* Gov. Pritzker at his media briefing today…

Before I take questions from the press, I want to briefly address some of what we’ve been hearing lately from those who believe that we need to reopen faster than the science and the data dictates.

Folks, I know this is hard. I know that people are hurting. This virus has taken many lives, and destroyed many livelihood.s COVID-19 has turned our world upside down, stolen our sense of normalcy and stability. I want this to end just as much as you do. If I could take away the pain and the loss that you’re feeling right now I would do it in a heartbeat.

This virus is still among us. This pandemic is not over. And to pretend otherwise in a misguided attempt to reclaim what we’ve lost will only make this last longer. There are no easy decisions in a pandemic. Every choice [has] consequences.

I know leaders across the state are struggling with these choices. I have sympathy for them in that struggle. But what I don’t have sympathy for is those so intent on disregarding science and logic, so afraid to tell their constituents what they may not want to hear, they put more people’s lives at risk.

Here’s what I want to say to those leaders who weren’t elected to do what’s easy. We’re elected to do what’s right. For the small minority of businesses that choose to ignore the medical doctors and the data and to ignore your legal obligations for the residents of your communities, there will be consequences.

Businesses and individual professionals that are licensed by state agencies will be held accountable for breaching public health orders. Counties that try to reopen in defiance may not be reimbursed by FEMA for damages they cause because they ignored the law. Local law enforcement and the Illinois State Police can and will take action.

But there is no consequence the state could impose that is greater than the harm that you will do to your own communities.

192 Illinoisand lost their lives to this virus in the past 24 hours. 192.

How is that not real to you? More people will get sick, get admitted to the hospital and die if we don’t stay the course and follow the guidance the experts have provided to the elected officials out there, or playing to the crowd that ignores science and carries symbols of hate.

Step up and lead. Now, more than ever, your communities need you.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* More…

Last thing before I take questions, I want to address something that I said yesterday regarding baseball and baseball players. I want to apologize for leaving the impression that baseball players shouldn’t have the right to bargain, or protect their health and safety. I absolutely support that right. I should have made that more clear to you.

* Downstate Madison County and Adams County have both authorized their own reopenings… Other than withholding federal funds, what other enforcement mechanisms are you considering? Have you ruled out sending in state police?…

Well, not just federal funds that we’re talking about, as I just said the businesses that ignore the executive orders that ignore the law will be held accountable by our department of Professional Regulation. They will be held accountable by any licensing body, liquor commission Liquor Control Commission, the others. There are enforcement mechanisms here that we will be using against them. And again [I implore the leaders] of these communities not to give into a minority of residents who are clamoring to ignore the science and the data, but instead to follow the rules to follow the law and most importantly to keep residents of your community safe.

* The local communities already reeling from economic downturn, federal funds are withheld by our administration. If regulation gets involved it takes away some of the licenses of business owners. I mean these are folks that are already hurting, bears responsibility if their hardship gets even worse…

They’re the ones who bear the responsibility because they’re the ones who are not following the rules. Let’s be clear what we’re trying to do here is keep people healthy and safe, and to reopen the economy simultaneously. That’s what the Restore Illinois plan did.

I would suggest to everybody they take a look again at that plan that is more expeditious in many ways than the plan put out by the White House, but it also takes into account, making sure that our health care institutions have the capacity to manage people who will get sick. As things reopen in the economy if you do it too fast you’re going to see an over running of the healthcare system. And very importantly, many people getting sick going into the hospital, ending up in ICU beds

* Would you consider getting out of Chicago and visiting some of the small mom and pop shops and restaurants in the suburbs, downstate to see for yourself how they say that they can safely reopened with social distancing just like a stores are operating currently…

Well, as you know I’ve traveled quite a lot around the state and I of course talk to business owners everywhere in the state, and have been doing so especially over the last two months, as we’ve been trying to provide supports for them and to make sure that we’re putting rules in place for phase three phase four that will make sense for them when it is safe to open. I love to travel the state love to go into communities. At this point, though, remember that for me to go in to shake hands with people to hug people the way that I like to do isn’t going to be a smart thing for them or for me and it breaks the rules, frankly. Meanwhile, as you know, I’ve been very much in communication with the state of Illinois and speaking with the mayor’s city council people representatives, all over the state. And I look forward to a moment when we have a real opportunity to get together to celebrate the reopening of businesses reopening of our economy, when it is safe and healthy for people to do so.

Dude is in quarantine and reporters are asking why he isn’t out and about? Weird.

* Would you not benefit you know from a firsthand view today of these locations with their measures set up with a plexiglass perhaps in some of these locations, set up you know obviously you’re sitting in in meetings with scientists, discussing models but what it benefits you to go to some of these locations and eyeball yourself. Their current setup?…

100% and I would suggest to the business owners who are thinking about reopening against the rules breaking the law, that they come to Chicago and come to a hospital in Chicago, or go to a hospital near them that has COVID-19 patients and talk to the nurses, the doctors who are on the front lines and ask them, what it means to them that people follow the stay at home rules. Because the fact is that right now what’s so important is that people do the right thing for their neighbors their friends, their communities, for everybody in the state, frankly, most people are doing the right thing. And most people understand why you have a stay at home rule. It is a minority of folks who are breaking the rules and putting people in danger.

“Come to Chicago” is not a great response.

* Based on the IDPH data that region, according to that data every region except the Northeast, is already green for phase three. Why are they not reopening now why do they have to wait until May 29?…

There’s a reason why we’re watching all of these regions over a period of time. First of all, if you look very closely at the data set not declining the numbers that you want to have declining or not, there is a flatness of flattening of the curve, but not a decline. And so what we want to do is watch as we reopened remember there were many changes that were made in the stay at home order on May 1. And so once you make those changes what you want to do is watch and see whether there is an increase in the caseload, and the positivity rate in the hospitalizations and so on. The same thing will happen when we enter phase three to enter phase three which is coming in 16 days I believe we’re going to wait and watch. Because, you know, people don’t get sick immediately, what happens is they get sick, they get exposed. And then they get sick over time. And then they end up in a hospital some number of them. And then, in an ICU bed and so on and that happens over the course of several weeks. So it’s very important that we watch and carefully monitor what’s happening in each region, but I am very glad that three of the four regions already looked like they’re on a path to reach phase three. And I’m hopeful that the last region the Northeast region will also be able to reach phase three quickly, although I would point out that there’s a 14 day measurement of that last metric that positivity rate 14 day metric, or making sure that that’s under 20, and it looks very much as if the Northeast region is heading that direction. And as I said, there are about 16 days left in the, the month of May, and if you average out looking at the last few days positivity and what likely will be either stable or downward movement of that positivity number, the Northeast region will hit the mark by the end of May as well.

He really needs to work on that pitch. Way too disjointed.

* Dana Kozlov from CBS two wants to get your thoughts on the legislature getting together next week, and specifically some Republican lawmakers are preparing or have already prepared legislation allowing for other businesses to reopen and requiring you to get legislative approval on any additional emergency declarations…

It’s their right to introduce legislation. I mean, I think everybody understands that what I’ve been doing is following the science and the data, doing what’s best for our economy, given that the virus is out there. I want to remind everybody that when people get sick, and when they die, but that too has an economic cost, I mean, aside from the variable cost of families and communities. There’s also an economic cost to our state. When that’s happening so take that into account when you’re suggesting that we should follow a different path.

* Has any other staff ever tested positive or showing symptoms…

No other staff people have tested positive to my knowledge, at this point, and the one staffer who did I was in contact with the day that person indicated that they are feeling fine.

Have you been tested again since Sunday?…

I have not be tested every day. I have been isolating. There’s no reason for me to test every day. I think you know once we discovered that someone was positive in our office I think it was appropriate for me to get tested, and you know at this point I’m simply isolating like others do when they find out they’ve been in somewhat close contact with someone who’s tested.

* We continue to get complaints from people who cannot collect unemployment benefits because of a variety of mistakes that the system can’t seem to correct as you call certainly numbers, and at those certain numbers, no one answers. Are you doing about this and why is it taking so long?…

Yeah, I mean you know we have thousands of many thousands of calls that come in each day, thousands get answered and responded to. And people get processed over the phone, as well. I realized that it is difficult when you can’t file. If there’s some problem with your filing online, and it requires perhaps an arbitration or some other intervention that it does mean that you’ll have to have a personal discussion with somebody. We’re working very hard we’ve just spun up this outside call Center to add on top of the internal IDs capability, and we’re getting to them as fast as possible again with an unprecedented number of filings. It is difficult but I will say that the new PUA system for people who are independent contractors for filing is resulting in 10s of thousands of people being able to connect with the system and as I indicated yesterday about 50,000 filings.

* We are hearing from nursing home owners who are saying that testing supplies are still scarce. When can nursing homes expect more testing supplies, or is there a shortage of COVID-19 tests for those long term care facilities?…

Well there’s a shortage of tests all across the country. We’ve prioritized those nursing home so they’re actually getting many more on balance than other facilities or other locations are and so to the extent that there’s a facility that hasn’t had testing. It’s simply because there are so many in the state of Illinois we now have, I think we have more has to get the test done. We’ve had to go sign outside contracts you’ve heard me talk about, for example, and our new contract which allows them to deliver tests and pick up tests once they’re completed. So we’re again, our testing capability is spinning up all over the state nursing homes are among the highest priority.

* Amy Jacobson from wind asks if the Illinois attorney general has a written legal opinion that dates back to 2001 that essentially said that you are acting illegally. You did not have the power to issue the stay at home order beyond the initial 30 days according to this legal opinion. Do you agree with the AG’s office? If so, will you rescind the order as invalid. And if not, why you believe you can disregard the Office of the Attorney General?…

The Attorney General’s Office has not issued that to us, and indeed the attorney general’s office is handling legal matters for the governor’s office, for the stay at home order to defend it. We do have the legal right to issue those executive orders especially here in the context of a disaster declaration. And as you know, that’s something that enables the governor of the state to take actions to protect the health and safety of people across the state and that’s what I’ve been doing.

* Fox 32 has a question regarding Willie Wilson, getting 100 pastors to go against your stay at home order. Have you reached out to Willie Wilson. What will you do with those pastors have service on Sunday?…

No, it’s a ridiculous call on the part of Willie Wilson. The idea of encouraging pastors, bringing what amounts to a large population of elderly African Americans to church to get together, not only in defiance of the executive order, but also putting them at significant risk. Think about it. We’re talking about senior citizens who as we know are a vulnerable population. And on top of that, African American senior citizens, most of those that he’s talking about. And they are especially vulnerable as well. Those double sets of comorbidity putting those groups of people together in large groups is an enormous mistake, and I would suggest that Willie Wilson do his homework that he look at what the science and data says that that will do to people that obviously I care deeply about and I assume he does too

* In April, Dr. Ezike said that even cases quote with a clear alternate cause of death who tested positive are listed as a COVID death. Yesterday you indicated that IDPH was trying to remove those obvious cases. Did that process begin. And can you explain the process?…

Dr. Ezike: If it’s not a forensic pathologist performing an autopsy, and who was doing that work to determine the actual cause of that we are calculating obviously the numbers, we get reported deaths to us. And so again I think I’ve expressed this many times before tha, because we are getting the information and turning it over the same day that we’re getting it it doesn’t give us enough time to go through and make sure that there aren’t some enter either the wrong state needs to be attributed somewhere else, that it’s not the, you know, a different cause of death to make sure that there wasn’t a double count that they weren’t the same people listed in two different reports. So, again, not being able to have enough time in an effort to get the information out to the public so quickly, you know some of that review cannot happen. And so when it happens on the back end and we do try to remove things that are clearly not intended to be listed amongst the COVID death and so we are trying to remove. There was an accident, a car accident, if there was a homicide or suicide or something that was clearly not related we are trying to remove those numbers to make sure that these are accurate.

* Friday I asked you if you had a snapshot of the possible cases of the child inflammatory syndrome that we’re seeing across the country I think New York is now reporting more than 100 civil cases related to that. And I think you indicated a few days ago that public health departments were going to begin reporting. Do you have an update today on that whole issue?…

Dr. Ezike: Please know that we have a very systematic process to approach this. So, we have, I have talked to many pediatric specialists, both pediatric infectious disease, doctors pediatric cardiologists pediatric intensivist. And so we have assembled a team, along with our IDPH staff who are going to convene again from the information that I’ve received from all of these specialists. This is a complicated disorder, it’s not a single disease rather it’s a spectrum of disorders, much like you would think of autism, where one autistic patient, you know you have the ID, the diagnosis of autism, but one patient does not look and look completely different from another patient holding that same diagnosis so again with this inflammatory disease that’s associated sometimes with with shock, it’s a spectrum of disorders and so you know in some cases you’ll have the individual have coronary artery involvement sometimes they don’t. Again, that’s why there’s a team of specialists that are convenient so that they can come up with some agreed upon criteria that will be used that IDPH will then put out the guidance saying this is the criteria. These are the features that we’re looking for. This is what we want you when you see it to report to IDPH so you know again, sometimes information gets ahead of itself without getting the due process and the due diligence. This is not a situation of COVID with Kawasaki that has been reported repeatedly in the press, and Many of these cases would not fit the criteria for Kawasaki, we have multiple Kawasaki specialists here in Illinois, they will be part of the team, but we want to get a clear definition of the features that will be looked for, and then we will put that out as what to let all pediatric, but all providers know that these are the features we’re looking for and this is what we’re asking to be reported. So we hope to have that whole process completed before the end of next week.

* In factories with a cluster of COVID positive cases among employees, at what point is the state stepping in to ensure safety of essential workers? What enforcement measures are being taken to make sure private companies are following proper safety measures?…

There are two ways that those get enforced, three ways really, the Department of Labor, of course complaints to the Department of Labor, things that are filed with the attorney general’s office as well. Private actions that people can take, because of the negligence of the employer.

* The number of positive test results have been soaring in Illinois in the past few weeks sometimes leading the entire nation. Some of that is due to more cases but what extent is the increased telling us something about how far COVID has spread in the state?…

Dr. Ezike: No, the issue is, you have more testing. I think we’ve always known that if we saw a day, in the early days when we had very limited capacity and could do, maybe 100 or 200, that if you did those many tests, you would get a certain number of positives. We knew that for that one positive, that wasn’t the only positive in the state of every positive we know that there were many other people who did not get tested, who had similar symptoms. But, in fact we were telling people to stand down because we didn’t have the capacity we said okay, if you’re a pretty healthy person and you have mild symptoms, but you know you were in contact with someone who was diagnosed, yep, you probably have covid, so just isolate yourself. At that time we think we were saying, stand down for 14 days from the start of symptoms, and then get better and then return. So we know that there are for everyone there were like many additional people for each one case that were positive with us being able to test more, we’re just getting to those actual numbers. But again we know that there have been people who were sick and couldn’t get tested, and we know other people who were around a confirmed case, probably were COVID positive also. So I think we should be looking at the denominator and see, it’s a great thing that we’re increasing our capacity for testing. As you look at the percent positivity. It’s not that our percent positivity is going up, not the case at all. So, the concern that oh my goodness maybe things are getting worse in terms of the higher numbers of cases, the higher numbers of cases are because we’re testing more people, but overall I think our positivity rate is not going up, but we do all want to know what our status is.

* With the legislature reconvening next week when will you return to Springfield governor and how will the state pay for the aid package you’re calling for?…

Well I’m glad that the legislature is going to return to Springfield and I certainly look forward to seeing people in Springfield as a result of their return.

Let me also say that it’s very important to me that we pass a COVID relief package for the families of the state, for the small towns of Illinois and for the small business. Much of the work that was done at the federal level, missed out on supporting many people there are just lots of people who fell through the cracks of that big federal program the PPP program for example, many small businesses never were able to access. We want to make sure that our small businesses or family businesses out there the small, you know, startups that people have put their lives into. We want to make sure that they survive and thrive. And so, a COVID relief package is very important to do.

How will we pay for it? Obviously, as I said for some time now, we have real challenges with the loss of revenue, because of COVID-19. So, we need to we need to rely upon the federal government and its support for all the states. In order for us to provide the services that people need in order for us to pay for the education that our kids need, and for us to support our businesses and our families in the wake of this as we’re dealing with this COVID-19 crisis.

* The state’s $800 million long term bond issue cleared the market today. It did so at record yield penalties for the state. Do you think it’s worth it to pay such a steep penalty instead of holding off until you learn whether the federal government will come through with aid? Also is the state considering using the Federal Reserve’s short term lending program for either the 1.2 billion of certificates that have not yet sold or issue other that? And if not, why not, that lowers the cost of borrowing…

It’s a lot of questions. So, let me start with the fact that there were people who didn’t think anybody, any state could get a bond deal through. We did, and people you see the strength of the folks who are interested in investing in our bonds, they see that the state has strength that we’ve been on a path that was putting us on firm fiscal footing before COVID-19 came along. So I think they know that we’re also going to be headed, you know, as we’re coming out of COVID-19 in a responsible way to deal with the financial challenges that we have. That’s why we were able to get strong interest in our bonds.

The financial penalty that you pay in this environment you know where every state is challenged every state, essentially has gotten a kind of a move, push toward the negative by those who rate the bonds of states that you know, of course, everybody’s going to get a ding on the markets as they go out to seek to borrow, but it was important for us to do so. It helps us to continue to keep people working by investing in our capital program and by lowering the overall pension liability, because a portion of those dollars actually go to buy out folks who are in our pension system and retiring, and we can buy them out at a discount for the dollars that we’re borrowing. So you know we’ll be continually accessing the public markets as states always do. But we were very pleased by the strong showing strong interest in the bonds that Illinois sold today.

* The Sun-Times has reported that Navy Pier has received nearly $25 million in coronavirus loans from the federal government towards salaries and other expenses. Do you think the federal government should be loaning the pier money to cover such high salaries?…

I haven’t evaluated the application that the Pier put in but look we have very important functions of the city of the county of the state. These facilities’ institutions that need to be supported. Navy Pier the, you know, McCormick Place others. It’s very important I think that they are supported in one fashion or another, as to what the application said I can’t speak to the specifics of it. But as you know as an institution, I think it’s important for us to preserve those parts of Chicago that will be very important for us to come out of the crisis that we’re in now, and to come out of the financial doldrums that we’re in now, people will want to go back to Navy Pier we need to make sure that the pier is strong.

* When does the State anticipate offering guidance to state universities about when it might be feasible for the fall semester. Is it realistic for them to plan for on campus learning. And what do you anticipate might be feasible for college athletes which are a big recruitment tool?…

First of all our Board of Higher Education and our community college boards, both will be considering whether or not you know and when the universities and community colleges will be opening up so I’m not going to render an opinion about whether they will or won’t. But it’s important to me that we get kids back to school, and I’m determined to see that happens. Having said that, again we’re all kind of watching the numbers and watching the progress here that we’re able to make against COVID-19.

What was the last part of the question, student athletes. I mean it’s again I think all of us want to be able to give guidance this far in advance, but it’s very hard to do right.

* With lawmakers coming back to Springfield, can you offer some guidance on where you think the budget should be cut or areas that should be spared cuts?…

We’re gonna have to work on this together, the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, if they’re willing to work with us. It’s important that we have a plan here for balancing the budget. We have challenges that really require the federal government to be involved in terms of areas that I think are vital for us going forward. You know how important it has been to me to lift up to improve our Department of Children Family Services to see that cut in any significant way would be really damaging. I think that’s one area where that I can identify that I really don’t want to see us do any damage to the progress that we’ve already made, and keep us moving in a forward direction. There are other things you know we talk about something important that nobody paid attention to before. The Department of Public Health. We do invest in our public health infrastructure. Now more than ever, But we’ll need it now in this COVID-19 crisis. You know what I think everybody realizes, there could be another pandemic that comes along, other healthcare crisis, public health crisis and so we need to invest in the fundamentals of our public health system including our county public health system so there’s a lot that I think we’re gonna have to work on in this budget. But vital vital to this is getting support from the federal government, there’s no chance that we won’t have to suffer severe damaging cuts to higher education in K 12 education to basic services that people need, if we don’t get any support. That’s what’s going to happen to our state, we’re going to see just an enormous hole where we’ve made so much progress.

* There’s a lot of concern about the drive thru testing site [in Bloomington] which is closing tomorrow. You said it was only averaging 26 people per day and there are plenty of other testing options in Bloomington. We think you may have been given bad information is your administration willing to revisit the decision to open alternative sites here in Bloomington?…

What’s important to us is that people get tested and there were many many days of that drive through testing in which it was underperforming. I was citing one day I have to admit that, you know, they’re different numbers run through my head. I remember that being one of the days of Bloomington. The fact is, though that what we want to make sure that happens is that people actually use drive through testing, the other drive thru facilities have done much much more. Many more tests have been performed at the other ones that we want to promote and encourage people to get tested. We reached out spoke with some of the leaders in Bloomington, and we’re assured that they would encourage people to use the drive thru testing in Bloomington and so we’ve extended drive thru in Bloomington through next week.

* A number of reports from researchers in China and India have shown the spread of COVID-19 through air conditioning at restaurants and offices, what is the state doing and what can it do to ensure similar infections don’t occur here?…

That’s not testing that’s been confirmed. That’s not something that’s been acted upon. As a result, but we’re very much interested in the CDC, determination, and the studies that will be done to confirm that or, or to determine that that’s accurate. But that’s something that we’re going to keep an eye on obviously all of these situations. We don’t know enough about this coronavirus this novel coronavirus, so each time is a new piece of information, you heard that the original call around this Kawasaki like effect on children was deemed to be somewhat inaccurate. Now there’s a much more robust view of what it really is and how to track it. And the same thing is true here. As we learn more, we’re gonna follow the guidance that’s given but the research capability doesn’t exist for the state of Illinois, but does at the federal level and with private research and public research institutions that have the ability to do so.

* Governor both the Illinois thoroughbred and harness racing associations are worried that their seasons will be severely truncated spelling the death knell for an already struggling industry in Illinois, Arlington High scores hasn’t yet committed to doing spectator free racing but harness racing has, I understand. It is also come to an agreement with the Department of Agriculture and IDPH on conducting races without fans in the stands. When will both of these types of racing be able to commence so the trainers will be able to earn their living?…

When it’s determined that there are rules that will keep everybody safe. That’s the most important thing I mean obviously in our restore Illinois plan. We didn’t list every single industry, including harness racing or racing. But we are making sure that each industry has a set of guidelines, and we’ve encouraged industry leaders in fact that’s much of what’s happening, and been happening over the last number of weeks and weeks going forward. What the proper rules should be in each industry you know how far apart do people need to be. They safely distance on the backstretch for example, and you know when they’re lined up in a race, how far apart. Do they really need to be, do they need to be in stalls that are two apart for example. So, all because you have jockeys Of course and not to mention the trainers or the people working with jockeys at the start of a race so all those things need to be considered. As we’ve talked about with other major league sports, there will not be at least at the beginning, fans in the stands, but it is possible, I think, to see that at least I can imagine that there will be some approval at some point for all of horse racing. But again, I’m going to leave that to the experts, particularly the doctors to make sure that everybody can do it safely.

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