* Let’s talk about this first of the four regions. Do you see any of them, can you look ahead and Dr Zika and think that any of those four regions on May 29 might be moving to phase three?…

Remember this is a data driven and science driven plan, and so everybody will be able to watch, it’s hard for me to just pick out a region and say, what will happen in the future. There have been a lot of things that have happened that no one expected, so it’s hard for me to point at a region and say this one might go first. But I think that people will be able to follow it every single day going on the IDPH website, they’ll be able to see what the metrics are and whether they’re meeting those metrics.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* I thought we were already having gatherings of 10, why is it phase three that it’s only 10?…

We have actually have not we have essential gatherings of 10 that are available now things that fit in that essential category, but in the next phase it would be any gathering of 10 that people want to have.

* And then phase four is 50, not exactly a huge crowd either…

Again I’ll remind you, the virus is still out there and if maybe things will change. Maybe we will have a very successful treatment to offer to people and therefore we’ll be able to change the guidance for that phase. But as for now that’s what we see going forward.

* But to go from 50 to then everything’s open with phase five is a huge leap…

It is but remember that the gate for getting to phase five is that there’s a vaccine, or a highly effective treatment or that by virtue of herd immunity there just aren’t any new cases coming up.

* So schools, are you saying schools should not open until phase five?…

No, no schools can open in phase four, but again things going forward, Maryann will look different. There’s no doubt about it I mean already as you are walking the streets, you can see people are wearing face coverings. They will still need to do that in phase three, they’ll still need to do that in phase four if there’s no effective treatment that’s available, because people will still have the ability to get sick.

* It doesn’t sound important, obviously with so much going on and so many lives loss but when you say conventions festivals, let’s just say the word Lollapalooza so that folks who asked, you’re saying no way…

I’m saying that if you follow the data and you’ll look at how fast things could happen. I mean, like I said, if there is an effective treatment that comes out, and people can see that really you won’t get that sick if you get COVID-19, then I think, you know, all bets are off, you know you could, things could get worse.

* Let’s be honest, I mean we’re in May right now and that’s, July, August, that’s not going to happen…

I think people will make their own projections going forward about the likelihood of it. I’m hopeful, I must say when I see things like remdesivir getting approved and it having some effect for people who get sick, not you know not dying and you know being able to recover. That’s just one of 70 treatments that’s being examined right now and under trials. So I have some real hope that one of those or several of those will become available widely.

* We went from such few deaths the last couple of days, and still every single death is important. I’m not trying to minimalize, but to go to 176 is so many overnight are is every single one of those Dr. Ezike, are they all COVID… How are they classified because some are questioning truly are they all COVID related?…

Can I just answer it just the first part and then I’ll turn it over to the doctor, which is that one thing I think people should note is they should really look at a multi day average because, as you saw, we had 46 one day, and 170 to another and I even said yesterday, I think, in answer to a question from David McKinney, that you can’t look at one day’s results, and think that you know what direction things are going. And so you really need to look at a multi day average but I’d be happy to turn it over to Dr Ezike about the validity of whether somebody is considered COVID-19.

Dr. Ezike: No, everyone that is listed did have a test that was positive for COVID-19 so it’s not assumptions or guess there was a positive COVID test to confirm that that person had proven.

* Elizabeth Matthews at fox 32, again about masks, I do see facilities are being asked to bring in their own masks from home, even homemade masks at the Taylorville Correctional Center. Our inmates are getting face masks once a week, but not the staff. Is that what is being instructed from the state?…

Oh no that’s not being instructed, I don’t know why that would be I’ll certainly look into it, but I can tell you that we are providing PPE to every facility, Taylorville and every other facility that we control as a state to make sure that we’re protecting people who are either staff members at those facilities or residents.

* Several people have asked me about the Chicago Tribune article about a mutant more contagious coronavirus. Have either of you heard about this, is it possible that it’s a threat here in Illinois?…

Dr. Ezike: I’m not sure I’ve read the exact article that you’re referring to, but in my discussions with [garbled] I do understand that there are two very presentations that they’re seeing of this virus, so whether that’s different strains but there’s a much more lethal strain that’s harder to deal with on the ventilator they’re seeing. Just a more aggressive progressive illness that again the settings as they tried to adjust the settings on the ventilator they just can’t get the right ,settings to be able to help appropriately oxygenate these people and deal with the acute respiratory distress syndrome. And then we see others that don’t have that more malignant course and so I don’t know if that’s what you’re referring to, but I definitely have heard that described that this H variant and this L variant and so I know there’s some articles that have come out about that and I think that is that is well described in both the literature and what I’ve heard from clinicians, here in Illinois.

* Some businesses are already quietly opening with under 10 people and socially distancing, what kind of action might the state take against those businesses?…

Again what we’ve asked is local law enforcement, other officials at a local level should remind people that they can have their permits, their licenses removed from them for opening. There is action that the state can take and enforcement but we’re trying not to, we’re looking to ask people in their local communities to remind the folks who are going against the order that they’re putting other people at risk. And of course I think most people, as we know most people in Illinois are doing the right thing, and they won’t be patronizing those stores, knowing that they may be spreading the virus.

* Any reaction to President Trump last night speaking about cities and states that are run by Democrats, that the democrats in blue states are implying that they are the only ones asking for a bailout? Does Illinois need a bailout from the federal government, police, fire and teachers?…

It’s just so sad that the President has made this political. The fact is that every state, and I talked to Republican governors and Democratic governors, you can imagine what’s happened, in every state revenues have fallen off a cliff right because of stay at home orders or because people don’t want to go out those states that are dependent upon sales taxes alone and no income taxes. They’ve gone, you know, really truly into the deep end of the well. And then income taxes as you know in Illinois, we had to postpone collecting income taxes here, and did so because the federal government postponed federal income taxes until July. So everybody’s got this problem, it’s not a Democratic or Republican problem who are looking for more help from the federal government and we’re gonna get through this. Indeed, I was on a call with Governor Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, as well as many other governors with the White House, and we all were expressing the same thing which is, we’re all going to need help in this next package of relief, because remember states are providing states and local governments are providing the supports that people need. We’re the ones who are keeping the police on the streets were the ones who are, making sure that firefighters are available. We’re the ones who are providing the healthcare supports that people need when they’re having trouble with COVID-19 recovering from COVID-19, or just need to isolate because someone in their household may have COVID-19. And so we’re going to need help to make sure that we’re able to do all of those things. And going forward, this is not ending as you know this virus is still out there. And until we see a vaccine or a serious treatment, this is something that the states are going to be dealing with it is extraordinarily expensive.

What we’re looking for though is support for the lost revenues that all the states have experienced. Nothing more, nothing less. It would not go to serve to help pay the pension problems, they know that is not what I’m seeking.

* State Representative Kam Buckner, perhaps you’ve seen on Twitter, his profile, the story of what it was like for him shopping with a mask, when he left asked for ID. Question made you feel as if perhaps he was not there honorably. What do you think of that?…

Yeah, I’m saddened by it I read the tweets and truth truly I think this is happening.

And it’s something that we’re looking into. We obviously believe that there is discriminatory behavior taking place here, so we’re going to make sure that we try to address it.

* Greg Bishop wants to know as the legislature appears to be gearing up, outside of the budget and addressing laws with sunsets, what else should the legislature accomplish this year?…

You know, I can tell you that it will be at least before, my guess is before May, that there’ll be a relatively limited number of things that can get accomplished, just by virtue of how difficult it is to get all of those people together in one place and then to ask people to stay overnight, where they may need hotel rooms or something else. And this is a big state and representatives come from all over the state hours away. So it may be very difficult to do a lot during the month of May, and certainly while we’re in the stay at home order and need to remain in this order.

But you know there are things being talked about. A question was asked yesterday about the Chicago casino bill and whether that could get passed. There you have to prioritize all these things a budget certainly is a priority high priority. So I would suggest that we start with the highest priority and work our way down.

* Are the nurses hired from McCormick Place being reassigned to nursing homes?…

Dr. Ezike: We are in fact providing some healthcare personnel to a variety of locations where there is a staffing problem. You understand that, that when people are tested positive, staff at a facility are tested positive, perhaps multiple of them, they need to isolate and there aren’t a lot of healthcare personnel available these days, because everybody is dealing with this crisis. Every healthcare person, or every member of the healthcare profession, even those who are retired have come back into it and still there is a bit of a shortage here so we are providing wherever we can some help to these facilities.

* How do we know this long plateau that we seem to be experiencing is not in fact, a baseline level of infection, until there’s a vaccine, or stronger mitigation?…

What I can say is that we’ve seen a directionally significant reduction in the R naught, you’ve heard us talk about that. We’ve seen directionally that coming down to a plateau in other places has led to a drop off on the proper side of the curve. And so we anticipate that this is not much different than that.

* How can a school with more than 50 students open safely in phase four? I’m assuming you’re saying that schools don’t have to abide by the 50 right?…

There would be strict IDPH guidelines for schools and we talked about this early on when we were trying to figure out if we needed to close schools or not, that, could you have classrooms of [garbled] kids meeting, if the restriction was 50 for example. And would that work and so the answer is IDPH is going to be working with schools on how they can best do this coming into the fall assuming that we’re in phase four.

* With the four regions, coming back to this news today, that you’ve identified Chicago and Cook County alone have by far the majority of the cases. How is it fair to a group, let’s say McHenry County with only 800 cases into that region when neighboring Winnebago county and Rockford had a close, 680, are these four regions set in stone? Are you willing to look on a closer county level?…

[This was done] many many many years ago as part of the IDPH plan for emergency medical services. That’s why they’re in the regions that they’re in. I know that someone living on the border of a county that might be in another region might have a differing opinion, but this is the way that the IDPH and public health professionals look at the state, because it’s really about hospital bed availability and the ability for us to manage a surge, if there are a surge of cases.

* Illinois base revenues in April fell $2.6 billion below last year. COGFA says it will put out revised estimates soon for FY 20 and 21. When will we see specific plans from the administration for adjusting this year’s and next year’s budgets?…

We’re again talking to members of the General Assembly, working together with them, I know they have plans, thinking about getting together in May. And so my hope is that we’ll be able to work together on a budget for the year. This is clearly the most unusual budget that anybody will have ever seen because, who has ever seen at least in our lifetimes. The drop off of revenue, because of a pandemic. And so there’s no doubt there’s going to have to be a lot of collaboration, even across the aisle to get things done.

* Where do things stand with your commitment to coordinate reopening with other Midwest governors, have you been meeting what will this coordination look like what areas are you focused on?…

Well, again, the coordination is a sharing of best ideas and a common set of of principles that we’re all operating on, that we don’t want to lift restrictions too fast and have a overwhelming of our hospitals, and so on, all the things that we’re talking about and you can see those reflected in the plans that other Midwestern governors have put out.

* Can you please explain in detail the testing and hospitalization thresholds to move from phase two, to phase three and then phase three phase four?…

I would just direct you to that there’s a plan that we put out and sent out to all the members of the media. If you don’t have it certainly our press secretary will send it to you. But that’s got the details in it.

Click here for that detailed plan.

* As regions of the state reopen if some are progressing through the phases in your plan more quickly than others, how do you address people moving between the different regions, would you implement restrictions to prevent infections between regions?…

We’re not restricting travel here. But this is an opportunity for people to start to move toward more normalcy, and certainly you know we want the entire state to enjoy more normalcy. And it’s just a matter of making sure that people who live in certain regions have access to health care, and that those hospitals are not overwhelmed.

* What are the state’s plans for operating nursing homes if workers follow through on their plans to start striking on Friday, has your administration talked to the owners who will ensure the residents care continues?…

We certainly have encouraged both sides to reach an agreement. I think there’s a desire on the part of both sides to reach an agreement. But, you know, but I wouldn’t put a plan out there. I think that they know that they must reach an agreement to make sure we’re taking care of our seniors.

* The Franklin Williamson bi-county health department has asked IDPH about enforcement guidance after West Frankfort Mayor Tom Jordan gave the go ahead to all city businesses to reopen. What guidance if any is IDPH offering?…

Dr. Ezike: So again, I have talked to local health department leaders, my local health department partners, they’re not they’re not law enforcement. We are trying to advocate the best things for overall the public’s health. I don’t want to put people in harm’s way by instigating altercations. I know that there is law enforcement that hopefully is supporting this order. supporting the measures and is going to be able to encourage people. It’s not anybody’s goal to round up people and put them in jail right. We don’t want to put somebody in a congregate setting to start with. So let’s just work together. We’re looking for people to take responsibility and do the right thing. We’re not looking to create a police state where we’re marching around and trying to put people in jail. We want to protect people’s health and we want everyone to help us do that and I hope that we can all understand why these things are in place so that we can affect the best possible outcome for the people of Illinois.

Gov. Pritzker: And I would just point out that elected officials who are encouraging people to gather to break these rules are in fact encouraging people to get sick. That’s what’s going to happen if you tell the people of your city, of your township, of your county to just go out and ignore these orders. These are doctors who are issuing these who are suggesting these things this is science and data. And I guess if you don’t believe in science and data and you’re an elected official, you’re not doing the public service that you ought to be doing for the people that elected you.

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