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* Gov. JB Pritzker at a joint media briefing with Mayor Lori Lightfoot today…
I have activated 375 members of the Illinois National Guard to carry out a limited mission to assist local law enforcement with street closures. With regard to protesters who are exercising their first amendment rights. The guard has explicit direction not to interfere. They will operate under the most stringent parameters on use of force and General Neely has made those parameters abundantly clear to members of our National Guard.
Remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* More from the governor…
I also think it’s important to recognize that for much of the day yesterday. The protests here in Chicago were beautiful, massive and peaceful. That is as much a part of the story of what’s happening in this city in this country as anything else.
But late in the evening yesterday. The protests became about violence and damage, and that changes the conversation, away from the terrible acts that took George Floyd’s life away from the insidious racism that we all have a role in addressing.
It’s hard to find the right words to say today. The truth is, words alone don’t cut it anymore. But it’s my job in moments of crisis to be a voice for all of Illinois, to bear witness to pain and rage and anxiety and fear. And I see the pain of this moment written on the faces of my black friends and colleagues and staff.
I know that peacefully protesting is only one part of the expression of that pain. I know that they need to see action, which includes real criminal justice and policing reform, as well as a sustained economic investment in black and brown communities. I know that they need to see complete and full justice for George Floyd and his family. Something we have not seen yet. I know that one of my most sacred obligations as your governor is to take actions that build trust. And that takes time.
I also have an obligation to the state, and to the city of Chicago to keep people safe, even as we are dealing with this destructive pandemic. We have never curtailed people’s right to peacefully express themselves. But the virus is still out there.
And we cannot forget that we have communities all around the state that are desperately trying to recover from the damage that this virus has done. And I’m imploring people to not force a difficult second rebuilding on our small businesses in the course of expressing your very justified pain.
I know things are broken. It doesn’t make us weaker to acknowledge that. I know people are suffering. and it doesn’t diminish us to see that despair exists when things are broken and people are suffering, and then everyone refuses to acknowledge it. We cannot fix things that we decide not to see. So let’s go forward with our eyes wide open in our hearts committed to actions that back up our words.
* Mayor Lightfoot…
I want to be clear and emphasize what the governor himself just said, the Guard is here to support our police department. They will not be actively involved in policing or patrolling, but here as needed support.
* More Lightfoot…
To be clear, we all support and cherish the First Amendment and the right of us as residents to express ourselves in peaceful, nonviolent protest. I’ve certainly marched in a number of protests myself.
But we also have an obligation to make sure that when there are elements amongst the protesters, or others who joined the fray that don’t have respect for peaceful, nonviolent protest, but do have, as the design, the decision to bring hammers, shovels, bottles of urine, excrement, accelerates, as we saw throughout yesterday and into the evening. We do have an obligation also, to protect life and liberty, and property. And that’s exactly what we did, and we will continue to do.
We are a strong city, and a proud people. This is our home. This is the city that we built. And we will always protect our city because this is the home that will provide for all of us, for generations to come. This is a city that also cares for each other. I’ve seen that over and over again in countless ways. During the darkest moments of the pandemic called COVID-19.
* More Lightfoot…
And I want to take this opportunity to once again to thank our men and women of the Chicago Police Department who exercised incredible restraint all day, all night against a very difficult and traumatic circumstances. I want to thank the men and women of our fire department who responded and put out fires that arsonists had said, and I want to express my gratitude to our many other city employees. We’ve been working around the clock now for days to keep our residents and businesses safe and our steady running, and they include the members of the Office of Emergency Management communication, because Call Center has been working overtime, as well as our men and women in our department of streets and sanitation and buildings and water management, our Department of Transportation, and the CTA. And I want to thank other partners who are standing with us here today. Illinois State police state police gave heroic support to the men and women of the police department yesterday and I am grateful for their assistance. Yesterday and today I want to thank State’s Attorney, Kim Fox, whose office has been an invaluable partner with us as we navigate these very difficult times. The governor said this, he is right, this is a time for us to unite.
Even from the destruction that we’ve seen what I choose to focus on is not what we’ve lost, but what we can and will gain from this moment, as we come together as a city and move forward as we return our pain into the purpose and continue the hard but necessary work of building a more inclusive equitable and just city. This is who we are, Chicago, and we will not let a small element subvert us try though they might, we will stand and rise above this moment, we will support our people who want to raise their voices and peaceful protests, and we will never, never allow element to conflate that noble and righteous expression [audio cut out at that point]
* From National Guard General Neely’s remarks…
I stood at this podium many times over the last several weeks as we responded to COVID-19 as our doctors and our medical personnel swarmed into the city to stand up community based testing and to support the communities, some of these communities today that are most challenged, ensuring that underserved communities had the testing that they needed and ensuring that we were there on the frontlines supporting our medical providers. And today, that’s what we do.
Again, we come in to support law enforcement. to support peace, to support First Amendment rights to free speech. Some of us have soldiers in our [garbled], or civilian police officers, first responders, some are teachers, firefighters, factory workers, mechanic ,students. They come from a variety of backgrounds. We are a slice of Illinois. And we are a slice of the city.
We are here to carry out a limited mission at the request of Mayor Lightfoot and the governor to help manage street closures, so that those protesters will not interfere with those who want to exercise their First Amendment rights. In fact, we are committed to protecting every citizen to ensure their rights are are not stepped on whether they’re here in Illinois, or while deployed overseas.
Today, the first contingent of National Guard members have already arrived, they’re fully equipped to protect themselves to get for this mission, as well as against COVID-19, the risk associated with a current mission, have been addressed. Each soldier has been given strict guidelines as the governor outlined with the use of force. And we will not during this teleconference today discuss those guidelines or policies, and that’s really for the protection of our soldiers who are on the fruit on the street and to ensure their safety. We are here to help.
* Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx…
As someone who was born and raised in this city, born in one of the toughest neighborhoods in this city, a community that was fair to say had been on the margins, who had seen all of the inequities that we are talking about this week, driving into the city with a piece of hope in my heart when I saw the skyline and my heart broke when I saw the boards on our windows. This is a tough day.
* Foxx on George Floyd…
When I looked at that video, and I made the mistake of looking at the whole thing, and I watched that man with his knee in that man’s neck hand in pocket. In the casual disregard for his life in broad daylight, while being filmed without a concern in the world as to what would happen to him that we will be inclined to think that it’s just the murder of George Floyd that has our streets filled. What I remember feeling in that moment was the casualness of all of the things that we have experienced in this country that we were dealing with, with COVID-19, the casual acceptance of racial disparities in health care that when we looked at the work that has been done in the last few months to deal with this pandemic and the news came out that African Americans were disproportionately dying and Latinos, the casual acceptance that that’s part of what happens with underlying health conditions, because the casual acceptance that we have people living in communities that don’t have access to health care. And we just accept the casual acceptance that those who were losing their jobs in the midst of this pandemic are frontline workers are essential workers were black and Latino and going into grocery stores and being clerks and being the least paid we casually accept that.
We casually accept with the hand in our pocket that the last time there were major riots in the city of Chicago in the 60s on the west side where we’ve seen burnt out buildings that remain an economic disinvestment continue that those folks we know, had been victims of historic discrimination and redlining that brought Martin Luther King to our neighborhoods in the 60s before I was born, and we still see the same levels of discrimination today with a hand in our pocket looking into the camera as though nothing’s going to change.
* More Foxx…
Whether it is those that have come here to sow discontent, who would have the audacity to write Black Lives Matter on buildings, when they don’t at all feel that, who would use this as an opportunity to sow that discontent to distract from what the real issues are.
To use criminality to poison the conversations around what we ought to be talking about that the last 24 hours. We’ve been talking about buildings and not policy, that the last 24 hours we’ve been talking about structures and not structural racism, that for the last 24 hours we have watched our neighbors have to shovel up glass, and rebuild after already having to endure closures due to the pandemic.
I want us to be clear.
We are working with our partners in the Chicago Police Department who have demonstrated extraordinary restraint. I’ve watched the national coverage. I’ve seen other cities. And I remind us that this is a test, the restraint, is what is required.
And we’ve met that test here.
And that we will hold accountable those who are seeking to exploit this moment, that those people who took to that street yesterday and exercise their first amendment right, mothers with children, elders who were there, who stood toe to toe, but did it without crossing the [boundaries]. That’s what this is about.
And I don’t want us to forget that for a moment. I don’t want our Twitter fingers to only tweet about the images that there are some only one of us to see. Because we will continue in this perpetual cycle. We will continue this thing that we do, the sensationalism of what this is and this, ladies and gentlemen, is a full [garbled] home.
And these people who’ve come in to try to disrupt that, the organized elements, who care not about systemic issues, but shoes for profit.
* More Foxx…
If we continue to talk about that [garbled] element who’s tried to hijack this and not about the men and women who died in the systems that have allowed for their deaths to go unpunished. We’ve learned nothing from this.
The State’s Attorney’s Office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners in the city of Chicago, and throughout Cook County to again hold those accountable. Not protesters. I want to be clear. We conflate protesters and looters. So two different groups. Let us not conflate what is happening in our streets across the country with the bad acts of a few. And I know we know that language, because we’ve heard about bad acts of a few versus systems use the same rhetoric, when talking about those who are taken to our streets right now, and not conflate them with those who seek to do harm.
* Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton…
There is righteous pain and outrage over injustice and historical inequities. These emotions are real and raw. And we all feel them in the black community. And as a black woman, I think about my black daughters, my black husband, my black brother, father, and nephews. And I’m sick about what happened to George Floyd and my prayers are with his family. I cannot imagine the pain that they are feeling and the pain of losing a loved one in this way.
Even still, our [angst] must be expressed peacefully. There is a message to be heard. And it should be heard loud and clearly. It should be heard without the distraction or disruption of the few who taint the goal of the many.
* On to questions for the governor, mayor and others. Were more police officers ordered on the job yesterday, was overtime authorized and really was the police department prepared for this?…
Mayor Lightfoot: Yeah, yes yes yes and yes. The planning for yesterday started days before. We had canceled days off over time. There were a number of police out on the same over the course of yesterday. We’ve now also shifted to 12 hour days, three watches.
But what happened yesterday over the course of a long day and the governor I think described it well. We moved from peaceful protest to an element that was in the crowd that was clearly there for a fight. You don’t bring a claw hammer or shovel, or bottles in urine or accelerants molecules talk cocktails, unless you’re up to something other than peaceful protests. And so, dealing with that element, certainly became a challenge. And then on the heels of tamping that down, we saw literally people coming by the car loads, and with u haul vans to loot and destroy and damage our businesses.
* Do we know who that element is?…
Mayor Lightfoot: We know what kind of organizations might be. What I can tell you at this point is we are in partnership with the FBI, the US attorney’s office the ATF particularly their bomb and arson unit. There’s no question that both the people who were fighting and brought the weapons that was absolutely organized and choreographed, it seems also clear that the fires that were set both of the vehicles and buildings that that was organized that was an opportunistic, as well as the looting, that we saw somebody driving up with a u haul, having crews jump out, breaking the windows, going in and literally hauling out the merchandise in coordination, as we saw in way too many places. Last night, car caravans doing a similar thing people jumping out using a metal device to pop the window, jumping into the stores and then loading up the cars by like an assembly line
Can we identify who they are?
Mayor Lightfoot: That is still under investigation. And once we are able to, we will certainly reveal that.
* Culd you please explain the timeline of the events leading up to the decision to activate the Illinois National Guard, we’ve kind of gone over this about the National Guard’s mission. But will they be visible. And what happens if they are confronted?…
Mayor Lightfoot: Well, what I’ll say is this, the governor I were in frequent contact throughout the course of the day yesterday, and he is frequently offered up the use of the National Guard, as a day in the evening wore on and we saw the really is a criminal element that we’ve now talked about at length. Really arising and thinking about what our deployments, were going to be. We, the superintendent and his leadership team made the call late last night, early this morning, indicated that they believe that it would be helpful to have additional resources from the National Guard and the general has explained what the limited role is that they will will play. But I’m grateful that the governor was up and around at about 1230 last night or this morning, when I called him and acted decisively and quickly to activate those resources and we’re grateful for it.
Gov. Pritzker: To the mayor’s credit yesterday, she asked for help from the state police. They were engaged yesterday they provided up to 150 troopers that were assisting. I have 250 troopers and we had 150 troopers engaged, they provided backup yesterday as well they will continue to to 100 I believe today and tonight, and the National Guard, the decision by the mayor to ask for National Guard late last night we I Mayor knows I don’t really sleep that much anyway so I was, I was up and ready for a call and call general Neely who jumped on it and you know we we acted quickly in there, you know we have 125 immediately engaged and others on their way 375 in total.
* What happens if they’re confronted?…
Gov. Pritzker: Well their job is to provide a perimeter. They’re not going to be on the front lines. There’s been a lot of discussion about that, and what their role would be but they’re really there to provide a perimeter, so that the center of the city doesn’t get overtaken the way that it seemed to in certain times.
* There are questions of whether 375 are actually enough or hearing reports this afternoon of issues in Tinley Park they’ve now issued a curfew for tonight, several miles across the suburbs, it isn’t just the city of Chicago. So, will 375 actually be enough?…
Gov. Pritzker: Well 375 National Guardsmen another hundred state police, and they, each of you know the state police in particular has the ability and does in fact on a regular basis assist local law enforcement I also want to point out that there is a network of police departments in a system called Ilyas where law enforcement agencies share resources across lines. And so for many of the other towns or cities that need additional resources they can turn to Ilyas as well so there really are resources available at all levels here for law enforcement.
* Are you concerned that their presence will inflame the violence?…
Mayor Lightfoot: No, I’m not. And to go back to the question that Rick asked, what happens if they’re confronted, there is every bit as well trained as our officers are, they are trained to come into these circumstances that particular acids that are going to be initially deployed are military police officers. So I have every confidence that they will show exactly the same kind of restraint, that our officers do, and we’re not going to let them get into a difficult circumstance thatthey can’t handle.
* Is there more you can tell us about whether any of the looters have known connections to alt-right groups? And is this criminal aspect of the protests that we’re seeing here in another city something that warrants the FBI?…
Mayor Lightfoot: The FBI is very much involved and they have been with us. Really along every single day and beforehand as preparation. We’re working in partnership with the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, the ATF particularly their bomb and arson units. It’s too soon. In the course of this investigation for us to be able to say definitively one way or the other. As I said before, when I can say there’s no question that some of the destruction that happened last night, particularly the arsons were absolutely organized and coordinated. We’ll learn more about this over time as the investigation takes us course. But that’s, I’m confident of that.
* Mayor you mentioned in your earlier 11am news conference about thinking phase three as even trying to get into the city is so difficult and watching all the boarding up going on is phase three really going to be happening on Wednesday should people plan on coming to work this week, and going out to dinner this week in the city of Chicago?…
Mayor Lightfoot: I think we have to have a lot more conversations first and foremost with our public health officials and we’ve started those conversations very early this morning. I’m very concerned about the fact that while I think the vast majority of people that gathered in the streets were wearing masks now, we could, we can have an interesting discussion about why and who was wearing masks. But the fact of the matter is, there were thousands of people in the street in very close proximity to each other, or not social distancing there, we know from both Governor’s guidance and transparency around how COVID is spread certainly ours as well. There are a number of asymptomatic people that are out there. I’m worried. I’m absolutely worried about a potential outbreak. As a result of what we saw yesterday thousands of people in cheek to jowl in small spaces is exactly the opposite of what we have been preaching now for 10 weeks time. I’m worried about it. I think it’s too soon for us to say we are still on track for reopening on Wednesday. But if that changes we will certainly let people know as quickly as possible.
But let me just also just say this last piece. There are many things that were heartbreaking about what happened last night. But I will also say that for those businesses that have been closed out for 10 weeks in river north, and it really all over the city that we’re starting to prepare had put out. In many instances brand new patio furniture, wanting to give their workers, an opportunity to earn money, and to provide entertainment for people in the city to see their hard work and their money and resources, literally go open flame, their property, reduced to kindling. That’s heartbreaking. And that kind of lawlessness, as I think State’s Attorney fox is so incredibly eloquently that’s not first amendment expression. That’s criminal conduct. And my heart aches for the people who suffered the loss that we saw all over the city.
* Do you agree that an indefinite curfew something that hasn’t been seen in Chicago for decades, is the right course of action. The ACLU calls it broad and vague, which could lead to quote arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement and is exploring possible litigation?…
Gov. Pritzker: Well, I can say that these are decisions that get made at the local level. I think that certainly anybody who watched what happened last night, and the night before too would have to would have to understand the need for a curfew of some sort. And so I think that it seemed to be helpful to the police to Chicago police last night, as there was a curfew or really kept people, most of the people off the streets, the people who were breaking the curfew were of course the very people who are doing the damage that was done.
* If the protests causes an upswing in COVID cases, would you consider putting Chicago into its own region, its own IDPH region?…
Gov. Pritzker: We’ll have to look forward to what happens over the next two to three weeks. But I am deeply concerned, as the mayor said and I said in my remarks, I am deeply concerned that when you gather people together, large groups of people even when they’re wearing masks in very small or large groups in spaces that they can’t certainly distance and don’t, we do run that risk. And so we’ll have to look at this going forward, but I at the moment you know we’re not heading backward.
But I think that it is a warning to everybody that is protesting. Just to, you know that if you could have the decency to spread out in the process of doing it, of course, the lawlessness is completely unacceptable and not tolerated. But I am concerned about the COVID-19 that can spread even in a peaceful demonstration so people should just take it easy on each other.
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* Gov. Pritzker began his remarks by thanking Dr. Ezike…
Thank you for being here with me every day during this difficult time for our state. I really applaud the amazing work that you’ve done communicating with people in Illinois about this very very challenging infection and virus.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* The governor said he’ll be issuing a new executive order today. From his remarks…
In addition to the extension of necessary legal mechanisms like our disaster proclamation, the state and national economy demand that we take action to protect people as best we can from the financial challenges that COVID-19 has brought on. So I’ll also be extending our ban on residential evictions, moratorium on utility shutoffs and suspension on repossession of vehicles. We will also continue offering the ability to conduct marriages and notarization remotely, as well as the suspension of many in-person licensing and training requirements for the time being, to ensure that workers can keep their professional credentials active.
* More…
The president puts out a lot of tweets encouraging reopening before experts say that we should. But the White House guidelines on reopening developed by Dr. Fauci and the CDC are actually really specific and data driven, focusing on positive tests per capita and positivity rates, overall testing rates, hospitalizations and ICU availability, the same metrics that we track here in Illinois.
Well earlier this week Illinois became the first state in the nation to meet the White House guidelines to move to the next phase of reopening the first in the nation.
The path to this point has been tremendously difficult, no doubt. We have lost over 5000 of our fellow Illinoisan’s to this virus. It’s a harrowing number. And it’s just over a few months. Many of our residents have lost someone they love a family member, a friend to this virus. I have too. If you’re someone who doesn’t know a single person who has died because of COVID-19 or been hospitalized because of COVID-19. That doesn’t mean that pain isn’t real for another mother, another child, another friend. I hope you will take at least a moment to grieve for their loss.
As we take our next step forward. And especially as we begin to safely reopen meaningful swaths of our economy. We have to continue to look out for each other, our number one priority must be the health and safety of workers and families, and all of our state’s residents.
* And…
Finally, let me address this platform from which I’m speaking today. Eighty-two days ago, we held our first of these daily briefings. And aside from the last few weekends, we’ve joined together every afternoon for a public update on our COVID-19 response every day since. Keeping the public informed and our operations transparent has been our top priority over the last two and a half months, as it’s been throughout my administration. And on that front nothing’s going to change.
But as the state moves into phase three of our restoring Illinois plan, our daily update will be replaced by briefings specifically dedicated to COVID-19, only on an as-needed basis. That will start on Monday. Instead, we’ll be bringing back some of our more traditional public events, continue to make myself available to the press as often as possible and of course, COVID-19 questions are welcome at briefings, no matter the topic at hand. Additionally, IDPH will continue to send out our daily COVID-19 press releases, and our restore Illinois regional metrics, will continue updating every 24 hours so the public can track our progress online, and you can find the latest status of your region as we move through phase three at dph.illinois.gov/restore. So thank you.
* On to questions for the governor. Do you have a message for the president following his tweets concerning Minneapolis, your thoughts on Minneapolis, the devastation that’s happened there and the arrest today of the officer?…
Well, I have a lot I’d like to say, but let me begin by saying that from the very moment that I announced my decision to run for governor, three plus years ago, I said that this President was a racist, misogynist, homophobe, a xenophobe, and I was right then and I’m right now. His tweets, his reaction, his failure to address the racism that exists in America is stoking the flames in sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways, is completely unacceptable. It’s reprehensible, in fact, and I’m outraged by what he does in response to these situations. I mean this is, I cannot imagine the rage and the fear that must be felt by a black American watching what happened to George Floyd, the threat that comes to every black American under color of law, that they see in a video like that. We’re lucky that that video was ever taken because that is happening around America, probably every day.
And, unfortunately, time and time again, even when these videos come out. Even when so many of us have the feeling of it’s time for a major change. And we work toward that change somehow for black America never really comes. And that’s unacceptable. And to me, the progress that should have been made has failed. So, we have so much that we need to accomplish in this country but especially we need to address the underlying racism that clearly exists. And I will be a bulwark of change and somebody who believes to my core that we must change. And I want to send my condolences to the family of George Floyd, and also to every African American in this country.
* Churches declaring a big victory today after weeks of you being strong about a number of people not being allowed into churches, why did you lift restrictions, did you cave. And why are you backing down from prohibiting in person services or places of worship?…
Well actually, as you know from the very beginning I have said that the most important thing that houses of worship can do and faith leaders can do is to keep their parishioners safe. And that’s why we put out guidelines even in phase three recommending to people that they have services that are either online or drive up services, or in groups of 10 or less, because that’s the safety guidelines that have been recommended by the experts. And all along I have followed that science, those recommendations, and I would recommend that every faith leader do that. I’ve also said from the very beginning that I would never do anything to go break up a service, to interfere with religion. What I have done is implored leaders to not gather their parishioners because what we want most of all is for people to be healthy and safe.
Are those new guidelines in the pipeline or was it in response to that lawsuit?…
You know, we’ve always as you know I’ve talked from this podium about those guidelines, but we had never put out kind of business by business guidelines before. But in phase three we did that industry by industry and including outdoor activities things that aren’t really industries, and of course for religious activity. And no I mean if it were, wouldn’t be as comprehensive as it was if it was something that was just done on the fly.
* You keep saying the state government has been hollowed out if that’s the case, why is Illinois continuing to spend more year after year with plans to have level spending based on borrowing if there’s been a hollowing out?…
Well I don’t know if Greg has noticed, but if you look at the number of people who have worked at the Department of Public Health and the number of people who work at the Illinois Department of Employment Security or go, one after another, each of the agencies of government and you’ll find that there are many more authorized employees than there are actual employees, and many fewer authorized employees than there were in prior years. So, the hollowing out, I mean just look at the numbers of people working in state government. As you know, Illinois has the fewest number of state employees per capita of any state in the United States. And so talking about hollowing out, look what happened two years in a row with no budget in the state. That’s what hollowed out our state government.
* What is your polling during May indicated about voter support for your COVID-19 response and your stay at home orders? How did it change from pulling results back in April?…
Well, I don’t think it’s our polling results. I’ve read polling results I can say honestly that it’s clear that people supported the stay at home order, that people are deeply concerned to make sure that their fellow Illinoisans are kept safe and healthy. And that people support what we’ve done to keep people safe in Illinois.
It is actually gratifying in a way just to know, you’ve seen how Illinois have stepped up during the state home order. Look at what’s happened to the numbers and it’s because of them. And I think those polls are something of a reflection or at least the numbers as they’ve dropped a reflection of what those polls tell you, which is an overwhelming number of people in Illinois understand why we’ve had to react as we have to COVID-19, and they they’re the ones who their poll numbers the people of Illinois their poll numbers are the ones that I think we had a point to. They’re the ones who’ve done this for us.
* What plans do you have for acting on the bills the legislature sent you including whether there will be any big ceremonies for them?…
I don’t think there are any big ceremonies for anything these days. At least not well we’re in phase three and have gatherings of 10 or fewer people, but certainly I will be signing this number of pieces of legislation that came through.
* According to ABC seven analysis of COVID-19 testing data, why is it testing rank every week for the last two months to now rank 10th overall per capita and second per capita among large states. What will you do to ensure Illinois maintains this level of testing as the state reopens and more people are exposed to the virus?…
Again, we’re going to do what we’ve been doing every week. Those numbers are an indicator of where we’ve been and where we intend to go. So I just had a meeting earlier today, as I do on a regular basis, with our team that is in charge of building up our testing capacity and our testing supplies. All the things that are required for us to keep building that number up. So it’s hard to do I might add that this is not an easy endeavor. Because again, we’re competing against everybody else in the nation for a limited amount of supplies. And because we all need to ramp up testing in a massive way. I think we’ve been more successful than most other states at doing it. And I’ll just credit the people who have led that effort for us, and also our common drive and our goal that we set the mission that we set to make sure that we have testing, but there’s so much more to do. I would like to test much much more than we’re doing now, but right now we have to focus it on the most vulnerable populations and do what we can to keep people safe and healthy, as they’re going back to work. There’s no doubt going to be employers who will need to have their employees tested and we will try to jump on that wherever we need to.
* What does the US lose by having President Trump terminate the country’s membership in the World Health Organization?…
Well, I’m not. What I’ll tell you is the World Health Organization is one of several very important organizations that, I think all of us have looked for guidance from the CDC a national organization here in the United States is yet another one. But it seems as if President Trump is withdrawing us from the rest of the world and I think we saw what happens to a nation when you withdraw from the rest of the world what happens in terms of chaos around the world when the United States is not leading, and unfortunately that’s where President Trump has taken us to where the United States is not leading where it ought to.
* Now that you’ve looked at the stay at home order Do you plan to travel out of state with your family now perhaps as soon as this weekend?…
I don’t have a plan to travel outside of the state right now. But I’ve never said that people couldn’t travel outside the states.
You know people have for their jobs, sometimes people live in Wisconsin or in Indiana and they work in Illinois or vice versa. And there’s nothing wrong with traveling to your, if it was in the last stage and essential business and job. Now as things have opened up more and no doubt there’ll be even more activity, again, I would just encourage people to recognize that traveling is is a safe thing to do, but making sure that when you go to a state that has fewer restrictions that you’re not engaging in an activity that epidemiologists are telling us are relatively unsafe and put you at risk of catching COVID-19.
* It’s been reported Illinois contact tracing program is not near where it ought to be at the stage, can you reiterate what the contact tracing benchmarks are in order for the state to move to the next phases if there are any, are there any public information campaigns about contact tracing planned for the coming months?…
To the latter part, yes, of course we want to make sure that people as it is spinning up all over the state, we want people to understand what contact tracing is. I thought Dr. Ezike had a great message about, there are people who are scammers, who, on the idea of a contact tracing they use that to get your credit card information your Social Security, whatever. No one will ask you for that. You would get a call from someone from contact tracing in your county, typically, and, and that call would never ask you for that kind of private information they will provide you with information that’s all they’re intended to do provide you with information about the fact that you’ve been exposed to somebody.
So the first part of it was how far are we behind what are the two, what are the benchmarks to move forward. Yeah. Well we’ve talked about this before today as you know where we have, we’re covering about 30% of the contact tracing that you can’t, you know that’s of people who are contacts, and we need to get above 60%. And so that we’re trying [garbled] to get there. And again, it’s a large endeavor we have, you know, 97, local health departments that we’re coordinating with, they’re doing a terrific job by the way more than 80 of them are already very active in helping us build up this contact tracing capability. We have grants that are going out to them, allowing them to hire people over the next two weeks those grants in many places will have been given to them. And so there’ll be hiring, that’s ongoing during the month of June. But to the extent of what does it require to get us to the next phase, it’s building up that contact tracing and we’re doing it now.
* Just looking back, I think you said 82 days of these nearly 82 days of these, looking back just your, your emotion to all this, maybe what would have been done differently or something would have been done faster I know there’s lots of things we’ve talked about that would have, you know, been better had they worked faster. But just how are you feeling right now I think there’s a lot of hope right now on the street and it’s going to be a beautiful weekend and people are excited to hit the patios, how are you feeling?…
Well I have two minds about giving you an answer to that. I am happy to I’m very happy that again that people have been so good to each other in the state. And with this enormous challenge, you know, we’re all doing exactly what I would hope that we would and that doesn’t really surprise me. I mean, the people of Illinois are some of the most generous genuinely giving people. So it doesn’t surprise me.
I also, I can’t finish an answer without saying that we have to be careful things as we open up also means that opportunities to get catch COVID-19 open up. And so, wearing your face covering. I came here wearing it. I’m standing here without it, but when I step back, I will wear it again. Wearing your face covering in public, and other people wearing theirs, it’s an enormously important thing to be doing going forward. All of the experts, the true experts have recognized this and that’s why we put in a face covering requirement when you’re in public. Same thing all the things we’ve been saying over and over again. I have to keep reminding people, please wash your hands, please be careful, don’t gather in large groups because all those situations, not washing hands not wearing a face covering gathering in large groups. Those are the situations in which we get an outbreak and those is situation where people go into hospital. And ultimately, some of them die and I just, it’s we’ve worked so hard to get where we are. If we can just follow the rules going forward as we’re opening up. We can do this safely and keep people healthy.
* State lawmakers passed a bill that would offer Medicaid to undocumented seniors. Do you expect to sign this and do you foresee expanding it just beyond seniors?…
I will sign that bill. I think it’s important, especially at this moment in our history, during the middle of this crisis that we expand healthcare.
* Mayor Lightfoot was blunt in her criticism of Donald Trump and saying her message to him was FU. You’ve been outspoken in your criticism of Trump, but in using such a term has a line been crossed? Isn’t it just playing in his sandbox? Your thoughts?…
I’m sorry it’s him playing what ,she said is playing in his sandbox? I don’t know, look, I told you what I think. I’m pretty blunt about this, he’s a racist. I’m not sure what else I need to say. That’s more severe, the [garbled] of that’s precisely everything that I have fought against in my entire life is represented by what he tweets and says.
* There are reports that some testing locations are being scarcely used such as rolling Meadows. What metrics is the state using to determine testing location viability and sustainability?…
So we don’t get to pick every location, just to be clear. We try very hard to pinpoint neighborhoods that we’d like to be in. But then you’ve got to find an actual space to do it in. So, in a drive thru circumstance, those are harder to do than in a building. Just because of the amount of effort to create facilities. And then, when you’re doing it in a building, you’ve got to get the permission of the people in the building and the, you’ve got to be able to get ingress and egress at the hours that you want and so on. So I mean I would say we’re trying very hard to pinpoint the communities that are most vulnerable. Make sure that there’s testing there, but also to make sure it’s available to everyone in the state. Because first responders and healthcare workers and people who have compromised immune systems, that they are there isn’t an easy way to pinpoint a community that each of those people might live in. And so we just need to have it everywhere.
* What has COVID-19 taught you about yourself and what it means to lead Illinois?…
Dr. Ezike: I’m grateful for the support that most of Illinois has shared. I think it’s so evident that leading means having an amazing team of people to work together with and collaborate with and at this level it’s involved working with our various state agencies working with our local health departments working with all community based organizations. So leading just means collaborating on this stage with this COVID pandemic it’s meant collaborating on just the most intense levels across all bandwidth, up and down, all levels. And it’s really the more that’s done, the more successful we can be and I think, Illinois has just been a shining example of what leadership means in terms of collaboration and working together, and just making sure that everyone can have input to make sure we get the best results and I think we’ve done that, as the first state to actually meet the White House metrics, I think that’s a very laudable goal that we really have to celebrate and it also involved. The people of Illinois, being able to trust their leadership and be more wanting to follow the direction that we were trying to lead in so grateful for that opportunity grateful to have so many amazing partners that grateful to have such great teams and grateful, very grateful to be under the leadership of this governor who was so supportive of following the science so that we could do the right thing. And so glad that we could show that science works.
Gov. Pritzker: I don’t know exactly how to describe what it’s taught me about myself. I will say that it has really tested everyone in state government. It has tested everyone.
Think about the the workers that needed to come to work because what they do every day, providing services at our veterans homes or for our developmentally disabled or providing or helping people file their unemployment claims, or the many people at the Department of Public Health who have worked 24 hours a day. We have some unbelievably dedicated public servants. And so I just, I don’t know what to say as somebody who has not held elective office before becoming governor, but I did have some great pride in people who work in government, but I don’t think I had seen it this up close and in this intense environment ever before. And I think the people of Illinois should be just so proud really of the people who work every day. I’m not, sorry that the elected officials, I’m talking about Dr Ezike I’m talking about the people who are answering the phones, people who are actually, one on one serving people as part of state governments serving the people of Illinois, just by their second to none.
* Will the new executive order extend your emergency proclamations related to telehealth or civil liability protections for healthcare facilities?…
Yes that will continue under the under the emergency disaster proclamations. We didn’t talk about every aspect of it I suppose today. But there is, we obviously we’re no longer in a stay at home order. And there’s a lot that has evolved, but much will remain. And we do want to make sure there’s a bill that’s passed on telehealth which I’m very glad it did. And we began that in our executive order but any aspect of it. That isn’t covered by that bill we would extend.
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1,622 new cases, 86 additional deaths
Friday, May 29, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,622 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 86 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 female 70s
Coles County: 1 female 60s
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 6 females 60s, 5 males 60s, 8 females 70s, 8 males 70s, 5 females 80s, 8 males 80s, 6 females 90s, 4 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 30s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
Kane County: 1 female 70s, 2 males 80s
Lake County: 1 female 60s, 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
Madison County: 1 male 50s
McDonough County: 1 male 70s
McHenry County: 1 female 70s
Ogle County: 1 female 50s
Rock Island County: 1 male 60s
Sangamon County: 1 male 50s
St. Clair County: 2 females 90s
Will County: 1 male 60s
Winnebago County: 1 male 60s
Edgar County is now reporting a case COVID-19. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 117,455 cases, including 5,270 deaths, in 101 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 25,513 specimens for a total of 855,479. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from May 22–May 28 is 8%.
*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 previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
…Adding… Dr. Ezike…
As of midnight, 3599 individuals were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those 3599 individuals, 980 were in the ICU and 593 were on ventilators.
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* Rockford Register-Star…
The Winnebago County Board meets Thursday to consider a resolution condemning Chicago Rockford International Airport Director Mike Dunn for calling board member Dorothy Redd “pathetic and stupid” in a fiery text message he sent her this month.
The controversy began soon after Chairman Frank Haney nominated Mike Schablaske on May 4 to the Greater Rockford Airport Authority Board of Commissioners. Schablaske served as a finance executive at Woodward for many years before leading the Transform Rockford civic organization from 2013 to 2018.
In a May 14 memo to Haney, Redd asked that Haney withdraw Schablaske’s nomination and let whomever voters elect to succeed Haney in November nominate someone to the airport board. Redd’s concern? The airport board lacks diversity. Five of its six members are white, as is Schablaske. Two of the six airport commissioners are women.
When Dunn learned of Redd’s memo to Haney, he sent her a text message that read:
“I just read your pathetically stupid memo to the chairman re: the airport board. Please be aware if you did your research you would know that there hasn’t been an all-white male board at the airport for over 30 years. Since I have been associated with the airport and or the airport board since 2001, there has at all times been a minority on the board — Judge Gwyn Gulley, Rev. K. Edward Copeland and now, Leslie West. Your idiotic and stupid statements are actually more pathetic than stupid. Do your job. Thank God, the airport board is not and has not been filled with the likes of you.”
“A minority”? Rockford is 51 percent white, 21.2 percent African-American and 18.4 percent Latino. But, yeah, the airport board has always had one “minority.” Woo-hoo!
You may not be surprised to see the photos of County Commissioner Redd and Airport Director Dunn…
 
[Oops. I originally uploaded the wrong pic for Dunn. Fixed now.]
* And the airport board is backing Dunn up…
A scathing text message that the city’s airport director sent to a Winnebago County Board member was the communication of a private citizen and does not reflect the opinion of the airport board, said Paul Cicero, chairman of the airport board. […]
“Sounds like a private citizen expressed an opinion,” said Paul Cicero, chairman of the Greater Rockford Airport Authority Board of Commissioners, when asked on Thursday about his opinion of Dunn’s text message. […]
On Thursday, the County Board approved a resolution declaring Dunn’s text message to Redd was “inappropriate in subject matter and tone.” Board members elaborated on that message in a letter to airport commissioners.
“The lack of respect Mr. Dunn showed Ms. Redd is not acceptable from anyone, much less someone who occupies the position he has with the airport,” the letter states. ”… Mr Dunn owes Ms. Redd and the entire County Board on which she serves an apology. In the future we hope that his speech and writings will be tempered with professionalism and respect.”
* Back to the original story…
“I have known Mike Dunn for 30 years or maybe more,” said [county board member Angie Goral], D-13. “I am tired of people saying ‘Well, that’s the way he is.’ He doesn’t just owe Dorothy an apology. He owes the whole board an apology. We all need to stay together on this.”
*** UPDATE *** From Gov. Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh…
Gov. Pritzker has assembled one of the most diverse administrations in state history, because the governor knows representation matters. No public official should use inflammatory language and insults to silence those that call out inequity. The governor urges the Winnebago County Board to take action and make a real commitment to equity.
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* Jennifer Smith Richards of the Chicago Tribune and Jodi S. Cohen of ProPublica Illinois…
After months of debate about schools’ use of seclusion and face-down restraints on children, Illinois lawmakers did not act last week on a measure that would have banned the controversial practices immediately, instead delaying the decision until the fall at the earliest.
Although Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state schools Superintendent Carmen Ayala have vowed to stop the practices of putting children alone in locked rooms and holding them down on the floor, the bill faced opposition from school groups that viewed oversight requirements as too burdensome.
Months of meetings among lawmakers, school lobbyists and advocates ended with broad agreement that schools should reduce their reliance on the physical interventions, used most often on students with disabilities, according to meeting participants. But a last-minute push from the school groups tabled the matter this session; they thought the bill asked too much of school workers, who would be required to hold debriefing meetings with parents or guardians every time a student is put in time out or is restrained.
A Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois investigation last year, “The Quiet Rooms,” revealed widespread misuse of both practices in the state’s public schools.
New state rules adopted in April already significantly limit those practices and require state oversight for the first time, but advocates and lawmakers continued to push for a state law that would have superseded the rules and increased restrictions and oversight.
The most recent draft of the legislation would have made it illegal to put students alone in a locked room or in a room with the door blocked, and would have required that students placed in seclusion have access to food, medication and the bathroom. The bill also would have required school workers to meet with students and parents within two school days of each instance of time out or restraint and ordered the Illinois State Board of Education to develop plans within 90 days to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion in any form within three years.
“We’ve had all these meetings, all these meetings, and then at the eleventh hour, they come in and kill the bill,” Rep. Jonathan Carroll, a Democrat from Northbrook, said of the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance, which lobbies on behalf of the state’s public school principals and administrators, school finance officials and school boards. Carroll, who has spoken about being secluded as a child and the harm it caused, sponsored the House version of the bill. […]
Phil Milsk, a legislative adviser for the Illinois Association of School Social Workers, said the organization opposed the legislation because it was not clear that it applied to all schools, including private schools and special education cooperatives. He said requiring two debriefing meetings after each time out or restraint was “excessive” and would be “a huge burden on staff” and families. […]
Kyle Hillman, director of legislative affairs for the National Association of Social Workers, which supported the measure, said he was disappointed that opposition derailed the bill after months of negotiations.
“We have said from the beginning that … ultimately the bad actors in this state are not willingly going to end this abusive practice,” he wrote in a statement. “We continue to hold out hope our elected officials step up and end this practice now before this becomes another Illinois tragedy story.”
* From Rep. Carroll…
I’m very disappointed that special interests put the protection of its members over what’s best for our most vulnerable children. I’m not surprised that the School Management Alliance did this because it’s what they always do, but I’m disappointed that other organizations would join in these efforts. Senator Gillespie and I are committed to ending these brutal practices and will continue pushing forth this legislation.
According to Carroll, the groups opposing the bill included the Statewide School Management Alliance, the Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education, the Illinois Association of Private Special Education Centers, ED-RED, the Illinois Association of School Social Workers, LEND and SCOPE.
…Adding… Equip for Equality…
We are extremely disappointed that the legislature didn’t act on this critical issue. The sponsors spent months working with a stakeholder group primarily comprised of school associations and adopted many changes at their request. Despite this process, in the end, the school industry united and stopped the legislature’s reform effort.
It felt like déjà vu. Twenty years ago, after a television news expose by Dave Savini, we were able to pass a temporary law banning these practices, while ISBE developed rules to stop the abuses by schools. ISBE allowed school groups to dominate the stakeholder membership; our voice for student and parent rights was largely ignored. Schools continued to ignore the weak law, as this year’s exposé demonstrated.
It is shameful that Illinois statutes provide life-saving limitations on the use of restraint and seclusion on adults with developmental disabilities and mental illness, but not on vulnerable students with disabilities.
Unlike other states that are seeking to reduce and eliminate the use of these practices, and some states that have banned them altogether, Illinois’ school industry continues to be steadfast in its opposition to reform. The legislature has been all too willing to bend to their preferences. The schools blocked meaningful reform 20 years ago, and again last week. The legislature needs to stop giving in to the schools and take a more balanced approach that takes into account student safety.
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* May 1…
Just days after a downstate judge granted him a restraining order exempting him from the extended statewide stay-at-home order, state Rep. Darren Bailey is asking the Illinois Appellate Court to vacate that order so he can file an amended lawsuit.
Bailey filed another lawsuit but the attorney general is attempting to move it to a federal court.
* A week ago today…
A Clay County judge who has repeatedly criticized Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order again ruled against the governor on Friday, but stopped short of issuing a statewide temporary restraining order that had been sought by a downstate business owner.
James Mainer and HCL Deluxe Tan had filed a new lawsuit on Thursday, seeking to have the governor’s executive order declared null and void. At a hearing on Friday, Mainer’s attorney, Thomas DeVore, sought a temporary restraining order barring the governor from enforcing the order statewide, but instead Clay County Judge Michael McHaney granted an order only for Mainer and his business.
The temporary restraining order exempts Mainer and HCL Deluxe Tan from the stay-at-home order until June 5, when McHaney will hold another hearing on the plaintiffs’ bid for a permanent injunction.
“Waiting until such time as a hearing might be had on the determination on the merits of the injunction is too great a risk for James and HCL, given their freedom and livelihoods are being stripped away in violation of Illinois law every hour that passes,” McHaney’s ruling states.
* Yesterday…
IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
JAMES MAINER, in his individual capacity and on behalf of all citizens similarly situated, and HCL DELUXE TAN, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company, on its behalf and on behalf of all businesses similarly situated,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v. GOVERNOR J.B. PRITZKER, in his official capacity,
Defendant-Petitioner.
CONSENT TO DISSOLVE TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
The undersigned, being counsel for the Appellees hereby advise this Honorable Court the Appellees consent to the dissolution of the temporary restraining order entered by the circuit court in this cause as the Governor’s restore plan has remedied the injury to Appellee at least prospectively, and as such respectfully request an order entering dissolving the temporary restraining order and remanding this matter back to the circuit court to proceed consistent with said order.
Thomas G. DeVore
…Adding… Another attorney in a different case…
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* Gov. Pritzker today talked about tomorrow’s Phase 3 reopening, including this…
We will also be posting recommendations for houses of worship, providing more guidance for houses of worship in phase three. Having received many plans and ideas from responsible faith leaders, IDPH has reviewed many detailed proposals and has provided guidance, not mandatory restrictions for all faith leaders to use in their efforts to ensure the health and safety of their congregants. This includes suggestions on capacity limits, new cleaning protocols indoor gatherings of 10 persons or less a reduction of activities like sharing food, and the safe conduct of outdoor congregating. The safest options remain remote and driving services, but for those that want to conduct in person activities, IDPH is offering best practices.
That’s an interesting development, considering the US Supreme Court now has a case before it.
* Back to Pritzker…
Additionally with phase three, horse racing will be returning to Illinois tracks, boosting the industry in a key season, especially for thoroughbred and harness racing. The Department of Agriculture has worked with the IDPH with the Illinois racing board and industry leaders to develop guidelines for racing, allowing those whose livelihoods depend on these races to get back to work and allowing spectators to watch from home and place wagers online and over the phone.
And while it’s still at least a few weeks off, I want to affirm that the three metrics that have brought us from phase two to phase three will be the same as those that will move us into phase four. Just as this 28 day period of tracking started when we move from phase one to phase two on May 1, our next health metrics calendar will restart tomorrow and run for the same period, meaning that regions that meet the metrics could move into phase four possibly as early as Friday, June 26. That’s the earliest possible date and we will be watching the metrics closely in hopes that we will move forward expeditiously, but our goal is and always has been to keep people safe from this coronavirus while we restore more of our normal activities.
So it’s important that we remain careful about continuing to wear face coverings washing hands, maintain six feet of distance, wiping down surfaces using hand sanitizer and other mitigations. Let’s not move backward, but instead, let’s move forward together.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* Nursing homes…
Some long term care facilities opt out of the free assistance of IDPH response teams, sometimes because they choose to take their own specimens using IDPH swabs, or because they choose to work with their county or city health department instead. Others work with their local hospitals and health centers to source and conduct tests.
To date, we’ve sent about 45,000 test kits out in 200 shipments, up from 18,000 swabs to 68 facilities back in late April. Still others have declined the free visits, and even the free testing supplies from IDPH entirely.
As I’ve explained, these are largely private entities. And even as we work to ramp up regular testing of all our long term care residents and staff, my administration has received some pushback from owners and industry representatives, making it difficult to secure compliance across the board. […]
(L)ong term care residents are some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans. That’s why strong compliance from many isn’t good enough to counteract any heel dragging at any privately held nursing homes.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is today filing a rule requiring each facility to develop its own individualized testing plan and document an established relationship with a testing lab, whether it’s a commercial lab, a local hospital lab or our state labs. This new rule will require nursing homes to conduct testing, when experiencing an outbreak, when an outbreak is suspected. Periodic testing even when there is no sign of an outbreak in line with new federal guidance issued this week, or when directed by IDPH or their local health department to do testing. The rule also mandates compliance with infection control recommendations, at large test results should be used to identify asymptomatic cases to confirm infection in symptomatic cases to re evaluate quality indicators to follow up on infection control programs, and to support decision making.
To be clear, this rule doesn’t deviate from our existing priorities. But it gives IDPH, a regulatory agency, additional teeth in securing buy-in from these private entities administrators who declined to provide a testing plan will be found in violation of the rule. The challenge of protecting elderly Illinoisans who live in congregate settings, many of whom have underlying conditions is evident in the heartbreaking percentage of illness and death that have been seen nationally in LTC facilities. COVID-19 is unrelenting. And it has visited its worst effects on older Americans. But our state will continue to use every resource at our disposal, and the collective medical experience from across the nation to protect our seniors throughout this crisis.
In response to a question, the governor said violations would typically be a fine, but could involve licensure issues.
* Will you file another IDPH rule like the one you withdrew under pressure from JCAR?…
We’re continuing to look at that, but I will say that what we’ve been left with because of the inaction by the legislature is the removal of licenses, which is something we didn’t want to have to pursue.
* So as of right now if they don’t follow they could have their licenses revoked…
They could
* Is there any sort of metric of nursing home residents that have died of unrelated unrelated to COVID maybe from other illnesses that kind of were exacerbated by maybe lack of visitors or something like that?…
Dr. Ezike: When you’re dealing with this population that obviously has the major risk factor of being elderly and has the additional risk factors of having multiple comorbidities. It’s really hard. I don’t think there are any individuals in that group that don’t have 123 multiple of those high risk factors so I think all of those fatalities as unfortunate as they are would absolutely be COVID deaths. In terms of someone die of a broken heart. I don’t know how to assess that so I don’t really think there’s a metric that I could give that could really get to that. I just mean it’s being counted as it’s a separate subset of people who have died in nursing homes during this time of unrelated illnesses. I don’t think there are any that would satisfy that criteria where they had no other medical problem that they were completely healthy, and that, you know, this infection was just a coincidence and that there was not something related to the COVID I think all every one of these deaths had a direct tie to the COVID infection and that spurred on again, they had other conditions definitely but this COVID absolutely had some kind of contributory role.
* A Chicago Church has asked the Supreme Court to overrule your stay at home order, do you have any concerns about this action or the fact that churches continue to hold services with millionaires like Willie Wilson paying their fines?…
Well, multiple federal judges have reviewed and upheld the approach that we’ve taken with our executive orders with regard to houses of worship. So you know these courts have recognized that there’s a public health crisis that’s ongoing, and the need to take steps to protect public health, as we have, including as related to religious services I think we all are aware of circumstances in which there have been infections that have been spread during religious services that were held with many people packed together, the attorney general’s office will be filing a response as required in the case that you’re referencing.
* How will you protect and provide relief to workers who don’t feel safe returning to work next week in phase three?…
Well the first thing we’re doing is imploring and providing guidance to employers that the employees should look at to all of that is available again on our DCEO website and employees that find that employers are not following that guidance should report that their employers are not following it. And of course that should be reported either to the Attorney General’s workplace enforcement office or the Department of Labor, both of which had the ability to enforce it.
* For employees who just might not feel safe going to an office yet next week. What do you advise those? I know you said private businesses should use their discretion…
Private businesses need to use their discretion in fact, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable people who have pre-existing conditions employee should make those, you know, to the extent they are able to make those known to their employers so that their forbearance can be given to them for that. But you know it obviously what we’re looking for here is a common decency. That should come from employers, and then of course we’ll rely on enforcement wherever we need to.
* Some other states including somewhat Democratic governors are making deep budget cuts rather than counting on federal help. Why are you plotting a different course? Are you prepared to make more cuts in this budget if the only help you get is Federal Reserve loans that have to be repaid?…
So, you know, as I’ve said all along this is not a time for governments state governments particularly to be cutting services, especially a government like ours where agencies have been hollowed out over a number of years. As you saw, I’ve attempted heartily to try to build back up some of those agencies, but I’ve known and I think everybody else is known, it would be a multi year process to do that because it took many years to slash and burn those agencies. So, look I also recognize that if the federal government does not step up to the plate. Then we’re going to have massive cuts. Everybody understands that we will have to revisit this right, but the legislature will meet for sure in November for a veto session, and perhaps some time in between, and we’ll be evaluating whether or not the federal government did do what I think everybody hopes and expects that they will do. Again, we’re not in a unique position, and what other states have done, certainly is. Some states have put forward cuts that they might put into place. If they’re unable to get support from the federal government, what we’ve said is look we’ll be working very hard to do that. But our sincere hope is that making cuts now would be so bad for working families and for people who’ve been out of work now as a result of COVID-19 that what we’d like to do is maintain state government as it is. Again, still hollowed out to some degree, as it has been over the years and. And then we’ll manage through as the next month or so reveals whether the federal government will step up.
* The Restore Illinois website today says the central region is not meeting one specific metric for phase three reopening, which is the hospital admission change. Is that one metric alone enough to delay moving to a new phase does the state have flexibility in determining how to use those metrics?…
Actually the updated numbers from today’s numbers when those got added in I think in the last hour, you’ll find that as it happens, central region is now meeting all those requirements. But even if it had been the number from yesterday, it’s very, again that the idea here is stable, and you know when you talk about 2%, that’s stable.
* With the start of phase three coming tomorrow, how long will it take to gauge whether loosen restrictions lead to any increase in infections hospitalizations or deaths. How is IDPH prepared to respond if that occurs?…
Once again, the whole purpose of each phase and the reason there’s a 28 day period involved in each phase is to monitor when you make the changes. Yes, we all have to watch in one day, two days seven days even 14 days isn’t enough. We see that in other states it sometimes takes three weeks even more before you really start to see the effects of an opening up. So that’s why we have a 28 day period for each phase and a monitoring period of 14 days or seven days depending on which metric you’re looking at.
It’s possible that if we have a surge a spike, and we need to quell that spike, we might potentially have to move backwards in the phases. That’s not something any of us wants to do, but certainly wouldn’t allow a region of the state to move forward, if it wasn’t meeting the metrics.
* Could restrictions be loosened in between that next phase just as the restaurants and bars you offered up last week?…
That’s not our intention, but it always is true that more information becomes known and it allows us perhaps to make adjustments, and as we learned for example about outdoor dining, you know that if you maintain the social distance, and again this is from experience, also the advice of epidemiologists that as we’ve learned more, I’ve always said that we can change the playbook as we go. But it’s not our intention and when we think that the science is pretty good. That’s dictated where we have gotten to and where we’re going. And I would remind everybody that Illinois was just named as the only state in the United States that was meeting the guidelines that were set by the Federal plan for reopening that was put together by Dr. Fauci and presented as the federal government’s plan.
* Do you plan on eating outside at a restaurant this weekend, why or why not. And once again, are you going to be cutting your hair and going to a barber shop?…
You can tell I need to have my hair cut, that’s for sure. I don’t have any plans to dine outside over the weekend, although I did, my wife’s birthday was this last week and we have a little patio in our house so we did dine outside just our family together. I’m gonna get my hair cut at some point. I just, I don’t have an appointment yet and I understand that appointments are hard to come by at this point, so I’ll get to it as fast as I can.
* Is Friday going to be the last of the daily press conferences and are we moving to weekly next week?…
I don’t think we’ve made any decisions about that. I mean, our intention is to make sure that you are regularly updated and as you’ve seen I’ve been here every day. I think we’ve made one adjustment. And that was to allow all of you and all of my staff to have weekend days off, but we’re still providing the information that you’re seeking over the weekend. And again, we’ll always have press conferences when there’s a need to make sure that we get information out but right now the plan is to continue as we are.
* Today five churches in Lake County filed a lawsuit against your administration. [garbled] Christian Assembly of God says they run a food pantry out there, which gets state funding, 30 volunteers feeding 1200 people a week, but they can’t have more than 10 people on Sunday for phase three. How do you respond to that discrepancy which they say, just frankly is not fair to them?…
Well as regards of food pantry you know I was in East St. Louis yesterday at a food pantry and like many nonprofit organizations they’ve had to make adjustments in order to keep their patrons safe you know to keep the people who use the food pantry safe. I know that lots of organizations have made those adjustments, it isn’t. Nothing is directed here at at a religious organization that happens to have a food pantry it’s really the idea here for everybody for everything and food pantry specifically is just to make sure that those who get served are served in a safe environment so you know we provide guidelines for different kinds of food service, and organizations, you know in grocery stores and so on. So I think those would apply here too.
I’m sorry maybe the pastor is saying they have 30 people in working the food pantry. If they can have 30 people to work a food pantry, you’re going to find so they can only have 10 people in a service. Yeah, and the discrepancy there has frustrated the pastor…
Well, again, we have guidelines that are now available for the afternoon on the or will be this afternoon on the dceo website. And those are our best recommendations. We’re not providing restrictions. We’re simply providing the best recommendations that we can for keeping people safe. So we hope that the pastor will follow that guidance and those recommendations for his services his or her services
But if there’s no restrictions then you’re not going to be asking for any law enforcement?…
As you know, I have never encouraged any police enforcement or any other kind of breaking up of gatherings. What I have said is that pastors should use their judgment and the science and data, and should follow the recommendations that have been made, but I realized that some have ignored that.
* A couple of questions on IDES, Republicans, held a news conference today calling for an audit, the Auditor General to audit, what went wrong, your response to that?…
Well I think I’ve been very transparent about what the challenges have been and, indeed, if you look at virtually every state in the United States, you can look in the Midwest, Michigan and Missouri and Indiana and Wisconsin. I mean all have had the same challenges. T their challenges of staffing their challenges of the systems that were put in place. Nobody expected to have 10 or 20 times the number of filings that have been made, as have been made over the last two months. And again, we’ve been trying to build that ship and float that boat at the same time. And we’re doing the best we came in 1.2 million applications have been filed and. And those filings have gone through so there are people who remain there’s some people that need arbitrations there’s some people who have challenges because they put something wrong into the system they need to take out of the system. And you can’t make easy alterations once you’ve applied, you may have changed your name for some reason from the last time that you were receiving unemployment to this time. And so those are some specific circumstances that people have to talk to somebody about or use the chat bot that exists online.
You throw an audit though I mean is that a political move by there, I think, I mean I look I, of course that’s the right of anybody but I will just say that we’ve been very transparent about what the challenges are. If their goal is to figure out what didn’t work right. I have stood here, I don’t know how many times over the last two plus months and told people what hasn’t worked right and how we’ve been trying to address it. And again we brought in some of the biggest, most robust companies in America, to help us rebuild those systems, so that we could on the fly, make sure that we’re meeting the needs of people across Illinois, but there’s no doubt about it like many other states. Some people have. It has taken longer to file and get claims delivered upon than any of us would like
* What might reopening schools look like, what do you tell juniors who are going to enter the senior year and Greg Bishop wanted to know, how do you ensure parents that their kids are going to get a quality education?…
I have a junior in my own home and so this is a relevant question to to those of us who have a junior.
It’s unfortunate that we can’t see that far into the future with this virus. What we are trying to do is to set the foundation for any outcome. My hope and desire is for us to be to have all of our kids back in school in the fall and I know some schools have already chosen across the nation. Some states have chosen to do that, some are in the position that we are still considering you know whether it is safe for our kids. But the most important thing is the kids and the people who work with the teachers and the administrators and the paraprofessionals, we have to keep all of them safe and so to make sure that we have the right conditions for that is what we’re looking to do.
* A study by the University of Chicago [garbled] found that uninsured and undocumented residents are most likely to be in need of COVID-19 testing and yet there’s still a lag in testing in areas where they live. What is the state doing to remove testing ability for them, and your message to the undocumented people still fearful to be tested?…
I can’t speak to all undocumented communities, I mean I absolutely agree that we need to make sure that testing is available to everybody. First I would say all testing that we are involved with and I think we have over 260 sites across the state. All that testing is free.
So anybody who needs a test that meets the criteria can go get a test and then those criteria have expanded vastly, to be clear, an undocumented resident of our state has the ability to get a test there’s no citizenship requirement and you’re not required to fill out a form that reveals your citizenship. There may be some federally qualified health centers that have a form with that question on it, you’re not required to fill that out in order to get a test. So that’s one thing and then providing the health care that’s needed by undocumented residents is also something that we are doing in the state, making sure that people have the ability to get cared for if they get COVID-19
* There’s a huge gap in information about the types of workers getting sick with COVID-19 throughout Illinois. As public figures trying to contain the spread of the virus, how is this impacting the state’s ability to track and prevent more of the outbreaks. And does the state plan to do anything about this. Also, why is more information not made public?…
Is this a question about, I’m sorry about the careers of the people who are identified? Sounds like types of workers getting sick, types of workers? And we have a very good idea because we know that some outbreaks are taking place in certain work settings. For example, and you all have heard about, for example pork processing or other meat processing plants is one example.
Dr. Ezike: IDPH is a master collector of information. We have millions of pieces of data that come in to us every day from all different sources. In terms of the actual data regarding people who are being tested and people you know obviously some of those tested will then be positive. Again, whatever is put into our, our databases is what we have. And so I think it is imperative that everyone hears that those forms, whether there’s a form that an individual has to fill out whether it’s a healthcare professional that’s assisting with papers being filled out whether it’s in a doctor’s office, whether it’s in the drive thru sites like everything that’s put in there. And that’s what we have so if people just say I’m just going to write my name, and I’m going to leave off the date of birth or I’m going to leave off the address. Then when we’re trying to figure out who this positive case belongs to. We put it in this bucket that has no address until we’re able to chase down that information and we don’t know if this is belongs to one of the riffs, which of the Restore regions it belongs to or, you know, which county had this positive. So, again, all of that information is essential, the more information, we have, the more information that’s given to us, the more that we have to be able to put out in terms of identifying types of occupation, a location. We do know from some of our outbreak investigations that you know you have a specific location when you’ve gone through the, the contact tracing and the interviewing where you’ve tried to go back and think of all the places, work with the person to identify all the places that they’ve been. And then, you know, you would say maybe oh I went to, you know, I went to the grocery store on this day I went to a place of worship on this day I went to this health club, this place to get you know hair, nails massage. So when we get all that information. And then if you get a cluster of people that in that same timeframe all identify like a specific locale. That’s how we then can put things together like an like an investigator to say, Wow, there were around the same time, we have all these people that frequented this one location, and then you try to hone in, then you try to go to that location find other people who may have been there at the same time. So again, once we get the critical information that allows us to do further investigation to have more and then we have more data fields populated in our database and then we can put out summaries of more more intense information. So again, the data that we get is what we can give out and so we want to implore everybody to be very comprehensive in all the forms they’re filling in that involves individuals that involves local health departments that involves hospital personnel lab personnel everyone to work together so we can have as much data so we can answer all these questions.
Gov. Pritzker: The most important data, though, that we we nearly always get is, of course, how to contact the person with their test results
* Large office buildings, reopened after weeks standing by mostly idle, researchers are worried about the potential for bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease being in the pipes. So what guidance do you have for building managers and for people who are returning to work in those buildings?…
Well there are lots of buildings that you know that are in areas that have had legionnaires or Legionella detected in their pipes. You know, there’s one obviously terrible circumstance in Illinois of the Quincy Veterans Home where there are staff at that home too, so workplace where there’s Legionella. But in terms of dealing with Legionella, I mean this is a problem that the state has dealt with for many years. It’s not like we need new guidance about how to deal with legionnaires or Legionella. So it’s not really a new endeavor.
* Two very important metrics to get the state to phase four, even more widespread testing available to everyone regardless of symptoms and contact tracing on more than 90% of cases. To that end, she has two questions. What’s the next big testing metric? How will the state get there with federal support of the National Guard sites going away. Does the State have a large order of testing supplies or test machines coming in?…
We have, there are many testing machines that exist in the state and of course, as I’ve talked about before, contracting with the existing owners of those, they may be hospitals, they may be doctors or others, or commercial Labs is part of our effort to scale up, obtaining swabs. You’ve heard me say this over and over, how will we scale up. These are all the same things that we’ve been doing. But more and more and more in terms of what our goals are. We need to do many more than we are. I would point out that we’re currently as I’ve said many times we’re among the large states, second highest in terms of per capita testing. We’re the third highest in overall testing among the big states and so we’re gonna you know and again. The goal is to get to a much higher number and you’ve seen us do that. I mean, back when, at the, near early on when I talked about us needing to get to 10,000.
It took us a couple of weeks a few weeks before we were able to get from where we were to that 10,000 number, but we moved pretty quickly from 10,000 to 20,000, we’re averaging out about 23,000, a day but you’ve seen [garbled] hit 27 and 29,000 so you know we’re going to keep ratcheting that up. And the goal here is to make sure that everybody, whether it’s nursing homes at our priority locations gets tested on a regular basis, but also as we are reopening many businesses across the state that the businesses where there are more at risk, individuals that they also have the testing available to them, and then the doctors.
OK, how many people have been hired for contact tracing. How long will it take for them to be trained, will the state have enough people by the time by the end of June to move into phase four. So, just a clarification when we think about the metrics to move into phase four, they are the same metrics that we needed to graduate, if you will, into phase three. So, the information regarding the metrics around contact contact tracing. Those are, I guess, internal goals that we all know that we need to the more contact tracing the more aggressively we can identify cases and identify potential cases and have people stand down before they have the chance to infect others so that’s not what’s going to hold other people back. We’re working aggressively to get that online and to get people hired and to get the curriculum. We have some pilot, local, local health departments that we’re starting with first, and then we’re going to expand. So, we will not have the contact tracers in every part of the state next week, but we will branch out and keep growing until we get the full capacity that we need. But again, that is not going to hold the state back, but we know that that is an important part of the master plan in order to keep our state safe to be able to quickly rapidly identify people who are positive, and be able to identify their context so that they can stand down before they potentially infect someone else.
* An emergency rule filed May 22 suspends the 30 day time frame for an IDPH inspection that arises from a nursing home complaint, except for allegations of abuse and neglect. Why was this rule needed does it apply to inspections by local health officials?…
So at the state level, I think the feds understood that, in the midst of this pandemic that we were going to be focusing on COVID response and trying to address the nursing homes as they are clearly the highest risk setting for the entire state for the whole country for the whole world. And so they wanted us to focus on the COVID response, but of course made that exception for things that would be considered an immediate jeopardy. So for things, essentially it means some offensive so egregious that you could immediately have to suspend a license. So, other things have been put on the back burner. As we progress that that might be loosen but again we’re following the federal, the federal guidelines.
* Governor we’ve heard from people who say they’re not going to return to restaurant or bar jobs but stay on employment until something else comes along. Well, those who make that decision run the risk of losing their unemployment benefits…
Well that’s a decision the federal government would make. There are regulations around that. You know it’s able and available I think is the standard here. That’s not really a decision that will make at the local level.
* Churches gyms theaters, they all seem to think they can operate in a way that’s safe. To what extent are you rethinking one to let them open to more people and customers instead of just 10 people?…
Theaters and gyms you’re throwing those together, well those are a bit different, gyms tend to be smaller. Although I know there are some that are quite large. And we have provided guidance for certain activities at gyms and fitness centers. But theaters, I think there’s a common belief that the experts seem to tell us anyway that it would be difficult for us to open theaters in the near future in phase three.
* How are malls moving forward during phase three and will business in malls operate differently than other businesses?…
Dr. Ezike: So most of the guidance, were thinking of businesses as solitary individual businesses. And so the the rules that applied in terms of capacity. How many people could be in the store how many people per 1000, square feet? So those I think would continue to apply for individual stores.
And then if they happen to be within the context of a law I don’t think the rules change. So I think it’s still the rules that are prescribed in the guidance, I should say, the guidance that is prescribed for individual businesses, whether it’s a personal care facility, the same rules would apply in terms of what services can be done. I think some of the things that might be hard to implement would be some of the recommendations surrounding like extending the hours so that you have lower population density, if you will, in any one establishment at the time. Your ability maybe to flex the hours might be limited by the by the hours of the mall in general, but otherwise I think the individual facilities and businesses follow the same rules that are prescribed on our website.
* Governor there’s been a growing COVID-19 outbreak at the Pulaski County Jail which also serves as an immigration detention center in rural Southern Illinois. Recent reports from ICE state now 29 detainees have tested positive for the virus. This is in a county with multiple challenges in regards to access to health care. In response, there have been calls from advocates and public health professionals for IDPH to inspect detention centers and ensure the health of those who are held by ICE, how do you respond?…
Dr. Ezike: That is a federally run facility but in Pulaski County, the local health department has been involved with that. We have offered consultation. We have reviewed the methods that have been employed surrounding that outbreak. We actually did see that they have taken the appropriate measures to mitigate the outbreak, so we are partnering with our local health department. Obviously anything that happens within our state affects all the residents of the state in terms of the employees that work there and go home every returning to their communities. And so we have been partnering again with the local health department’s. We feel that a lot of the measures and steps in the mitigation strategies that have been employed have been appropriate. And so we continue to follow that outbreak.
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1,527 new cases, 104 additional deaths
Thursday, May 28, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,527 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 104 additional deaths.
Coles County: 1 male 80s
Cook County: 2 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 3 females 60s, 7 males 60s, 1 unknown 60s, 8 females 70s, 10 males 70s, 7 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 9 females 90s, 6 males 90s, 2 unknown 90s
DeKalb County: 1 female 70s
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
Kane County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 100+
Kankakee County: 1 male 90s
Lake County: 2 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 1 male 70s, 4 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Macoupin County: 1 male 80s
McHenry County: 1 female 80s
Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
St. Clair County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Tazewell County: 1 male 90s
Union County: 2 males 70s
Whiteside County: 2 females 90s
Will County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
Winnebago County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 115,833 cases, including 5,186 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 25,993 specimens for a total of 829,966. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from May 21–May 27 is 8.3%
*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 a death previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
* Dr. Ezike…
As of midnight, 3649 individuals were hospitalized with COVID-19 and of those 1,009 patients were in the ICU and 576 patients were on ventilators
…Adding… Dr. Ezike…
Among those that have passed associated with COVID, almost 44% of those were in long term care facilities.
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Question of the day
Thursday, May 28, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I asked yesterday if you were planning to eat at a restaurant soon. Are there any other public activities you plan to do when the state moves into Phase 3 tomorrow?
By the way, I checked with the governor’s office today and all regions are still on track.
…Adding… The governor just confirmed that all regions are on track.
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* AP…
Roughly 2.1 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a sign that companies are still slashing jobs in the face of a deep recession even as more businesses reopen and rehire some laid-off employees.
About 41 million people have now applied for aid since the virus outbreak intensified in March, though not all of them are still unemployed. The Labor Department’s report Thursday includes a count of all the people now receiving unemployment aid: 21 million. That is a rough measure of the number of unemployed Americans. […]
In Illinois, 58,359 people filed for first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, down from the 72,780 filings a week earlier. Since mid-March, nearly 1.1 million Illinoisans have filed for jobless benefits.
First-time applications for unemployment aid, though still high by historical standards, have now fallen for eight straight weeks. In addition to those who applied last week, an additional 1.2 million applied under a new program for self-employed and gig workers, who are eligible for jobless aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the overall data.
*** UPDATE *** IDES…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) today released new statewide data showing the department processed 58,263 new initial claims for regular unemployment benefits during the week ending May 23. The department has now processed 1,302,154 claims for unemployment benefits from March 1 through May 23. This amount is nearly 12 times the number of claims the department processed over the same period last year, when IDES processed just 102,000 claims for regular unemployment benefits.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program has processed 88,965 initial claims in its two weeks. 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.
IDES processed 39,414 Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation claims (PEUC), which provides up to 13 weeks’ worth of 100% federally funded benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular state unemployment benefits. PEUC is potentially available for weeks beginning on or after March 29, 2020 and continuing through the week ending December 26, 2020.
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* Fox News…
An Illinois church has filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court, challenging Gov. Jay Pritzker’s closure of houses of worship during the coronavirus crisis a day after another congregation in California made a similar move.
The case will be handled by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, based on geography, and he has asked the opposing state officials to respond by Thursday evening, just as Justice Elena Kagan asked of the California church that filed an emergency request on Tuesday.
Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and the Logos Baptist Ministries filed the emergency order citing precedent in a 1947 Supreme Court case “Everson v. Board of Education.” In that case, the Court wrote that “Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church… Neither can force nor influence a person to go or remain away from a church against his will.” […]
Both Kagan and Kavanaugh alone can decide these cases, or refer them to the full court.
* From the church’s request…
Three decisions,from the Fifth and Sixth Circuits,have enjoined such orders as unconstitutional, see First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springsv. City of Holly Springs, Mississippi, No. 20-60399, 2020 WL 2616687 (5th Cir. May 22, 2020); Roberts v. Neace, No. 20-5465, 2020 WL 2316679 (6th Cir. May 9, 2020); Maryville Baptist Church, Inc. v. Beshear, No. 20-5427, 2020 WL 2111316 (6th Cir. May 2, 2020), and two decisions,from the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, have denied injunctive relief, see Order, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church v. Pritzker, No. 20-1811 (7th Cir. May 16, 2020) (“Circuit IPA Order,” attached hereto as Exhibit A); South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, No. 20-55533, 2020 WL 2687079 (9th Cir. May 22, 2020).1Thesedecisions also differ as to whether such orders trigger strict scrutiny under Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah,508 U.S. 520 (1993), and Emp’t Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). These contradictory decisions demonstrate serious confusion exists within the federal courts as to the correct constitutional standards to apply to emergency executive orders restricting religious worship. Thus,this application presents important questions of federal law which have divided the circuits and should be settled by this Court.
*** UPDATE *** With a big hat tip to a commenter…
As southern Illinois prepares for Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan, COVID-19 cases in Jackson County are on the rise.
Bart Hagston, administrator of the Jackson county health department, said most of the cases are connected to a local church that has been holding in-person services in defiance of public health orders.
“We have seen an uptick in the number of cases over the last several days. Most of those cases are tied to an outbreak associated with a church in Jackson County,” he said.
The name of the church is not being released to the public.
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