* From the governor’s press conference…
In February, we were among the first states to bring our own state laboratories online, providing us with critical early capacity. At the time we were able to run around 50 tests per day. Today we could do nearly 2000 tests per day from all sources with our state labs now running 600 tests per day in all three locations, Chicago, Springfield, and Carbondale. A lot of work has gone into building up our testing capacity and there’s still a lot more work to be done. On Sunday and Monday we began drive through testing at for state and federal facilities. The Illinois National Guard opened our first entirely state-run drive-through testing facility in northwest Chicago. The Harwood heights community based testing site. This site is designed especially to collect specimens from our healthcare workers and first responders and at current capacity. They can collect 250 specimens per day. Senior members of the US Department of Health and Human Services were out to survey that site this last weekend and they called our setup a national model that they hope to replicate in other states. […]
Over the last few days federal HHS has also set up sites in Bolingbroke North Lake and Joliet with private partners Walgreens and Walmart. These sites can run close to 100 tests per day as is and up to 250 each with expanded staffing here in Illinois. Our residents also have access to four commercial labs and 15 hospital labs that in total average about 1500 tests per day on top of our state lab output. That’s of course on top of the 600 per day that we run at our state labs. IDPH is working with some hospitals to stand up their own new labs, providing positive specimens to hospitals for validation, so they can come online faster. As we speak labs at places like North Shore hospital and Southern Illinois University are expanding their capacity with additional equipment and supplies, with an expected additional capacity of 2805 daily tests in two weeks. That will bring our in state testing to more than 4300 per day.
Now, even with this rapid expansion, we still need 10s of thousands more tests to get an accurate picture of our state, that’s within our reach. Though standing up additional hospital lab sites will be required and mobile testing sites will be required across the state. And we’re doing that with a continued consistent delivery of necessary supplies such as reagent and viral transport media we can get this job done.
Of course, nationally and here in Illinois, we are beyond the moment where testing alone can be our primary weapon against this virus. We can’t just test, we have to treat. It’s true that the vast majority of people will recover from COVID 19 on their own without hospitalization, and without a specific therapy.
One aspect of that is our healthcare workforce, those on the frontlines fighting COVID 19 every day. And I’m very proud to say that since my call to action this weekend for those qualified to join the fight. We have had hundreds of nurses and doctors and other health care workers reach out to us and let us know that they are interested in helping the application went live yesterday and in just 24 hours, we’ve already received 180 applications from individuals ready and willing to rejoin the healthcare workforce.
…Adding… From a press release…
Hospitals across the state are meeting the current need, and the state is building additional capacity to treat patients that may need care in the future.
As of March 23, data reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) showed 12,588 non-ICU beds, 1,106 ICU beds and 1,595 ventilators available in hospitals across the state. The current capacity of the state’s health care system as of is shown in the table below.
* Impact of stay at home order…
I want to take a moment now to provide you with a fuller picture of what we could be dealing with in the near future. As I’ve said, You deserve honesty and transparency on the gravity of our situation, and the reasoning behind the aggressive measures, like the stay at home order that I’ve put in place in our worst case scenario projections. That is without the stay at home order, in one week we would need over 2500 more non ICU beds and 800 ICU beds, than we have in existence in the entire state today. Further still in two weeks, we would need over 28,000, additional non ICU beds and over 9400 additional ICU beds. That’s untenable.
Again, I’m using Otter for transcription, so expect typos.
* Triage tents and closed hospitals…
IEMA has deployed 49 triage tents, 40 outside of Cook County to set up triage units outside of hospitals to safely and efficiently evaluate potential COVID 19 patients. In total, 66 of our over 200 hospitals statewide have set up triage tents with IEMA, or on their own. IEMA is currently working with 26 additional hospitals to set up triage centers, and my team and I will make sure that each and every one of those hospitals, has what they need to get a triage center going. […]
IDPH, IEMA, the Illinois National Guard and the US Army Corps of Engineers are in the process of investigating closed hospitals that could temporarily reopen to support our COVID 19 response. In a worst case scenario surge the state would turn existing hospitals into almost entirely COVID 19 response hospitals, moving non COVID patients to other hospitals including these re-outfitted locations.
* Ventilators…
The number one difference between a standard bed, and a COVID equipped bed is a ventilator. Right now in Illinois we have about 2200 ventilators all across the state of which 1600 are currently available. I n the worst case scenario projections that I discussed earlier, we would need over 4100 more ventilators to outfit our ICU beds within two weeks. Again, that’s a projection based on no protective interventions. My team and I are pursuing every option to increase our state’s supply of ventilators including working with scientists and experts in Illinois and beyond to pursue innovative new equipment options.
* White House…
Yesterday I spoke with President Trump to walk him through Illinois’ immediate needs, millions of N 95 masks, and hundreds of ventilators just in the near term. President Trump promised assistance and yesterday afternoon. The White House notified us that we will be receiving 300 more ventilators and 300,095 masks from FEMA in the coming days. On that call I also urged the president to invoke the defense production act. I know I sound like a broken record, but if I have to stand here every single day until I’m blue in the face and advocate that the federal government fully utilize this act, then I will.
This is the reality, there is a finite supply of critical resources available around the world right now. There is an enormous supply of governors and countries trying to get those resources. We need the full might of the federal government to obtain and allocate things like ventilators and PPE. I know there are businesses out there right now working on turning production toward these critical needs and I’ve been vocal about how grateful I am to the manufacturing community for the most part, which is stepping up to try and help, but there is no way that these companies can ramp up fast enough to get us everything that we need in the time that we need it
* Reopen the country?…
Finally, there has been some talk over the last 24 hours by some about who this nation might be willing to sacrifice to COBID 19, for the sake of our economic interests. Well, in case there’s any doubt in your minds, I’m not willing to sacrifice anyone.
There is no life in this state that is more or less precious than any other no person more or less worthy of saving. I want grandparents around to help raise their grandchildren. I want people to spend years after this is over, celebrating birthdays and wedding anniversaries and healthy retirements. I want Illinois to continue to be enriched by its young and old residents alike. Our economic strength comes from our diversity in this state, and the hard won experiences of our citizens without that we are nothing with it. There is nothing that we cannot overcome.
* It’s now the IDPH director’s turn…
In terms of the data that we’ve collected, 54% of our confirmed cases are white, 33% are black, 5% are categorized as Asian, we have 11% of Latino or Hispanic ethnicity.
In terms of severity of illness, our data shows that 16% of COVID cases have resulted in hospitalization, 4% have resulted in ICU admission. Of the lives lost, we see that 92% of those lives lost are in those older than 60.
* The National Guard’s Adjutant General again tried to counter rumors…
The National Guard has been the subject of recent rumors that we were performing some type of policing action to enforce a quarantine. Well let me repeat again today that the Illinois National Guard is not bringing weapons, and not enforcing quarantines. What we are doing is bringing approximately 115 personnel of the medical profession, as the governor spoke of earlier, to support things like drive through testing.
He continued by outlining the rest of the things the Guard is doing. It’s a lot.
* Now on to questions for the governor. First responders, healthcare workers are exhausted. Any potential to help relieve them?…
Healthcare workers are being overworked there’s no doubt about it. They’re doing heroic amazing work every day. And they do deserve a break as best we can give them. They’re so dedicated, they’re dedicated in non-crisis times I must say, and now they’re working, you know even harder. So as you know we expanded the eligibility to work in the healthcare field to people who had recently retired, we can give them back their licenses. Nearly immediately and those who may have left the profession for some other profession, we need them back we’re encouraging them to come back and we’ve seen hundreds already talking to us about coming back filling out forms and so on.
And so in that way we’re trying to fill up the need for more health care workers so we can alleviate some of the work on the front lines. We’re also, at the edges at the borders of the state, we’re allowing people who may work as healthcare workers in other states but may live in Illinois, or they may live on the other side of the border, and may be willing to work in Illinois, we want to make sure they get licensed in Illinois and so reciprocity, for those folks. We want to be able to move healthcare workers to where they’re most needed so we’re doing our best to try to alleviate the congestion let’s say that that is weighing upon the healthcare industry the healthcare workforce today and we’ll keep looking for ways to do that.
* Asked about President Trump’s stated desire to get the economy going again by April…
My concern with the President’s remarks is I don’t think he’s listening to the science. I think that he is, you know, operating, he’s looking at the stock market, which I know he’s essentially judges himself by, and making decisions in that way. Look, I understand that. What’s happening now is very, very difficult for families all across this nation.
Everybody is suffering financially from this and some more than others, and so this is something that weighs on all of us. And I think about how we can support people across the state of Illinois. We’ve done many things like expanding unemployment benefits and providing meals for kids and making sure that we’re looking at shelter for those who are homeless. There’s a, there’s an awful lot and of course we stopped evictions in the state and we stopped, we put a moratorium on on shut offs of utilities and so on, we’re doing many other things like that to protect people from the economic downturn that seems to be upon us.
But I think the President is not taking into account the true damage that this will do to our country. If we see truly millions of people die, and that’s what I think would happen that’s what the scientists and the doctors tell us what will happen. And you heard me say a little bit earlier, if you don’t have these restrictions on the damage that would be done that the lives that would be lost the overriding of our healthcare system would lead to real devastation so I’m very very concerned about what the President is saying.
* Will he be extending the stay at home order beyond April 7…
Again, I’m trying to follow the science here and I am concerned that we may have to extend that deadline.
You know we have to start to see some movement in the numbers in the right direction or at least a shaping of the curve that looks like we’re hitting you know a good spot in that curve.
* Budget adjustments?…
Well that is an excellent question I mean there’s no doubt that any estimates that were made even two months ago would be, you know, not useful. At this point I don’t think anybody expected where we would be today.
So we are working with our budget experts, with our Office of Management budget, with my deputy governor for budget and economy and our entire team to try to figure out what direction, what’s the steepness of the downturn in revenues and of course there are expenditures that we’re needing to make to save people’s lives to protect people across the state. We’re going to do what we need to do there’s no question about that. But yes, of course behind that we’ve got to look at our budget situation and do whatever we need to do to address it and then you know we’ve got to also consult with the General Assembly on what we will do for next year’s budget.
* Would he spend part of his own personal fortune to acquire PPE…
Well I’ve reached out to an awful lot of people in the business community that I know, to help them, to get them to help us acquire PPE from around the world. Many of them have offered their resources. I, of course, have been charitable as you know over the years and intend to be in this situation as well. And so we’ll be doing, I’m gonna be doing everything that I can. I’m certainly working more morning noon and night and I’ll put my resources to bear on it too.
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* Last week…
Many of the early votes cast in Champaign County for the primary election may have been counted the night before Election Day, in violation of state law.
The first summary report of election returns — posted shortly after the polls closed Tuesday by Democratic Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons — appears to have been created at 10:19 p.m. Monday, according to the timestamp on the report.
State law mandates that early ballots can’t be counted until after the polls close on Election Day, and they are to be counted in the presence of both political parties, according to Republican county Recorder Mark Shelden, who once served as clerk.
“I cannot emphasize enough how out of line this is,” Shelden said. “Literally, in the dark of night, they’re counting votes with no Republicans present and uploading them into the system.”
* Ammons refused comment, but posted this on Facebook…
On the evening of Monday, March 16th the tabulators used to record and secure ballots at 10 early voting sites around the county were closed. A Democratic and Republican judge executed this process, jointly handled the ballots, and both signed off on the corresponding written results. The results are housed on a military-grade encrypted thumb drive and on a printed report from the tabulator, those and the ballots themselves are securely transported back to the Election Services Building, again, with Democratic and Republican judges together. These materials are received and checked by Democratic and Republican staff people, together, then secured in a locked box.
This process was in place before I became Clerk and remains the most secure option for recording early voting ballots while opening the same locations for Election Day.
* Not so, says former county clerk Gordy Hulten…
“What he’s saying is ‘We generated results and the judges handled them,’ which is a no-no, and not the procedure he inherited,” Hulten said.
In addition to the fact that it’s the law, Hulten said, observing the statute on timing of generating results matters “because voters who haven’t yet voted could be discouraged by the early release of results,” he said. “It’s important because candidates who know results prior to the close of polls can potentially use that information to their advantage.” […]
“Mr. Ammons’ Facebook post indicates that his election judges printed and returned tabulator tapes with results to him on Monday evening, before the close of voting on Tuesday night,” Hulten said. “The screen capture of the results shown to me indicate that his office read the USB memory sticks and generated aggregated results reports, also on Monday evening, before the close of voting on Tuesday night.”
In his instructions to election judges about closing early voting for the November 2018 election, Hulten said there isn’t a mention of judges printing, signing or returning a results tape when closing, “because under our procedures, no results tape was generated.”
*** UPDATE *** Ammons was harshly rebuked this week by the Illinois State Board of Elections…
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* Republican US Sen. Tom Cotton on the Senate floor yesterday…
Go right through that door and ask Chuck Schumer what he’s demanding in secret behind closed doors. Oh, and don’t forget all of their cities, and all their states. Dick Durbin represents one of the most bankrupt states in America and the most bankrupt city, Chicago, in America behind those closed doors. They are demanding straight cash bailouts for states and cities that have been fiscally irresponsible for years.
And they come down here and accuse us of bailouts? We are willing to help those cities and states. They are overwhelmed by this pandemic. Yet we simply say they have to repay the money on the back end. That’s not what the Democrats are asking for behind those closed doors over there. They want straight cash payments.
Despite all this, everybody keeps saying they’re close to an agreement on a stimulus bill. We’ll see.
…Adding… Heh…
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* I’ve chided Gov. Pritzker twice for the tone he’s used with President Trump. It’s not that I felt the governor was being counter-productive. It’s that two of our last three governors would regularly fly into public rages and I hated that. I also believed, and still do, that he needed to continue being Gov. Chillax during these frightening times. The facts are obviously on his side, so I wanted him to stick to the facts.
There are those, including within the Pritzker administration, who believe that President Trump respects those who challenge him. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the POTUS did say this last night…
* Tina Sfondeles…
After a string of national TV appearances in which Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — and a couple of Twitter tirades — the White House on Monday has vowed to send Illinois 300 ventilators and 250,000 masks.
According to the governor’s office, that assurance came from a White House aide on Monday afternoon after Pritzker and Trump spoke directly on the phone at about noon. It also came some 24 hours after Pritzker complained “the only way to get the president of the United States to pay attention is to go on national television and make noise about it.”
So, maybe it did work. But the state needs far more than what’s been promised…
And the White House has made a whole lot of promises it hasn’t kept during the past several weeks.
Maybe our Republican delegation can finally stand up and say something?
…Adding… Also, this. All day this…
…Adding… I wonder how he feels now that the president has vowed to help Illinois?…
Cook County Republican Chairman Sean Morrison lashed out Monday at Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, accusing them of putting politics before constituents with their “volley of combative and sarcastic tweets” aimed at President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
“Finger-pointing and name calling by Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot solves absolutely nothing except for trying to score some cheap political points,” Morrison said in a statement. “We need steady, effective and focused leadership and they’re not providing it.”
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* Gov. Pritzker began by going over what I told you late yesterday about the lack of PPE supplies from the federal government. But he also announced that the private sector was coming through. His conclusion…
Illinois is acquiring PPE to compensate for what we haven’t received in our federal requests. But we are doing so while running up against obstacles that should not exist. I have medical professionals and first responders begging for things that they need to keep them safe, but so does Governor Cuomo in New York, so does Governor Dewine in Ohio, so does Governor Inslee in Washington State.
We’re all doing everything that we can to do our jobs, which is to protect our residents and to make sure our health care workers have what they need. We need the federal government to use the defense production act, to help the states get what we need. It’s the federal government’s job to make sure that a nurse being properly equipped in Illinois doesn’t come at the cost of a doctor being ready for work in California.
It’s the federal government’s job to make sure that we have a cohesive, prepared, robust national response. It’s the federal government’s job to make sure that cash-strapped states are not paying more than they should have to for supplies. That we are not watching prices go up by the hour, because we’re competing against one another, yet for the common good.
I’m an Illinoisan and I’m the Governor of Illinois. And I’m going to do everything that I can to protect our residents and get us through this crisis. I said I’d fight like hell for you. And I’m doing that every minute of every hour of every day. One way or another. We need these supplies, and I have a whole team of people whose singular focus right now is working the phones across the world to get as much PPE as possible shipped to Illinois. They’re the force behind the 2.5 million N95 masks, 1 million disposable surgical masks, 11,000 gloves and 10,000 personal protection kits that I just announced.
And again, I’m an Illinoisan, but I’m also an American. And so long as I know that there’s action that the White House can take things like aggressively wielding the defense production Act, or actually buying and distributing the supplies that they say they’re going to buy and distribute. I’ll do everything in my power to make that clear on behalf of the people of this state, and the more than 300 million Americans who don’t call Illinois home. Because that’s the very baseline of what we all deserve.
* Press release…
In another effort to build supply to protect those on the frontlines, battling this pandemic, Gov. Pritzker announced today that the state has executed contracts to purchase 2.5 million N95 masks, 1 million disposable surgical masks, 11,000 gloves and 10,000 personal protection kits.
While medical facilities across the state do have their own stocks of PPE and uses their own vendors to source additional PPE, the administration’s procurement effort aims to supplement their existing supply during this period of heightened need.
* Mark Denzler with the IMA was able to find 171,000 MREs and 350,000 N95 masks…
Thank you Governor Pritzker for your calm and steadfast leadership during this pandemic. I’d also like to thank the brave men and women who are on the front lines every single day, including women and men in manufacturing, Illinois is facing extraordinary times the rival, some of the greatest challenges in our history. Well the headlines are grim and the task is daunting. Illinois manufacturers once again stand ready to answer the call conquer obstacles and lead the way forward.
Over the last few weeks, the Illinois Manufacturers Association has been inundated with offers from companies across Illinois. Some manufacturers are ramping up production of current products, while others are repurposing their facilities to meet the need. Liquor manufacturers are making sanitizer, clothing manufacturers are making masks and grounds plastic injection molding companies are making parts for testing kits. This new essential equipment task force will help these companies collaborate, break down regulatory barriers in Washington DC or Springfield, provide medical standards and testing and help review the validity and safety of these products. Importantly, these products will remain in Illinois, to help our families and our neighbors.
* On to questions. Pritzker was asked about the crush of people trying to file for unemployment insurance and couldn’t get through…
First of all this is just an unprecedented number of people that are seeking Unemployment Claims during this time period. I don’t think we’ve ever seen this before even in periods during the 2008-2009 crisis. Having said that, we found over the weekend and over the last you know couple days of the week that the systems that we had that were supporting the online applications wasn’t robust enough to take all of the applications that were coming in at one time. And so we’re porting that system entirely over to a much more expansive foundational software system and server. So we won’t have any of those problems going forward. So we’ve taken care of, I think the online problem.
The phone line problem is another issue. We had to take non essential staff and push them up to the front lines to answer phones to make sure we answered any questions we would like anybody who needs to apply for unemployment though, to go to the website it really will be. It’s now a, you know, as I say it’s on a new platform, we’ll be able to take many more at the same time, we want to fulfill on people’s need during this crisis and we’re going to.
* How do you balance protecting the public health, while protecting civil liberties…
So to be clear, we’re trying to protect people’s health and safety. That’s our number one job here. There’s no attempt here to limit peoples’ civil liberties. People can go outside, they can do an awful lot of the same things that they were doing before was simply asked that non-essential businesses closed during this time period, and that people make a special effort to stay home.
* He was asked about supplies…
I was on the phone trying to get ventilators. I talked to two CEOs yesterday afternoon, speaking to them about acquiring ventilators from that we need to build up as many ventilators as we can. I should also point out that earlier today, I reached out to the President of the United States, he returned my call a little [later in the] afternoon and I spoke with him directly about our need for N95 masks and for ventilators. And as you know, it’s very important that we acquire as many of these as we can. I have called for him to invoke the national defense production act and actually utilize it because I know he’s invoked it but not utilized it in any industry. And when I call these ventilator manufacturers and I gave this example to them. In one case, they told me I was competing with FEMA to acquire ventilators, so I’m competing against the federal government to get ventilators for the state of Illinois, and the federal government is not distributing ventilators to the state of Illinois so I’m literally working against, you know, a competitor.
I just want to give you the second example if you don’t mind, I called another manufacturer of ventilators, and he pointed out to me that well I would be competing with countries other than the United States, so as I put an order in I better put in as big an order as possible in order to put myself higher on the list of priority to get ventilators from that manufacturer. Now, here I’m competing with my own federal government, I’m competing with countries outside the United States to get things that we need to, to keep our people safe and healthy.
The President was very responsive, frankly. He didn’t so much like the idea of invoking the defense production act, but he did say, you know what do you need. Let me see if I can get that for you and I, you know, gave him some numbers I told him what we had ordered from the government already. And he said let me work on that. And so I really thought it seems like he’s being very responsive to what I asked for and I hope that we’ll be able to receive those items in relatively short order.
* The governor was asked about rumors that the National Guard was armed. He deferred to his Adjutant General…
It’s great to actually get that out in front of the media today, dispel any rumors that the National Guard has any weapons. We’re not doing any police action, we’re not, you know, doing any kind of work at all like that.
What we are doing is supporting testing within the Rosemont area this week where we just stood up a new testing facility. We have 100 personnel that are taking care of testing now these are professional doctors or nurses or medical professionals that are supported by logistics folks. They’re there to manage that line and to help our neighbors, our community, folks in our community to get through and be tested. Today they started out with the first responders, they started testing them early this morning to get them through and make sure that they’re good to go on their test. And then they’re opening more and more up to the public as we go forward. They’re also supporting as the governor talked about PPE that personal protective equipment. They’re also supporting accounting for that distribution, as we get more and more of that coming in as governor talked about the large orders coming in. They will be helping warehouse sad they’ll package that up, they’ll ship that out, along with one way Department of Transportation, in conjunction with Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Illinois State Police will be moving that distributed around the state to different drop areas. We’re also doing hospital assessments, we’re going in with our specialized engineering team that we have out of our civil engineering team out of their national guard. And they’re going around the state assessing hospitals that had been closed down previously that maybe provide additional capacity so they’re actually looking at the heating, the plumbing, electrical throughout those facilities and identifying which ones are easy to quickly turn on if we need that additional capacity and which are not. We’re also providing support with operations planning and management so when the governor talks about the professionalism that’s brought out by the National Guard, these are these are your citizen soldiers your, your soldiers that work for the Army and your Air Force SOC personnel that work for the Air Force, that are trained in many different skill sets. And unlike a flood where a lot of times we’re doing a lot of security and management and supporting flood operations. This time they’re bringing out some really key healing needed specialties such as medical and logistics and transportation. That’s what your National Guard brings, unique capabilities and capacity, when the state runs out of capacity, because we have so many people working. They come forward and they provide that extra lift. So you’ll see trucks around the Chicagoland area, you’ll see when we show up in camouflage we tend to draw a crowd.
But we’re not bringing weapons, we’re not bringing anything like that we’re bringing our professional skills to help out.
* What is the Illinois hospital bed capacity and how close to reaching it are we right now and what is the state’s ICU bed capacity and how close are we to reaching…
We’re going to be talking about that tomorrow. We’re right now we’re in you know decent shape across the state
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* If this virus gets into a prison or a jail, it can spread very fast…
* Tribune…
A number of Cook County Jail detainees — including “serial stowaway” Marilyn Hartman — have been quietly ordered released this week to help relieve jail crowding amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The hearings to formally release the detainees began this week, unannounced and separate from the two duty courtrooms that remain open to hear emergency matters during a widespread court shutdown.
* Press release…
Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart continues to address the threat of COVID- 19 by implementing comprehensive precautionary measures across the Sheriff’s Office to ensure the health and safety of staff, detainees and the public.
Sheriff Dart previously activated the office’s 24/7 Critical Incident Command Center, which has been tracking COVID-19 related concerns in the Sheriff’s Office. To date, there have been few concerns, and no known cases of COVID-19 at the Cook County Department of Corrections. Incident Command is also communicating with public health and law enforcement agencies about ways to help prevent the spread of the virus. Through these communications, our staff have also been kept updated on ways to protect themselves.
* And then…
A correctional officer at the Cook County Jail has tested positive for coronavirus, the sheriff’s office announced Sunday.
The officer most recently worked in the jail’s Residential Treatment Unit, the wing for inmates who need medical or mental health attention, and Cermak Hospital, the on-site medical center, Cook County Sheriff’s spokesman Matt Walberg said. The officer is now in isolation at home.
The sheriff’s office has contacted employees who may have had contact with the officer and advised a “small number of staff” to self-quarantine for 14 days, though none have shown symptoms, the sheriff’s office said.
* Today…
In an attempt to speed the release of detainees from the Cook County Jail amid coronavirus concerns, more judges will take the bench this week in Chicago’s main criminal courthouse to formally release people who are not believed to pose a safety risk.
Prosecutors, sheriffs and the Public Defender’s office already have been working together to agree on which jail detainees could safely be released, and have brought about 100 of those cases before a judge for review.
* Decatur Herald & Review…
Seventeen non-violent, petty offenders have been released over the last few days from the Macon County Jail as corrections staff attempt to limit the risk of contagion from the coronavirus.
No cases of the virus have shown up in prisoners so far and Sheriff Tony Brown said he was being careful to strike a balance between public health concerns and public safety. […]
All over the country, sheriffs are taking a look at their jail populations and assessing risks. Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell hasn’t gone as far as any prisoner releases yet but, quoted in the State Journal-Register on Sunday, he said 20 non-violent offenders had already been identified as candidates for potential early release.
Sangamon’s inmate population was the same as Macon County’s — 262 — but trending down from a recent high of 330.
* Hannah Meisel at the Daily Line…
Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is still considering releasing Illinois prisoners and youth at juvenile detention centers as the Coronavirus continues to spread throughout Illinois. […]
Groups like the John Howard Association, the Uptown People’s Law Center and the Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law are pushing for some incarcerated adults and youth to be sent home to prevent the rapid spread of Covid-19 should it enter either an adult or youth prison facility. […]
The Department of Juvenile Justice has seen a decrease in population over the last several years, but currently houses approximately 225 youth in five facilities statewide. The largest of those facilities — in Harrisburg and St. Charles — house approximately 80 incarcerated youth.
A coalition of nearly 30 organizations on Friday published an open letter to Pritzker asking for the careful release of some incarcerated youth from the Department of Juvenile Justice, pointing out that the facilities “do not and cannot maintain standards similar to congregate healthcare facilities.”
*** UPDATE *** It’s happening…
Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced that two detainees have tested positive for COVID-19.
The detainees tested positive on Monday, March 23, and are currently being held in isolation cells at Cermak Health Services, where they have been housed since exhibiting flu-like symptoms on March 20.
One of the detainees, age 42, has been in custody since late December 2019 after he was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 D-bond on charges of Aggravated DUI. He was housed in the Residential Treatment Unit at the time he became symptomatic.
The second detainee, age 18, has been in custody since mid-February 2020 after he was ordered held without bail on charges of Aggravated Discharge of a Firearm. He was housed in Division VI at the time he became symptomatic.
…Adding… Press release…
Following a hearing before Cook County Judge Leroy K. Martin earlier today, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx released the following statement regarding the urgent situation at the Cook County Jail and emergency bail hearings to expedite release of detainees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the interest of both public health and safety during the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) has been working around the clock with the Cook County Sheriff and Public Defender to ensure any individuals who are not a threat to public safety are released from Cook County Jail. This weekend alone, prosecutors reviewed more than 1,200 cases. We will continue this process and agree to appropriate releases for the duration of this pandemic, to limit the number of people in our jail and reduce the number of people needlessly coming to court while recognizing there are both public health and safety risks that some detainees may pose. The only way to carry this out responsibly is to address these risks on an individual, case-by-case basis and per the Court’s order this morning, we will do so with increased capacity and continued urgency,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
In light of COVID-19, last week the CCSAO stopped prosecuting low level, non-violent narcotics offenses to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting the number of people coming to court. In addition, the Illinois State Police will not be providing chemical testing during the pandemic.
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Hospitals are in increasingly dire straits
Monday, Mar 23, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Manny Ramos at the Sun-Times…
Roseland Community Hospital has operated at about 90% of capacity each day since nearby MetroSouth Medical Center closed last year.
And that’s before the coronavirus outbreak hit.
So Roseland, a so-called safety net hospital that serves predominantly low-income families on the city’s far South Side, is now bracing for a wave of patients to come through its doors.
“I think even a single hospitalized COVID-19 patient causes an overburden for us because it brings staffing issues and concern of the virus transferring to other people,” said Dr. Terrill Applewhite, chairman of the Roseland’s COVID-19 task force. “Even though we are facing this crisis, we are still dealing with everyday ailments.”
In that sense, Roseland is not alone. And it’s not just bed space about which hospitals are concerned.
Illinois hospitals used to have a lot of excess bed capacity, but that started changing about five years ago as hospitals began closing. Anyway, go read the whole thing.
* Rural hospitals are also at risk…
Those hospitals in small-town America that have survived rely heavily on moneymakers such as elective surgeries, physical therapy and lab tests to make their razor-thin margins work. But, according to the Chicago-based Chartis Center for Rural Health, almost half of them still operate in the red.
So the added financial hit from the coronavirus outbreak could be the final straw for many rural hospitals — exposing the complicated business dynamics at play within the United States’ critical public health infrastructure.
“This virus, and what it is causing for these hospitals, is the perfect storm that will close these hospitals at a time this country critically needs them,” says Robin Rau, CEO of Miller County Hospital in southwestern Georgia. “This is going to be the death blow to them.”
* What’s at stake…
While the virus is mild for the vast majority of people, the concern is so many people in Illinois are getting it that “even the small number of people who have trouble recovering is more than our health care system may be able to handle,” Pritkzer said Saturday.
That’s proven deadly in other locations: Italy’s health care system was overloaded by the sheer volume of cases there and doctors and hospitals haven’t had the resources to care for people who could otherwise be saved. That’s led to a surge of deaths there — 5,476 as of Sunday.
* Probably prudent, but still enraging…
Days after it began to ramp up drive-thru testing for patients who may be infected with the novel coronavirus, the Advocate Aurora Health hospital system announced Friday that it has suspended that program because of a national shortage of test kits and processing materials.
Advocate said in a news release that state health officials and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association were seeking “to conserve tests for those in critical need.”
“It’s an ongoing issue for all our hospitals in Illinois and across the country,” said Danny Chun, spokesman for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association. “There are very limited supplies of testing kits, nasal swabs and reagents — chemicals used to test the specimens — in large part due to the very small rollout of test kits by the federal government.”
* Meanwhile in New York…
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday mandated that all hospitals in the state increase the number of beds in their facilities by at least 50 percent as part of a multipronged effort to ensure that an anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases won’t overwhelm the medical system.
Cuomo, during his daily coronavirus briefing, encouraged hospitals across the state to aim for a 100 percent increase. The governor has repeatedly cited statistics showing that the state currently has about 53,000 beds, but projections show there might be a need for as many as 110,000 within a few weeks.
* Related…
* ADDED: Chicago plans to rent thousands of hotel rooms for coronavirus isolation in move to preserve space in hospitals
* Hospital officials: Illinois should consider reopening shuttered facilities to help care for COVID-19 patients
* U.S. Hospitals Prepare Guidelines For Who Gets Care Amid Coronavirus Surge
* ‘Chicago Med,’ ‘Fire’ and ‘P.D.’ join other TV shows donating masks, other supplies used as props to hospitals for coronavirus treatment
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Rumor patrol
Monday, Mar 23, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m loving the Illinois National Guard’s Twitter content…
The ISP and other agencies should also start doing this.
…Adding… And, voilà…
* As I’ve already told you, the governor addressed some of the rumors himself…
“There have been a lot of rumors circulating around that are completely inaccurate,” he said. “Rumors that there’s going to be martial law that’s going to be imposed, that we’ve called out the guard or the military somehow to impose their will upon the state of Illinois. Those are all false. I want people to take a deep breath.”
Pritzker said that while the rumors are largely spread on social media, there’s also “an effort by the Chinese government and the Russian government to feed into that paranoia that people have about what’s going on.”
* Herald & Review…
Rumors that Decatur police are looking to pull drivers over to see if they are making non-essential journeys are just that — rumors, according to the city’s police chief.
Stories have circulated of drivers being pulled over and fined for contravening newly-imposed state-wide measures to limit non-essential travel in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
“No, absolutely not, we’re not doing that,” said Police Chief Jim Getz. “We’re not doing it and we don’t have time to do that anyway.” […]
Getz said his officers are following guidelines laid down by Pritzker’s office and the Illinois State Police. Officers will not be “proactively” stopping drivers at random, he said, but they may question them about the nature of their trip if they’ve been pulled over for something else, like a traffic infraction or if somebody has made a specific complaint about a person’s behavior.
* WALLS 102…
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources wants to clarify what the Governor meant by the executive order to stay at home. According to the office of J.B. Pritzker, as long as our sportsmen and women are fishing or hunting at a site which is currently open and they have the appropriate licenses and permits, they may continue to hunt and fish during the stay at home order. They were also made aware of a rumor that the upcoming hunting season is being closed, and wanted to let the public know that is completely false.
* Related…
* FEMA releases coronavirus rumor control website
* DHS chief refutes rumors of national lockdown due to coronavirus: ‘It’s simply not true’
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Get your COVID-19 questions answered here
Monday, Mar 23, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I told you over the weekend that legislators are submitting questions to the governor and his office is responding to them in writing every day. Here’s one from the latest Q&A…
Childcare
Q: A healthcare provider is looking to set up a temporary daycare location for their healthcare workers. Can they get any reimbursement for this from the State?
A: Per the Governor’s Executive Order 10, all child care programs are closed; however, home day care programs can care for up 6 children. Where possible, children should be kept at home. The Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development, in partnership with IDHS and IDCFS, has established a structure and system for child care providers to apply for an “emergency child care license” to provide care for essential workers. Please refer to the following link for additional resources: https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/OECD/Pages/For-Communities.aspx.
Liquor
Q: What will happen to liquor licenses that expire soon?
A: Due to the hardships on liquor license holders as a result of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, all licenses expiring on March 31, 2020, April 30, 2020, and May 31, 2020, are extended until July 31, 2020. […]
Housing
Q: Is there consideration for reimbursing local housing agencies for making arrangements out of current homeless prevention funds? Are there other plans for assisting with homelessness / those seeking shelter in places where shelters are no longer taking new clients?
A: Through local continuums of care, DHS is making $6 million available for isolation housing for those who are experiencing homelessness. Homeless service providers will also receive a 5% increase in funding. Visit the Department of Human Services for more information.
Also in that new guidance is a clarification on auto dealers. I told you yesterday that the governor’s office said auto dealer sales were not deemed an “essential” service. But this is from the new Q&A…
Q: Are car dealerships essential services?
A: Car dealerships may stay open for repair and parts. Car dealerships may also remain open by appointment for individuals who need to purchase a car for essential travel. Showrooms should be closed. For further guidance, please call DCEO’s helpline 1-800-252-2923 or CEO.support@illinois.gov.
* Here are the Q&As I’ve been able to collect thanks to a generous legislator…
* March 22
* March 21
* Stay at home EO FAQ
* March 19
* March 18
Tell us what you find.
…Adding… The Illinois House Republicans have put together a website to answer your questions. Click here. Also, click here for a good Tribune explainer.
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