus back to Illinois, have you joined your family at your Wisconsin home and if not, how are they ensuring they don’t bring the virus back to you?…
Well, I am as you know isolated at home. So, I have not joined anybody in another state.
I’m safe at home and I’m not a carrier in any way if that’s your question.
I think that’s part of the question but also if they are out of state how will you then ensure they don’t bring the virus back to you?…
So, let me begin by saying that my wife and my daughter were in Florida before the stay at home, shelter in place orders were put in place. And they stayed there when the orders were put in place, they sheltered in place, as was the order and the suggestion.
And they have since returned home and isolated for a period of time. But they’re home now and they’re safe and no one is a carrier.
I shouldn’t say that definitively because the reality is that anytime you walk out the door, even if you’re wearing a mask I mean there is some possibility that people could become infected. So please don’t assume that someone can’t be a carrier that they think is possible, but we’re taking every precaution.
* Georgia which has a population similar to Illinois and a similar COVID-19 spread pattern is reopened basically and not demonstrating the potential transmission you’ve referenced possible in the past here. Can you say you’re reopening policy is working when it appears other states are outperforming Illinois, in terms of a restart and go back and redo anything to, what would it be?…
Well, I think that ignores a whole lot of different facts about Illinois than about Georgia, or another state. First of all, we have a major global city in Chicago, that has international passengers that were passing through coming to and staying in Chicago and even traveling throughout the state of Illinois, that’s you know that’s a, that’s one fact, to take note of. Another is that whatever the circumstances were or are in Georgia, we know what the pattern of the spread has been in Illinois. We know that the R Naughtthe essentially the rate at which it spreads come way down as a result of the stay at home rules that we put in place the order has really brought that R Naught down from 3.6 around 3.6 all the way down to near one. And that’s tremendous I mean that’s, I can’t speak to what other states R Naught sort of go into because I haven’t watched every state or the particular one you mentioned.
And lastly, I would say that when things open up here’s why it’s important that you have a period of time that you are gradually opening, because you are going to get a higher infection rate that’s just sort of a fact of life in a pandemic with no treatment with no nothing to stop the virus are going to get spread. We are testing, as much as anybody could at this point. Like I said, we’re among the top states for testing. So, we’re finding more people are positive here. But that doesn’t mean there are a lot of people that are positive and other state that aren’t being tested.
Lastly, I would just say that it takes weeks between the time that you open things up. That’s why you want this period of time, and a gradual opening it takes weeks and weeks, between the time that you open things up when people start interacting with one another and maybe you see in the cell phone data of people’s interactions and the time that they end up going to the hospital. The time that they end up on a ventilator and the time that unfortunately they may pass. So, these are all things that are perhaps unique from one place to another, other than the fact that the virus knows no boundaries and the virus only knows that it is sort of searching for the next person to infect.
* What do you say to small charter operators that are asking how a couple can fly to Chicago, take a train downtown, hop a bus to a harbor, and then be refused to board a small boat or a private sightseeing tour of Chicago’s lakefront miles offshore? Is this an entirely arbitrary policy and are you considering loosening those rules?…
The policies around air travel are not set by the state of Illinois. They are set by the federal government. So that’s the first thing when you say people are flying. That’s not under our control that is a decision by the federal government.
Secondly, we obviously a lot of work has been done to try to make sure that the trains, whether they’re, we’re talking CTA RTA or others are cleaned, you know are kept in condition, so that there’s a minimizing of any potential spread, not suggesting that one couldn’t contract it possible it’s possible really anywhere. But if people are taking the proper precautions, then it’s okay.
Now you’re saying, why wouldn’t we allow lots of people on a boat or why wouldn’t we open up Navy Pier, or something like that? The reality is that again when we see lots of people getting together in a single place, and one could easily bring a COVID-19 into that environment and spread it, we’ve seen the circumstances you read stories no doubt about someone who was infected infecting 100 other people in a location with a lot of people in a room in a boat and something else. So all I can say is that we’re doing the best that we can with the rules that we have in place. The orders, really are following the science, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job in Illinois, we have a ways to go, and certainly along the way to completely defeating the virus which isn’t under our control entirely, something that I think medical science and the researchers are going to have to ultimately come up with a vaccine for.
* It sounds to me like what you’re saying regarding like a boat or charter operators, and even if they were able to present a plan that they could do reservation only thoroughly clean boats in between tours allow let’s say only two or four people. It doesn’t sound like you’re at a point where you’re saying you’re willing or able to loosen those rules…
Well, again, we have rules in place now around two people in a boat as a limitation. It’s really for the purposes of advancing, people just as a leisure time want to go fishing and want to have somebody with them and you know the theory is that a typical boat might allow distance between two people in a boat that was at least a recommendation that we received around boating. When you talk about reopening a business, again, I want to reopen everything as fast as everybody else does. But I just want to be clear that when you get a group of people, jammed together in a space. There is potential for spread and we’re trying to avoid that. But in phase three and phase four you can read it yourself, there are opportunities for people to get together in an increasing amount.
* Response to the five Republican congressman who have sent you a letter raising concerns that you threatened to withhold federal funding in the state?…
My response is that they understand, I’m sure that the laws of the state need to be followed, that the executive orders of the state need to be followed and we will pursue enforcement actions wherever necessary, where people are flaunting the health and safety, they’re ignoring the rules that would keep people safe in their communities. So I know those five congressmen and I have spoken with them over the course of my term in office. I know they have the best interests of their constituents at heart but in this case I think they’re missing the point.
* Governor in late April you said the state was monitoring study about antibody tests but you were hesitant to recommend any because of the inconsistency in results. Has anything changed since then?…
There is a lot of work that’s been done, I’d like to turn it over to Dr Ezike because she understands these antibody tests better than I do, but I’ll just say that there is a lot of work that’s been done around these antibody tests and to my knowledge anyway there are quite a number of them that are ineffectual or not really the kinds of tests that will be useful for us. We want to be able to parse between those kinds of tests, which ones are effective which ones not but I’ll turn it over to Dr Ezike for a more informed view.
Dr. Ezike: So we are trying to learn as much as we can, along with the rest of the country and the rest of the world to see how these antibody tests can be a part of our reopening of the state. And so we do, we have just convened a group of experts of hospital epidemiologist, immunologist, biologists, academicians from across the state who will be convening to try to gather some of the information that’s around there and give you official guidance. You’ve probably heard reports from the feds that even if, and I think the WHO has said this publicly as well. But even if we do know that people develop antibodies, it’s not clear how long that protection would last, it’s not clear the level of antibodies that would be protective. So there’s a, I think there’s more questions than answers at this point. But we have some people in the state that have been doing a lot of antibody testing and so I’d like to see what we can garner maybe if there is some useful information, maybe it’s not specific as to okay you’re good to go and you’ll be immune for the next 10 years but maybe there’s some helpful information that can be garnered so we have a very esteemed group that’s convening to gather some information and see what our official guidance will be.
* Under your reopening plan to get to phase four testing must be widely available in each region regardless of symptoms or underlying risk factors. How close is the state to getting to reaching that sort of testing capacity that would allow for that?…
More testing is better and so, what’s the definition of adequate testing. The answer is that we want it widely available and so we, in my view, as we open up more testing sites and as we make available more materials for testing, I think we’re in a much better place. So we’re making a lot of progress I feel like we’re on a path to being in that spot as needed for every region of the state.
* What are your thoughts about the Naperville park district’s plans to pursue legal action seeking authority to reopen summer programming and facilities, independent of the timeline and Restore Illinois?…
Again, all I can say is that they should be following the data and the science here and not their guts. I too would like to allow all children my own included to participate in summer sports and group [garbled]. I hope we’ll be able to do that soon enough as we move through the phases of the plan and the Restore Illinois plan but I recommend against it. And of course you know people have every right to go to the courts. Too many people choose that. I think, in this circumstance and and so you know I realized that the the local officials there are going to do whatever it is that they want to do but I wish they would show some leadership.
* New questions about the whereabouts of your family, do you want to address that?…
Let me first say that I’ve been private and reserved when it comes to my children. And it’s because there are threats to my safety and to their safety. And so you’ve seen that there are people that stand outside the Thompson Center and stand outside the Capitol in Springfield, the whole thing I mean hateful signs that reference me personally, and that suggests, if not say, but suggests potential for violence.
And so, I told you earlier that my wife and daughter were down in Florida in early March, and in fact even a little before that, and you know they sheltered in place when the stay at home order came up and they stayed there until very recently.
So, we have a working farm there [Wisconsin]. There are animals on that farm, that is the central function to take care of animals at a farm and so you know that’s what they’re doing and I would hope that the GOP the Republican super PAC that’s pushing stories like this about my family would stop doing it because they are putting my children and my family in danger.
…Adding… The governor’s office clarified that his family is in Chicago, but they have visited the farm in Wisconsin.
* Has Illinois seen any confirmed cases of reinfection among people who have recovered? Are you following reports of reinfection and do you have any concerns about that?…
Dr. Ezike: Yes, I mean I get as much as I’m able to watch the news, I follow what everyone else has seen and I remember there was initially some cases, I believe it was out of Korea where they cited dozens if not hundreds of individuals who supposedly had been reinfected after an earlier infection. And I think I saw a follow up story regarding that saying that in fact, the test had been positive but it wasn’t active infection so it wasn’t a clear case of reinfection So, again, I don’t have the answers in terms of how long immunity lasts and if people can get reinfected. We know that there are diseases for which people do have lifelong immunity. We know that there are diseases that people receive a vaccine and then that immunity wanes. So again, this is a new virus, I think time is going to have to tell us that as we look around the world and see cases and cases of infection that have happened earlier, we’ll follow those down the road to see if in fact people do have real infection later on down the road. I don’t have the answer but we will continue to follow the science which will give us the answer.
* How many Illinois testing sites are relying on ABS rapid tests? And do we have plans to make changes?…
I want to be clear that the state doesn’t own a whole bunch of Abbott machines. The federal government did send us 15 machines, but they didn’t send us any many cartridges to go with itt o use the machines but they sent the machines. And so we have used some of those cartridges that we received. There are places that are using their own cartridges and as I say, we can’t control what they do. What we can do is look at the data as it comes to us as it gets reported to us, and just make sure we’re aware where that data came from. But, of course, I want to repeat that I want to discourage those folks from using it until they know what the FDA guidance will be to make sure that the sensitivity is proper to get the results that I think we all hope and expect to get from the COVID-19 test.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,432 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 130 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 male 70s
Champaign County: 1 female 40s
Cook County: 1 male youth, 2 males 30s, 2 females 40s, 4 males 40s, 5 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 8 males 60s, 10 females 70s, 8 males 70s, 18 females 80s, 9 males 80s, 3 unknown 80s, 6 females 90s, 5 males 90s, 1 male 100+
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 1 male 90s
Kane County: 2 females 60s, 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 40s, 2 males 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 80s
LaSalle County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 80s
Macon County: 1 male 80s
Madison County: 1 female 80s, 2 females 90s
McHenry County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
McLean County: 1 female 70s
Rock Island: 1 female 90s
Sangamon County: 1 female 60s
St. Clair County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s
Union County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Will County: 1 female 70s, 4 females 80s, 1 female 90s
Winnebago County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 90,369 cases, including 4,058 deaths, in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 26,565 specimens for a total of 538,602. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate (positive tests) is 16%.
The Illinois Manteno Veterans’ Home (IVHM) is reporting the passing of a second resident with COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 53 individuals at IVHM have contracted COVID-19, including two cases who have passed away.
With routines disrupted, unemployment skyrocketing and families forced into close quarters for extended periods, domestic violence is tragically on the rise in Williamson County, State’s Attorney Brandon Zanotti said Thursday while announcing a new capital campaign to support victims.
Zanotti said his office compared charges for domestic violence, aggravated domestic violence and order of protection petitions between March 16 and May 13 of this year compared to the same time last year. Zanotti said these filings have “more than doubled” under the stay-at-home order intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Is Mayor Lori Lightfoot planning to close streets and sidewalks so restaurants can safely reopen and give residents a place to run, walk and play? Sure sounds like it.
“People are itching to get outside. Businesses are looking at creative ways to serve customers. The key is how we do it,” the mayor tweeted Friday.
“Stay tuned for some changes to our streets and sidewalks. Transportation is more than just cars. We’ll show how Chicago can be safer and easier to get around.” […]
“The mayor is trying to be very progressive with us. There’s communication going on about maybe closing some streets for outside dining with the tables on the street. That way, we could have social distancing,” [Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia] said.
Since toilet rooms have a lot of high-touch surfaces, door handles, faucets and stall doors, transfer risk in this environment can be high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in the feces of some patients diagnosed with COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether the virus found in feces may be capable of causing COVID-19.
There has not been any confirmed report of the virus spreading from feces to a person. Scientists also do not know how much risk there is that the virus could be spread from the feces of an infected person to another person.
However, they think this risk is low based on data from previous outbreaks of diseases caused by related coronaviruses, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos funnels millions in coronavirus relief funds intended primarily for public schools to private, religious schools
DePaul says it will offer in-person classes in the fall as new committee takes up question for other Illinois universities
Lightfoot urges Chicago faith leaders to observe stay-at-home order
Naperville Park Board votes to take legal action to make its own decisions on reopening
‘It’s like a hurricane came and leveled the entire economy’: Retail sales fall 16.4%, a record
‘Everything we did was to predict the next outbreak.’ Yet scientists at Northwestern and elsewhere weren’t prepared for COVID-19. Why?
COVID-19 hitting hardest in Chicago ZIP codes already struggling with deadly threat of gun violence
StreetWise vendors face empty streets and empty pockets amid COVID-19: ‘Things are hard for everybody. Think how hard it is for those in the streets to survive.’
Woman and her 89-year-old mother both survive COVID-19: ‘I didn’t know if she was gonna live or die’
The Food and Drug Administration is cautioning the public about the reliability of a widely used rapid test for the coronavirus. The test, made by Abbott Laboratories, has been linked with inaccurate results that could falsely reassure patients that they are not infected with the virus.
The Trump administration has promoted the test as a key factor in controlling the epidemic in the U.S., and it’s used for daily testing at the White House.
As first reported on NPR, as many as 15 to 20 out of every 100 tests may produce falsely negative results. A study released this week indicated that the test could be missing as many as 48% of infections.
A rapid coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories could be missing infections because of “user error,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday. […]
A recent study from New York University, which has not been peer-reviewed, found the test missed a third of samples collected with nasopharyngeal swabs that tested positive with a test from rival Cepheid.
When using samples collected with “dry nasal swabs,” the Abbott test missed more than 48% of positive cases, the study said. Both nasopharyngeal swabs and dry nasal swabs are collected from the nostril, but the former is inserted much deeper into the nose.
Azar said Friday that users are not supposed to collect the swabs and then “spend time transporting it” to get to the test. He added the company is currently conducting a post-market study as companies do for any emergency use authorization product.
We’re seeing studies being conducted to understand the role of ID NOW in ways that it was not designed to be used. In particular, the NYU study results are not consistent with other studies. While we’ve seen a few studies with sensitivity performance percentages in the 80s, we’ve also seen other studies with sensitivity at or above 90%, and one as high as 94%.
* I asked the governor’s office for a response. Here’s Jordan Abudayyeh…
Illinois uses a wide variety of tests to make up our capacity. We are not overly reliant one specific testing method. IDPH would urge those who are presenting with COVID-19 symptoms who get a negative test result from an ID NOW machine, to obtain a second test to ensure their results are accurate. On a recent call with the White House, Dr. Birx said that Abbott’s rapid test accuracy increases when the swabs go directly from patient to machine with no other delays in the transport and IDPH would urge medical professionals to follow that advice.
The whole thing is designed to be immediate point of use. You get swabbed and then it’s put right into the machine, which is about the size of a toaster.
I was also told that out of more than 538,000 Illinois tests, just over 51,000 were ID NOW tests.
First, it was masks. The federal government sent the surgical variety, instead of the N95 respiratory-grade masks Illinois asked for and needed.
Now, swabs are the issue.
It’s the latest trouble with supplies sent to Illinois by the federal government to deal with the coronavirus. […]
Packages marked “Comforts for Baby: Cotton Swabs” arrived in a cardboard shipping box; 180-count packs that look the same as what Illinois received are selling for $1.50 on Instacart.
“What are we supposed to do with these?” a spokeswoman with the Pritzker administration said. “Not helpful.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that despite the label, the swabs are in fact made of the polyester variety used for COVID-19 tests. […]
Upon inspection, a spokeswoman for Pritzker’s office said state public health workers found the swabs are, in fact, made of polyester rather than cotton.
But these swabs are short – the same as a Q-tip, or about the length of a finger.
Swabs used to test for COVID-19 are typically longer, roughly double in length, in order for a person to hold onto the stick end while pushing the tipped portion unsettlingly high into a nostril.
* This has been bubbling for a while. Sen. Duckworth is a solid person. Biden has said he will choose a woman running mate, but Illinois is already in the bag for the Democrats and I’m not sure that she helps drive African-Americans to the polls, so we’ll see…
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is going to interview soon for the post of former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate, her fellow Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Friday.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has said he will select a woman as his running mate and announced a vice presidential search committee late last month. In recent days, speculation about Duckworth as a possibility has steadily increased as the senator has been more visible on television in recent weeks and participated in virtual events for the Biden campaign.
Asked Friday morning in Chicago about whether he thought Duckworth was a realistic possibility as Biden’s VP pick, Durbin indicated she was under consideration.
“I support Tammy Duckworth. She’s spectacular, a great colleague and I hope that she fares well in this interview, which I think is going to take place soon,” Durbin said outside the Cook County Hospital after he visited a COVID-19 testing facility. “And I’m totally in support of her.”
This is Illinois-related, but it’s also presidential politics. So take a very deep breath or three before commenting, please. Thanks.
U.S. factory production plummeted in April by the most in records back to 1919 as coronavirus-related shutdowns exacted a bigger toll on the economy.
Output slumped 13.7% from the prior month after a revised 5.5% decrease in March, Federal Reserve data showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 14.6% decline. Overall industrial production — which also includes output at mines and utilities — dropped 11.2% in April. […]
The Fed’s report also showed capacity utilization, which measures the amount of a plant in use, slid to 64.9%, the lowest in records back to 1967. At manufacturers alone, utilization dropped to 61.1%, an all-time low in data to 1948.
Motor vehicle production slumped to a 70,000-unit annualized rate, compared with 11 million two months earlier, the Fed said.
Retail sales plunged 16.4 percent in April, a record drop and another reflection of how severely the coronavirus pandemic continues to stifle the U.S. economy.
Data released Friday from the Census Bureau blew past analyst expectations, smashing March’s revised decline of 8.3 percent. Shoppers may continue to hunt for cleaning supplies and other basic pantry items, but consumer spending, which typically drives 70 percent of the nation’s economy, remains largely hollowed out. U.S. stock futures fell off the retail news Friday morning.
The April figure reflects the weeks in which most states were still shut down. Last month, 20.5 million people abruptly lost their jobs and the national unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent, the highest level since the Great Depression.
Across the country, worries about having enough to eat are adding to the anxiety of millions of people, according to a survey that found 37% of unemployed Americans ran out of food in the past month and 46% said they worried about running out.
Even those who are working often struggle. Two in 10 working adults said that in the past 30 days, they ran out of food before they could earn enough money to buy more. One-quarter worried that would happen.
Those results come from the second wave of the COVID Impact Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for the Data Foundation. The survey aims to provide an ongoing assessment of the nation’s mental, physical and financial health during the pandemic. […]
Overall, those who are still working are highly confident they will have a job in one month and in three months, with more than 8 in 10 saying it’s very likely. But among those who aren’t working because they are temporarily laid off, providing care during the pandemic or looking for work, just 28% say it is highly likely that they will be employed in 30 days and 46% say it’s highly likely they’ll be working in three months. Roughly another quarter say it’s somewhat likely in 30 days and 90 days.
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll of more than 8,000 adults in late April and early May found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans who are working outside their homes were concerned that they could be exposed to the virus at work and infect other members of their household. Those concerns were even higher for some: Roughly 7 in 10 black and Hispanic workers said they were worried about getting a household member sick if they are exposed at work.
GOP lawmakers said they will wear face coverings, submit to COVID-19 tests and temperature checks and follow other safety measures when they return to Springfield
Um, the paper didn’t talk to the “right” Republicans.
* A spokesperson for Reps. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) and Chris Miller (R-Oakland) told me this morning that the three Eastern Bloc members will refuse to wear face coverings during session next week.
But, if they don’t wear a mask then they won’t be allowed inside the Springfield convention center, where the House will meet. From the House’s special session plan…
All persons admitted into the building must wear a face covering at all times. Cloth masks will be provided to members and staff.
No person is entitled to the floor unless appropriately attired.
That’s never really been enforced, but I suppose it could be used next week.
The Senate has long had the same language in its own rules and it’s been strictly enforced over the years. Jackets and ties are required for men. Gov. Jim Thompson showed up on the Senate floor in a golfing shirt many moons ago and was asked to leave. Before the chamber was remodeled, a sign greeted reporters entering each press box entrance: “Gentlemen must be appropriately attired.” I tried getting one of those signs during the remodeling, but somebody else beat me to them.
* The Senate is meeting at the Statehouse next week and Senate President Harmon’s spokesman John Patterson said the chamber will use the rule to enforce the face-covering policy. Also, you’ll need to be wearing a mask to enter the Statehouse.
I asked Speaker Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown today what would happen if a member took off his or her mask after passing through security. Would the attire rule be enforced? Brown downplayed that possibility and said Madigan was hoping all leaders would encourage their members to abide by the policy. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s spokesperson Eleni Demertzis said her boss had already done that and was planning to remind them again today.
* Anyone can sue anyone for anything, but the likely success of a lawsuit challenging a floor access policy appears dim. This is from the Seventh Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals in Reeder vs. Madigan…
The defendants’ decisions to deny press credentials to Reeder were inseparable from their core legislative activities. They were intimately related to the shared goal of the Illinois Senate and House to regulate access to the floors of the state House and Senate. The defendants are thus entitled to absolute legislative immunity from suit in this case, and we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court to this effect.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced today that beginning Tuesday, May 19, seven facilities will be offering drive-through services for vehicle registration sticker transactions ONLY. This is the first step in a comprehensive reopening plan that will be announced shortly and will include the proper protections for customers and employees, such as PPE and social distancing.
The seven drive-through facilities are Chicago North, Chicago South, Chicago West, Rockford-Central, Macomb, Springfield-Dirksen and Tilton. These facilities were selected due to the configuration of the buildings which allowed for drive-through transactions. All employees will wear face masks and customers are encouraged to do the same.
“My commitment is to do everything we can to help protect the health and safety of our residents, while providing services to the people of Illinois,” said White. “This first step in a reopening plan adheres to this commitment.”
• Hours of operation at Chicago North, Chicago South and Chicago West will be Monday 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cash will not be accepted.
• Hours of operation at Rockford-Central, Macomb and Tilton will be Tuesday 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to noon.
• Hours of operation at Springfield-Dirksen are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
White continues to urge the public to renew their vehicle registration stickers online at www.cyberdriveillinois.com for those customers that can do so. Since mid-March, more than 600,000 people have renewed their stickers online, an increase of approximately 65 percent. Many customers may also renew their driver’s license online through the Safe Driver Renewal program, as well as obtain duplicate driver’s licenses and ID cards.
White is reminding the public that all expiration dates for driver’s licenses, ID cards and vehicle registrations have been extended at least 90 days after Driver Services facilities reopen.
White also reminded the public that the federal government extended the REAL ID deadline by one year. White had petitioned the federal government for this extension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline is now October 1, 2021.
Whenever a crisis hits, it is the most vulnerable among us that are hit the hardest. This is happening now to poor families involved with the Department of Children and Family Services.
Since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic intensified, children who were taken from their parents by DCFS have not been allowed to have supervised visits with each other or their siblings. In a blanket order, DCFS banned all supervised visits between children, parents, and siblings.
Banning supervised visits significantly harms the bond between parent and child and sets vulnerable families up for failure. […]
Many parents have very young children who cannot communicate via phone or video conferencing, and because of this ban they are deprived of the opportunity to see, touch and hold their young children. Even mothers who breastfeed their infant children are prevented from doing so. […]
Supervised visits can be done in a safe way, like all the other acceptable activities permitted during the shelter-in-place order. If we can safely prepare and distribute food, we can safely allow parents and their children to visit one another.
On March 25, DCFS suspended in-person supervised visits between parents and children in foster care because of COVID-19. The policy says phone and video conferencing can be replacements while the state is under a stay-at-home order.
Wednesday’s complaint takes a different view, including that of a clinical psychologist who warns that video and audio calls fail for children under three years old, because children that age depend on physical proximity. Mothers in the legal complaint say the lack of contact with their children is creating emotional harm.
Aaron Goldstein is chief of the civil division of the Cook County Public Defender’s office, which represents parents trying to reunite with children removed from their custody. He said even when the governor lifts the stay-at-home-order, problems remain in a system overwhelmingly poor and black.
“That means we will have had close to two months of no visits for a lot of families, and then how does that play into their case going forward?” Goldstein said. “So even if [the stay-at-home order] ends on May 31, it doesn’t end for our clients, as their case continues and potentially has some serious, serious negative impacts on reunification of bringing these families back together, which in theory is the goal of this system.”
DCFS spokesman Jassen Strokosch said the agency and its partner were finding “creative ways” for supervised visits with the aid of technology, and that judges in some counties were making allowances to facilitate in-person visits.
“We understand people’s frustration, but we want to do what’s in the best interest of children,” he said. “That includes taking into consideration parents’ needs and in maintaining a relationship and also keeping everyone safe.”
Cook County Judge Patricia Martin, who presides over Child Protective courts, said judges still are hearing “emergency” cases. While she has sympathy for parents and children in her court, Martin is trying to adhere to guidelines from DCFS and the Centers for Disease Control by limiting in-person contact, including the number of court hearings she allows. The court, she said, is looking to broaden the list of issues eligible for emergency hearings as soon as this week.
On Thursday, her office argued before Judge Caroline Kate Moreland for an emergency motion declaring the DCFS policy “unlawful.”
“Maintaining a parental relationship with one’s child is a fundamental human interest,” argued Assistant Public Defender Aaron Goldstein, adding these visits could be conducted safely with masks, social distancing and temperature screenings to protect against COVID-19. […]
But attorneys representing DCFS and the Cook County public guardian argued the case should be dismissed, claiming the suit has no merit and accusing the public defender of “forum shopping” as there’s already a prior pending case in juvenile court raising the same issues.
“The notion that DCFS is defying court orders is frankly fundamentally wrong,” Assistant Attorney General Barbara Greenspan said during Thursday’s hearing. The balance the DCFS had struck between safety and visitation ability is the “appropriate one,” she said.
…Adding… Believe it or not, the Cook County Public Guardian sided with DCFS. From his brief…
The world is in the midst of a global pandemic the likes of which has not occurred for over a century. The DCFS policy at issue requires that caseworkers identify alternative ways to allow parent/child contact during this crisis, and specifically mentions videoconferencing, telephones, etc, to continue meaningful contact during the public health crisis. The children agree with plaintiffs that the electronic visitation in the absence of in-person contact is not ideal. However, it cannot be said that the DCFS policy is patently unreasonable under the circumstances. The policy strikes a balance between the health and safety of the children, the plaintiffs, the involved caseworkers, the childrens’ caregivers and the public, and is consistent with the Governor’s emergency stay-at-home order.
U.S. Representatives Darin LaHood (IL-18), John Shimkus (IL-13), Adam Kinzinger (IL-16), Rodney Davis (IL-13), and Mike Bost (IL-12) sent a letter today to Congressional Leadership urging that Congress take action to prevent governors from withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress for local municipalities that allow their small businesses to reopen in accordance with federal health guidelines, but ahead of arbitrary timelines outlined by states.
Following last week’s announcement of the “Restore Illinois” plan by Governor Pritzker, the Illinois Republican delegation heard from mayors, sheriffs, county board officials, and constituents with deep concern that the current guidelines outlined by the state will cripple the livelihoods of communities downstate. Many municipalities have laid out thoughtful, safe, and reasonable plans to reopen their communities within the federal guidelines. However, Governor Pritzker this week threatened to withhold federally appropriated funding localities that safely try to reopen in accordance with those guidelines, but ahead of his arbitrary timeline. As Congress debates additional relief legislation, the Congressmen released the following joint statement:
“One of Illinois’ great strengths is our regional diversity, and Illinoisans of all backgrounds have stepped up to slow the spread of COVID—19 and flatten the curve. Small businesses, workers, and community leaders that we represent take this virus seriously and they are prepared to take unprecedented measures to safely reopen their local economies. That’s why it’s disappointing that Governor Pritzker threaten to withhold federal funding that Congress appropriated to provide relief to those in need.
“The federal government and Congress have done a great deal to support Illinois during this challenging time. We don’t believe our governor, or any governor, should have the authority to prevent federal funding they receive that Congress appropriates from flowing to communities fighting for their livelihoods and abiding by the federal health guidelines. We urge Congress to take action and stand ready to work with our colleagues to continue providing the federal relief Illinois needs.”
While Congress should consider prohibiting Illinois from raising income taxes on small businesses as a condition of state aid, we urge you to act immediately to ensure no governor can withhold federal funds appropriated by Congress for local municipalities that allow their small businesses to reopen in accordance with federal health guidelines
* Related…
* Fact-check: Downstate congressman’s claim about Chicago’s share of Illinois COVID-19 cases is 100% wrong
After granting the troubled nursing home industry legal immunity through an executive order last month, Gov. JB Pritzker backtracked slightly and ordered that the industry can only be protected from civil liability lawsuits involving Covid-19.
On Wednesday, Pritzker eased the extension of an April order to include nursing homes in an executive order granting immunity for hospitals from lawsuits for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. Nursing home reform advocates blasted the governor, saying he was protecting an industry rife with elderly abuse.
“To give an industry with a long history of neglect, abuse, poor staffing, poor infection control and non-preparedness for a situation like this…is a very bad idea,” said Steve Levin, a Chicago attorney who specializes in cases involving elder abuse. “It’s essentially giving them a get-out-of-jail free pass for past and current misconduct.”
Those protections now only apply to cases involving the diagnosis, treatment and transmission of Covid-19. Additionally, protections are only available to facilities that provide widespread testing of residents and staff at the homes.
Ann Spillane, Pritzker’s chief legal counsel, denied the original order was about protecting the nursing home industry from legal trouble. She suggested it was intended to address deaths that were likely to occur in facilities that were not originally designed or equipped to handle outbreaks the size of a pandemic.
“We’re asking them to go outside their normal comfort zone,’” Spillane said.
She added that, in April, there was a real danger of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities not accepting Covid-19-positive patients out of fear of liability, a situation that may have overwhelmed nearby hospitals.
However, advocates for nursing home reform say extensions should never have been extended to nursing homes in the first place, especially given the industry’s troubled reputation over many years.
Roosevelt Journigans hasn’t left his workplace in 30 days, and he just signed up to extend that streak to 45 days before he finally goes home again.
Journigans is among 120 employees of Trinity Services Inc. who during the COVID-19 pandemic have moved into residential facilities for developmentally disabled individuals in Illinois to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease.
Instead of eight or nine different staff members a day coming and going across three eight-hour shifts at the Joliet care home where he works, Journigans and two other women left their own homes behind to live 24/7 at the facility for a month.
“At first I wasn’t interested,” said Journigans, 63, who normally lives with his sister in Lockport. “It worked out pretty good.”
It’s quite a personal sacrifice, albeit one that comes with additional compensation of overtime pay and bonuses.
The sacrifice also is made easier by the special relationships that often exist between residents and workers.
“You develop bonds with them. I always worry about them. Basically, we are their family,” he said.
The so-called “stay in place” approach requires workers to cut themselves off physically from the community, almost as if they were working on an oil well at sea.
And it appears to have worked. According to Brown, just six cases and one death have occurred at Trinity’s 100 facilities.
These workers, by the way, are AFSCME Local 2690 members. Journigans is the local president.
…Adding… Kathy Carmody, the CEO of the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities…
Hi Rich –
Below is an excerpt from The Institute’s testimony on Wednesday before the Senate Healthcare and Human Services Workgroup. Agencies that have moved to this staffing model are literally saving the lives of some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans. Roosevelt Journigans and others like him across the state are truly deserving of our praise and appreciation.
Community organizations supporting people in residential settings, like other sectors of the health care industry, have been forced to adapt to the current landscape and make significant changes to their business and service models. In an effort to reduce exposure among CILA residents (nearly 30% of whom are age 60+ and many of whom have co-morbid conditions), agencies have changed their staffing model where possible from a shift-staff to a live-in model. This model greatly reduces exposure and risk however it is a costly proposition which cannot continue indefinitely. In addition to paying overtime and premium wages to staff working under the live-in model, organization are also paying staff who are not working regular wages to retain them. While this approach has indisputably saved lives, it is not a long-term sustainable staffing model. You may have read the article in today’s Chicago Sun Times about Trinity Services, an Institute member and their heroic team member Mr. Roosevelt Journigans who has been living in a Trinity facility for over a month with 2 more weeks still to go. In addition to the live-in model, organizations have widely implemented enhanced wages to staff working during this period in recognition of the risks they are exposed to on a daily basis. While our direct support workforce is as heroic and essential as other members of the healthcare sector, they unfortunately, are not as identifiable as many of their peers in that space.
I will be traveling to Springfield for a few session days to pass a budget and needed COVID related legislation. Before we go it has been advised to get a COVID test even though I have no symptoms. There is no drive thru testing in DuPage county. Perhaps that may be one reason there is a perception that DuPage does not have as many cases. It took me all afternoon to set up to be tested tomorrow morning and that is by going to Melrose Park. The DuPage appointment only sites could not do anything until next week. It should not be this difficult to get a test!
Please keep it Illinois-centric and try to be nice to each other.
