[Time stamp altered for Tuesday visibility.]

* 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.

* From the governor’s remarks…

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.

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