It’s an unusual circumstance that the Supreme Court would in fact take a case directly from circuit court and not let it go through the normal process. But I think it was the right thing to do for the AG to seek the Supreme Court’s intervention. But the Supreme Court is not saying they’re not going to rule on this ever. They’re just saying that they don’t want to skip over the appellate court, I understand.
* Gov. Pritzker began today by talking about some new modeling. The Sun-Times has a story out about this and you can read some excerpts here. On to the governor…
So far we are not seeing significant declines in key metrics like hospitalization. Updates to our models reflect that data, compared to the forecasts that I shared with you on April 23, which predicted peaking between the late April and early May. That timeframe of plateauing near a peak has been expanded from mid May into mid June. On April 23, which predicted peaking between the late April and early May, that timeframe of plateauing near a peak has been expanded from mid May into mid June.
In many ways, this news is, disheartening.
We have made great progress, but it’s forced us remain at a moderated though still high level of key metrics for this extended period. Pushing out of our estimated peak is a natural consequence of flattening the curve. Remember, no one can truly stop this virus without a vaccine.
What we’ve been aiming to do since early March is slow down the exponential rate of transmission. We do that, it leads to a slower rate of infections over a longer period of time, giving our healthcare system ability to treat those who have complications, giving our pharmaceutical researchers and to develop effective treatments, potentially a vaccine to the peak down and therefore to a longer timeframe might not sound like good news to some, but I promise you, is saving lives.
Remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* He then said that the R Naught value for Illinois is 1…
Once we get down to an R naught value below 1, that will be very good news.
* Regions…
Thus far, all of our regions are on pace, they hit all of the metrics for moving forward after the 28 day period with possibly one exception. The Northeast region. The positivity rate as of midnight on May 8 is at 22.3%, which is of course higher than the 20% cap this metric [needs] to move into the next phase. Positivity rate cap will be measured over a 14 day period. So there’s time for the Northeast region to fall below this.
For what positivity looks like in the other regions, the North Central Region is sitting at 9.1%, central region at 6.0%. The southern region is at 10.5%.
* From a press release…
All four of the regions are meeting many of the key metrics, with three of the four on pace to meet all of the Restore Illinois reopening metrics to move forward after the 28-day period: North-Central, Central and Southern.
As of midnight, May 8, the Northeast region’s positivity rate is at 22.3 percent, higher than the 20 percent cap on this metric to move into the next phase. The North-Central region is at 9.1 percent, the Central region at 6.0 percent, and the Southern region at 10.5 percent.
All of the regions have seen a dip in hospitalizations since May 1st: 18.6 percent decrease in the Northeast region, 35.8 percent decrease in the North-Central region, 44.4 percent decrease in the Central region, and 54.3 percent decrease in the Southern region.
A requirement to move forward to next phase is that a region sees no overall increase, rather stability or a decrease, in hospital admissions for COVID-like illness across a 28-day period.
As of midnight May 8, all four regions met the third requirement of available surge capacity of at least 14 percent for ICU beds, medical/surgical beds, and ventilators.
* On to questions for the governor. First of all, can we talk about your senior staff or could you give us some more information? How long have you known that the person tested positive how long do you expect to be working from home?…
We’re going to follow the doctor’s orders here. We’ve discovered a person who tested positive late in the week in fact I think that we were notified on Saturday. So, the test had been done a few days earlier in the week. That was when we discovered. And it’s slightly different lengths of time, but people depending upon their contact the person how recent that contact was etc.
* And do you plan to identify who the person is for those of us who might have been in the Thompson center, who wonder as well, should we be tested?…
No, we don’t want to reveal the name of the person who tested positive, that would be a breach of their privacy. However, they have given us all of their contacts or locations, they were in. They were not in the Blue Room at any time for any of the conferences. And so there’s no reason that you or any of the press would have been exposed to that person.
* How close in contact are you to that person?…
They work on the same floor down the hall, like, know how many feet but by the number of feet down the hall from me. I don’t have regular every day contact with that person directly, although that person would sometimes would every day sit in a large meeting room where we were all socially distancing. And so, you know, out of an abundance of caution I think we all that because that person is there every day and they interact with no other members of the staff on a regular basis and me on a slightly irregular basis that we wanted to make sure that we followed all the rules for socially distancing and, and in particular to isolate this person.
* This person works in a public job. It is different than working in a private company. The White House has released the names of the two people who would have tested positive. Would you not want to be as transparent as the White House?…
This is not a public person. And again, This person you know we’ve identified all this person’s contacts and just like the contact tracing protocols, a call for that there’s no release of the name of the person who was found to have COVID-19, but all of their contacts are notified that person had COVID-19 and what the options are for self isolating getting testing etc.
* How is that person feeling?…
Thank you. I was in contact with that person today. That person is still asymptomatic. And so feeling fine although obviously it’s, it’s, you know, an anxious written moment for that person just to know that they’ve tested positive.
* Some are asking, are you, where are you right now, are you in Chicago?…
I’m in Chicago I have been in Chicago for 60… I don’t know for quite a while. 60-some days and, and I’m at my home. Thank you.
* Even though you are feeling healthy does this incident make you consider about putting a succession plan in order, should you come down with COVID-19 and the Lieutenant Governor needs to step in?…
The succession plan is in fact in the Constitution. And as you know, we have a terrific lieutenant governor highly capable person who, if she needed to step in we would of course be terrific at managing everything. But, you know, but I feel fine and I have tested negative and so I don’t think at least at the moment that there’s any real danger.
* Today, the still persistent questions about the unemployment. I know that those filing and those who are freelancers and contract workers. Finally are able to get online and I would be remiss if I didn’t name all of the reporters who have asked me a question at least five have asked me to ask you, are still problems freelancers are not impressed at all with adding staff. It’s asking for driver’s license. Some people their driver’s license has expired. During this time, there are persistent problems even today…
Well let’s start with that. There have been 44,000 successful connections online for people who wanted to file today.
And those people have been able to connect their applications, many of them have been submitted their, the you know the challenges that exist for people who have an expired license, I can’t speak to the expiration of their license except that the Secretary of State has extended the expiration of licenses for everybody that whose license expired during this period so they shouldn’t worry about that. I think a bigger challenge is, we had some glitches again with phone calls today. The entire system for the state of Illinois actually had some interruption today. And so that went down, I believe it’s back up again. But other than that, the on the first day of launch of this new system, the number of people who’ve been able to successfully file, my understanding has been quite large.
* Today, House Minority Leader Durkin as well as Bill Brady sent a letter, and they’re saying and they’re asking again to reconsider your extension. They feel the 28 days is just too long, and would you possibly consider a 14 day measurement instead of the day that they announced it?…
Just to give you some perspective that we announced the restore Illinois, the metrics was actually the sixth of May, I believe, we were already six days into the 28 days so there were, I think 22 days left. If I’m wrong I’m off by one day.
But so the difference between 22 days and 14 days, we can have a discussion about certainly, but the effort here is the same I think. We all have the same goal, which is to get people back to work, but to do it safely. And remember that the 14 day guidance that was put out by the White House is actually more stringent than the guidance that we put out, guidance would have required 14 days of a decline. And what we require is simply following a flattened number for 28 days, which is a much easier metric, considering everything I’ve just told you in today’s update.
* At the same time, other places like even New York and New York is ground zero, Governor of New York today is going to start reopening on Friday, Massachusetts is going to start reopening on Monday. And yet we don’t hear in Illinois, a date, which has so many so anxious, whether or not that date is June one for some movement or not. Are you able to consider tweaking your plan?…
I think the earliest day would be the 29th of May, so rather than in June, but it’s the 29th of May. And we’re not looking so much at the tweaking of the plan, I think what we, remember that we did in fact open things up on May 1, we brought back retail, again curbside and delivery, retail, as well as making sure that we opened our state parks the, you know, and we’ve opened now our elective surgeries. So all of those things which you’re now identifying, those are things that are in other states plans that are just beginning now. We actually did about 10 days ago.
* We are glad you are taking the proper precautions, is anyone else in your family under a self-quarantining?…
We are following all the doctor’s orders here at home. So we have been really self isolating in my home anyway for some time now. So that’s, you know, we’re trying to follow all the best protocols and to keep each other safe.
* A Quincy bar and grill reopened this morning and other businesses say they plan to also do so by the end of the week. Seeing Adams County officials including law enforcement have stated they don’t plan to enforce your stay at homework, how are you going to allow these businesses?…
As I’ve said all along, people who open their businesses at this time, knowing that the mitigations are just now beginning to bend, you know, help us bend the curve down, we flattened it but the goal here is to bend the curve down. But ultimately that by opening early, they’re putting people at risk, and the potential here is that we’ll have an upsurge in Quincy of cases and hospitalizations and that will drive that whole region potentially to a point where it may not reopen. I think they’re putting people at risk and they’re putting the entire region’s economy at risk by opening early.
* What about restaurants that have been trying to open, you’ve been in discussions at all about perhaps opening before phase four?…
Certainly we’ve talked to staff people, our staff people rather have talked to leaders in the restaurant industry. I have been in contact with people in the restaurant industry and our goal, again, is to try to open everything in a reasonable amount of time as fast as possible while keeping people safe. And they’ve suggested in the restaurant industry leaders like Sam Toia, in which they want to do that. But it’s true that it is difficult. Open restaurants and bars in a circumstance in which to in phase three make sure that there aren’t groups of 10, or more than 10 gathering and making sure that we’re limiting the transmission, that can occur with the service of food and drinks.
* So you might consider before phase four is that what I’m hearing?…
No, I mean we put our plan out there. Look, let me rephrase that, change along the way here’s the biggest thing to change is if we get a treament. That’s the thing that will change the game and I’ve said all along that will alter the playbook if we need to.
The fact is that we put a plan out there really nothing has changed since we put the plan out there. So, no the intention here is to stick with the plan but it is true that I’m talking to people in various industries and listening to their ideas, most especially for when things open.
And then he was asked about premix cocktails.
Another question was asked about nursing homes that’s been answered a dozen times.
* If asymptomatic people spreading COVID-19 is a concern, this is from Greg Bishop, is IDOC performing these tests on inmates being released from prison. If not, why not?…
Well, IDOC is performing tests on staff on a regular basis and anybody that’s got any symptoms. And then, as people are being released they go through a process over a number of days before they actually are released. And so, again, they would likely show symptoms during the course of that process it’s known who’s being released for days in fact weeks before they are released so you know there’s not a go test every single one.
* What about contact tracing. What are the city requirements. This is from Univision, would you need any of these college certifications that are popping up, and how to folks apply to be contact tracers?…
People will be trained for free as part of the contact tracing program that we’re going to be, that we’re spinning up. And so it’s not that certain for people to pay for a program. If they get hired as a contact tracer, you get hired not based upon having a credential as a contact tracer, though we will be hiring healthcare workers. There are people who are community health care workers who have some of the training that’s already required. So those folks will be among the first that get brought in, along with the many people who are already doing contact tracing all over the state.
* And now I know I feel rather foolish asking this next question on such a more important note but I have been given this question from several people, Governor. Have you gotten a haircut. I know it seems like silly but so many folks would like to go get a haircut themselves, and they’ve noticed that you appear to have gotten a haircut, who did the haircut. Where did you go to get it…
No, I have a pair of clippers that I use that I’ve been using on the sides of my head. I asked my 15 year old to give me a little buzz on the back of my hair and that’s it. I haven’t had a haircut other than that, but I’m glad that people think that it looks like I had a haircut.
* Multiple churches in Chicago held services over the weekend. What would you say to parishioners and pastors who are gathering for services despite the stay at home order?…
You’re likely not only breaking the law and the mayor has made it clear that those services are not allowed, also, you’re potentially putting hundreds of people in danger. And that’s something that I think people should be thinking about. The parishioners and the faith leaders are conducting those services that don’t test about yourself it’s about all the many people. And even more importantly the many people will be come in contact with the people who attended those services, because we just talked about asymptomatic COVID-19. And so it’s it’s highly likely in fact that when the large groups of people are getting together right now, given that there isn’t enough manage across the country to manage, you know, large crowds to know that people that you’re with don’t have COVID-19. You know there are going to be carriers when getting together. So, just for people that while they’re carrying out their faith and that they believe in most which I hope include caring for your fellow human beings that they’ll take into account that caring for your fellow human beings in keeping them safe.
* Black Illinois hair stylists and barbers have been struggling without unemployment for weeks. And now stylists are going back to work in nearby states like Indiana. Is there any way Illinois could provide relief for stylists or allow them to safely reopen sooner here?…
As of today, independent contractors, small sole proprietors can apply for unemployment, under the CARES Act, and through the portal. It’s been provided at the Illinois Department of Employment Security. And of course, in phase three which as I spoke about many of the regions are headed toward the moving into phase three barbers and salons will be able to open back up.
* The Sun-Times reported Sunday that recent nursing home deaths in Cook County are concentrated in the poorest rated facilities. Do you have any plans to move residents out of those places? How about putting them in underused field hospitals, like the one the Cook County Commissioners suggested?…
I think I’d like to turn it over to Dr. Ezike from the Department of Public Health which oversees nursing homes. But I’ll just begin by saying that those alternate care facilities are really intended to be for transfers from hospitals, people who are less acute cases. And so that that was really what the purpose of those alternate care facilities was and it’s the best use of doctors.
Dr. Ezike: We want to reinforce the appropriate guidelines report enforce the appropriate infection control measures sure that these staff requirements for testing pre shift assessments. Those are consistent. Please remember that when you’re dealing with this fragile elderly population maybe many with maybe dementia or memory care issues repositioning them to an entirely different places is very unsettling and destabilizing and actually could potentially do more harm than good so. Ideally, we’d like to keep people in in the home that they know, that they’re comfortable with and be able to strengthen any deficiencies that are identified that that place can provide the appropriate care in the appropriate manner with the appropriate PPE and the appropriate staffing.
* Is it time to revisit restore Illinois plan and tweak it to include the regional concerns of the IML? Are you open to those ideas, are you prepared to stick by your plan, bear the responsibility, whether it succeeds or fails, without sharing it with the legislature?…
Lot of judgment in the last half of that question, but I just received a letter an hour ago from the Illinois Municipal League and understand that they would like to break the state into 11 regions, not just 4 regions. And I know there are other people who would like to break the state into every county, 102 counties and yet others like to do it by city or by town. And I’ll just say that there are lots of ways that it could be done, but there needs to be a uniformity to the way that we manage the state of Illinois. We’ve broken the state up into four regions, allowing each one of them with the same set of metrics to perhaps be faster to move into another phase than another. And so that’s why we put the plan forward as it is, as I say, as circumstances change as we find, for example, that there are fewer COVID-19 symptoms that are affecting people, because there might be a treatment available, we will of course, re-visit Restore Illinois. The goal here is to as I say reopen the state as fast as possible. But, in a safe fashion that saves as many lives as [possible].
* If Germany faltered on reopening when it’s R Naught value [was at] 0.7, how can Illinois be sure that not there won’t just rise again this summer?…
Dr. Ezike: We can’t assure that it won’t rise again this summer, and that is obviously the concern and that’s why we want to slowly and cautiously, be able to follow the data and move through these stages, to be able to properly assess how the changes that we make at each stage actually affect obviously the mobility of our residents which obviously affects the effective R, if people have been strictly at home, and then now they’re out and about a little bit. Obviously, the effective R or the I know that you’re referring to is not going to be the same and so being able to watch the effects of each of our changes is an important part of the evaluation as we move through these stages, so that hopefully we can catch before we get too far in the wrong direction. If some of the loosening has been too fast, and has resulted in, you know, strong spikes or peaks that we don’t want to see.
* How many times have you been tested for COVID-19, and with the governor’s office self isolating and working from home, how does that arrangement affect the administration’s ability to manage the current situation?…
Let me start with the fact that many of our staff people already were working from home. We tried to make sure that we did enough social distancing, allowing those particularly those who are most vulnerable, continue to do their jobs from home. The Illinois department of innovation, technology, did a terrific job of creating the opportunity for so many state employees to work from home. And so we took advantage of that by allowing much of our staff to work.
I think they’re doing a terrific job, they are there on the calls every day, they’re in touch with, all day long, working on projects throughout the day, getting things done.
The functions of the governor’s office have really been operating well, even with a smaller group of people working in the Thompson center or in Springfield. But now that we’ve moved the remaining 20 or so plus people out of the office for isolation, we’ve been in contact all day today, making sure that we’re following all the things that we need to follow each day, and getting things done. We’ve got to make sure that we’re moving swapped over eight locations across the state. You got to make sure that we’re continuing to build up our capability to do testing. The contact tracing effort is also spinning up. You know we have a number of things that are really swirling about and we’re all doing those, again, all day today we’ve been working on it, even yesterday.
I was tested earlier in the week. Last week, the others in our office when the whole office was tested. Those who are working in the office that is. And then, when there was the discovery of the one person.
There was a desire to have me tested again just in the wake of that, since enough days had gone by, of interaction with that person and so I was tested again yesterday. I think that I actually did the swab early in the morning of the test came back four hours later, I believe and it tested negative.
* There are signs that legislators want to see action on a bill to somehow delay or give a break to people on paying their property taxes this year, perhaps waiving fees and interest. If you still consider that a strictly local matter, given that the deferred income taxes by three months?…
Well, we certainly need to consider everything that we can to alleviate the burden on people across the state so anything that we can do is worth considering. Obviously there are pros and cons to each one of these things. When you decide, for example, to not collect property taxes, you’re affecting local governments and their ability to deliver services. But of course, I know that there are people that are struggling perhaps to pay their property taxes. So, I think all that should be considered by the legislature, and I’m hopeful that the legislature will be in session soon so that they can consider that, something that I would consider.
* Do you believe the legislature must assemble in some form before July 1 to pass a budget. Are you prepared to go without one like Bruce Rauner?…
I think you know I’m nothing like Bruce Rauner and don’t believe much in what he was doing. But I do believe that the legislature should get together and convene, so that a budget can be passed. There are a number of other vital things, it’s a short list of things that are absolutely necessary. From my perspective, a budget is one of those things.
* State Board of Education last week that districts should develop plans for virtual summer school, and that summer school won’t occur in person. Toggle notify parents Friday is the state planning on expanding funding available for summer schools or should districts then use their emergency care tax funds, you determine how you plan to use the emergency funding that governors are receiving directly for schools, and if so, is summer school on the table?…
Certainly a lot is being invested through the carriage act directly with schools for eLearning and other summer programs but the same thing is also true through the governor’s office, that is to say the cares Act provides for the governor’s office to do so. And we are focusing much of that on E learning and also on making sure that we’re dealing with kind of potential of a loss of learning over the summer.
So those are all things that we’re considering and as you look at the restore Illinois plan, you know obviously in a phase three when, still we can’t have gatherings of more than 10 people, it would be very difficult to have in person summer school, though, possible in very small groups, but not likely in many places. So it would have to really be in phase four. And that also could occur in the middle of the summer.
* Amanda Vinicky at WTTW would like you to comment on the breaking news of the Illinois Supreme Court will not take up the AG’s request to weigh in on your authority, regarding successive orders during emergencies…
It’s an unusual circumstance that the Supreme Court would in fact take a case directly from circuit court and not let it go through the normal process. But I think it was the right thing to do for the AG to seek the Supreme Court’s intervention. But the Supreme Court is not saying they’re not going to rule on this ever. They’re just saying that they don’t want to skip over the appellate court, I understand.
* Illinois has COVID-19 data based on age, race and ethnicity, but there is no sort of data on basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Is that something you’re considering?…
It’s not something that’s being asked on the forms that people are submitting, the hospitals are submitting.
Dr. Ezike: It’s not collected on any information on any forms that currently exist. It’s something that we can put towards our advisory committee to see if that’s something we should be looking into, but again there are no forms that request that information.
* Why did no collar county hospitals received [remdesivir] including hard hit areas like Waukegan Joliet and Elgin, please explain more on the detail on the criteria use…
Dr. Ezike: So we do try to do a rank order of hospitals who had participated obviously in COVID care that has the largest number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions. But we also had to try to make sure that it was distributed throughout the state as I mentioned earlier that all restore areas got some drug and we also wanted to make sure that we have included some safety nets and we also wanted to include some hospitals that concentrated had care for communities of color. So using all of those and knowing that there are over 200 hospitals and we only had 240 cases and we weren’t going to open up the cases and start breaking up individual vials for people we had quite a few limitations and came up with really the most equitable data driven strategy that we could. Again we’re hoping to get more and we will definitely take into account people who received previously, when we, when we get the new shipments. Again, I don’t have any information on what those future shipments are coming in.
* Governor, you said on CNN yesterday ‘we think that we can have a massive contact tracing program up in the next few weeks. How is that possible?…
Yeah. Perhaps I didn’t word it quite correctly. What I was trying to say was, we are spinning up a massive contact tracing effort across the state and over the next few weeks that will be launched and it will be a large effort. That it is going to take us, you know some time to hire up and make sure that we’ve got the breadth that we need and all the people that we need
But I also want to say that backing up that a large contact tracing effort that we’re trying to get and running here is the existing contact racing effort that we’ve got really across almost every county in the state. And so we’re plugging in the existing capability, as well as many of the community health care workers. Chicago has hundreds of those already and has suggested that they will be bringing those people into this new larger contact tracing effort. I have confidence that we will have grown this significantly. But yes it’s true that it’s over more than just a few weeks it will take in order for this to become massive. But it is a plan you know when you’re talking about having over 3000 people do contact tracing. And we’re starting with no central organization to do that from when you serve with a plan and and a leader, and you know and and know which direction you’re going, we’re going to go as fast as we can.
* Representative Darin LaHood has recommended the Adams County plan for reopening and downstate and collar counties in the state. Have you looked at that plan and Do you agree with it?…
I have looked at that plan. Indeed I spoke with the mayor of Quincy about that plan and I read that plan that has a lot of really good points in it, some of which I have considered in the process of putting together the Restore Illinois plan. So there’s a lot of overlap. I think the biggest differences, frankly are timing. There are people who want to open everything up sooner, much sooner. I talked a little bit earlier in my remarks about the fact that if we did that we would really have a surge of cases and it could potentially lead to an overwhelming of our hospitals, and many more people getting sick. But, you know, we have a good plan out there. It is a regional plan, and it takes into account that Adams Kennedy is very different than Cook County.
* Will you Governor place a moratorium against creditors that are affecting credit scores negatively and threatening judgment against Illinois who are already facing challenges to sustain their livelihoods during this pandemic?…
You know, it’s an excellent question and I had conversations this morning with an economist about some of the things that we need to be thinking about given the severity of this financial downturn, and its impact on families and individuals and small businesses too, and how we might mitigate those, allowing people to restructure and not have it affect them on a permanent basis the way that sometimes a bad credit rating can. It can affect somebody. So, it is something that’s part of a broader effort that I’m talking to experienced economists about.
* Dr. Ezike began the press conference with an announcement based on this news story…
The only drug given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with the coronavirus has arrived in Illinois, and more than 90% of it will go to patients being treated at hospitals in Cook County.
The 140 cases of remdesivir Illinois received Saturday contain enough vials to treat approximately 700 patients — about five patients per case.
But there’s not enough to go around, in Illinois or elsewhere.
As of Sunday, there are 1,232 patients across Illinois in intensive care units, 709 of whom are on ventilators, with the number of cases continuing to rise.
* And on to the briefing numbers…
Over the past, 24 hours, I do need to report that 54 additional deaths were reported, bringing our total COVID-19 death toll to 3459.
The last 24 hours 1266,new cases have been reported for a total of 79,007 cases here in Illinois. […]
As for hospitalizations across the state, 4319 people in Illinois were reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19, of those 1248 patients were in the ICU and 730 patients were on ventilators. To date, 442,425 tests have been performed, of which 12,441 were reported in the last 24 hours.
The positivity rate statewide as of Monday is 10.17%. In the Northeast region, which includes Cook County and Chicago, the positivity rate is about 22%.
The number of COVID-19 patients entering ICU beds went up by 16, from Saturday to Sunday night, according to Pritzker’s office. The number of ventilators being used by coronavirus patients also increased by 21, and the total number of COVID-19 patients increased by 26 patients.
Pritzker on Monday planned to outline regional data about hospitalization and the virus’ spread. His administration also planned to release an updated model by researchers from Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University Chicago.
The latest projection shows Illinois is in a death peak, which is less like a peak and more like a plateau. The death range is between 50 and 150 deaths a day into early June for both Northwestern and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The University of Chicago, however, has estimated a range of 50 to 300 deaths that could last until July.
The Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern researchers believe deaths could begin decreasing by the end of May into June, although the Northwestern model shows a slower rate of decline. The University of Chicago researchers believe Illinois will remain on a death plateau until July.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,266 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 54 additional deaths.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 79,007 cases, including 3,459 deaths, in 98 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 12,441 specimens for a total of 442,425.
In addition to other congregate settings, cases at Illinois Veterans’ Homes are being monitored. Currently, the home in Manteno is reporting 40 cases – 30 residents and 10 staff. One resident at the LaSalle home tested positive but has since tested negative, and there have been no cases reported at the Anna or Quincy homes. All residents and staff at Manteno and LaSalle have been tested. Specimens are currently being collected at the home in Anna and will be collected at the Quincy home on Wednesday.
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs is following guidance from state and local health officials, which includes continuing health screenings, maintaining social distancing practices, wearing face masks, using gloves and gowns when indicated, and intensified cleaning.
Like you, we believe our top priority during these unprecedented events is the health and wellbeing of our citizens. We also believe it our goal as leaders to address the economic crisis facing our state as well. As other states have laid out less restrictive paths toward reopening, like New York that is partly opening this week, we believe Illinois needs to follow suit.
Last week, you unveiled your Restore Illinois plan that we believe is far too restrictive to those businesses struggling to stay afloat economically during this crisis. Furthermore, the parameters your plan puts in place in determining when a region can move between phases will only cause further economic hardship to small businesses and our state.
To that end, we stand in support of the Illinois Municipal League’s call for revisions to your plan. Specifically, we endorse their call to see our state use the 14-day period before moving between phases, not the 28 days your plan imposes. We believe this adjustment, coupled with using the 11 hospital regions that are already in place, would be a positive first step forward in assuaging the economic devastation this crisis is causing.
Furthermore, we are also asking that you call a special session of the Illinois General Assembly so that we can further discuss and develop the necessary adjustments to your plan that protects the public’s health while at the same time moves our economy forward more quickly.
We stand ready to return to the people’s Capitol to work together during this critical period in our state’s history.
Sincerely,
Bill Brady
Senate Republican Leader 44th District
Jim Durkin
House Republican Leader 82nd District
OK, but Gov. Cuomo said last week that no region was on track to reopen…
Some regions of New York are closer to reopening than others.
Currently, no region meets all the requirements necessary to reopen safely and securely.
And, as I told subscribers last week, people generally don’t do nuance. They see New York’s 14 days and the White House’s 14 days and Pritzker’s 28 days and freak out. A 14-day timeline doesn’t mean it’ll happen in 14 days. I don’t think any state could advance to the next level under the White House plan for quite a while, and it’s not certain that any region in New York will get to the next level by May 18th. But that’s on Gov. Pritzker to explain. He hasn’t done a good job of that to date.
…Adding… Three New York regions are allowed to partially reopen, according to news reports today. But they’re reopening includes manufacturing and construction. Most manufacturing and construction here has carried on throughout.
Also, calling the General Assembly into special session won’t do much good unless the majority party leaders are ready to do something (see Rod Blagojevich). At least one of those leaders doesn’t yet appear ready. At least, he’s not ready to come back this week because he canceled session last week.
University of Pennsylvania Professor Robert Inman recently projected that U.S. states and their local governments will lose $275 billion in sales and income taxes in the coming fiscal year—a 20 percent decline. California officials anticipate an upcoming $54.3 billion deficit that would deplete the state’s rainy day fund multiple times over. Illinois faces a shortfall of as much as $7.4 billion next fiscal year as a result of ongoing economic disruption. Chicago, Peoria, Rockford and cities in every state are experiencing similarly dramatic revenue losses.
While some entered the pandemic in stable financial condition, and some much less so, all of our state and local governments are now or will soon be in major distress. No state or local government can be faulted for the economic calamity caused by the coronavirus. Nor does any state or local government have the capacity to weather this crisis on its own.
The U.S. government is the only entity that can—and therefore must—take action to help all of its governments. Calls to exclude the Illinois, Chicago or other major governments from future rounds of relief because of past bad fiscal decisionmaking are misguided and threaten full national economic recovery.
Our city and state continue to face financial and governance challenges of their own creation. Entire columns can be (and have been) written on what our state and city need to do to help themselves: Pension reform. Increased efficiencies. Property tax relief. Government consolidation.
However, as the nation’s fifth largest economy, Illinois serves as an essential hub for national and international commerce. And as Illinois’ economic engine, Chicago supports substantial portions of not only the State of Illinois’ economy but also the Midwest and national economies.
* Press release…
The Horsemen and Women of Fairmount Park to Rally for safe, spectator-free racing!
In a sign of solidarity, Fairmount Park Horsemen are holding a rally parade in an attempt to convey to the Governor’s Office the desperation to return safely to spectator-free racing. As owners, trainers, and employees in the agriculture industry – the men and women of Fairmount Park have been working daily caring for the equine workforce. During the winter months these athletes get a much-deserved rest but maintain a race-ready fitness during racing season leaving them ready yet dormant until the current restrictions are released.
Some 200 employees currently living and working at Fairmount Park will only require an additional 25 people on the grounds to race a safe, spectator-free racing. All of this can be safely executed while maintaining CDC guidelines for public safety allowing us to take care of ourselves, our families, and contribute to the local and state economies. So many businesses do not have the luxury of safely returning to work while being able to maintain social distancing and restricting groupings, we can. We humbly request the ability to do our jobs while safely staying within all guidelines requested of us.
We are not asking Illinois to venture into the unknown during these uncertain times. Spectator- free racing is currently being conducted all across the United States in Oklahoma, Florida, Nebraska, California and beginning May 16th in our neighboring state of Kentucky.
The Rally Parade for Racing at Fairmount Park will be through Collinsville, IL at 1pm on Tuesday. Instead of Fairmount Park’s “Horse Hooky Tuesday” Racing event, we’ll be rallying for racing! We hope to see you there!
* The Atlantic has helped lead the way in COVID-19 coverage. And this new article is fascinating. An excerpt…
Public-health campaigns that promote the total elimination of risk, such as abstinence-only sex education, are a missed opportunity to support lower-risk behaviors that are more sustainable in the long term. Abstinence-only education is not just ineffective, but it’s been associated with worse health outcomes, in part because it deprives people of an understanding of how to reduce their risk if they do choose to have sex. And without a nuanced approach to risk, abstinence-only messaging can inadvertently stigmatize anything less than 100 percent risk reduction. Americans have seen this unfold in real time over the past two months as pandemic shaming—the invective, online and in person, directed at those perceived as violating social-distancing rules—has become a national pastime.
The anger behind shaming is understandable. Photos of crowded beaches or videos of people at a large indoor party may make viewers feel as if they’re watching coronavirus transmission in action. Calling out seemingly dangerous behavior can also provide an illusion of control at a time when it’s particularly hard to come by. But, as years of research on HIV prevention have shown, shaming doesn’t eliminate risky behavior—it just drives it underground. Even today, many gay men hesitate to disclose their sexual history to health-care providers because of the stigma that they anticipate. Shaming people for their behavior can backfire.
Berkowitz and Callen knew that indefinite abstinence wasn’t realistic for everyone, and instead of shaming, tried to give gay men the tools they needed to be able to have sex with a low but non-zero risk of HIV transmission. In essence, this is the harm-reduction model, which recognizes that some people are going to take risks, whether public-health experts want them to or not—and instead of condemnation, offers them strategies to reduce any potential harms. This approach meets people where they are and acknowledges that individual-level decisions happen in a broader context, which may include factors that are out of people’s control.
What does harm reduction look like for the coronavirus? First, policy makers and health experts can help the public differentiate between lower-risk and higher-risk activities; these authorities can also offer support for the lower-risk ones when sustained abstinence isn’t an option. Scientists still have a lot to learn about this new virus, but early epidemiological studies suggest that not all activities or settings confer an equal risk for coronavirus transmission. Enclosed and crowded settings, especially with prolonged and close contact, have the highest risk of transmission, while casual interaction in outdoor settings seems to be much lower risk. A sustainable anti-coronavirus strategy would still advise against house parties. But it could also involve redesigning outdoor and indoor spaces to reduce crowding, increase ventilation, and promote physical distancing, thereby allowing people to live their lives while mitigating—but not eliminating—risk.
Second, health experts can also acknowledge the contextual factors that affect both a person’s decisions and their risk of coronavirus transmission. Some people are seeking human contact outside of their households because of intense loneliness, anxiety, or a desire for pleasure. The decision to go for a run with a friend or gather in a park with extended family may be in conflict with current public-health guidance in some communities, but for some people, the low risk of coronavirus transmission in these settings may be outweighed by the health benefits of human connection, exercise, and being outdoors. We can also acknowledge that some people can’t comply with public-health guidance because of structural factors, including systemic racism, that render physical distancing a privilege. If we ignore this broader context, people of color will continue to bear the brunt of not only the pandemic itself, but also American society’s response to it.
Third, Americans can accept that, despite our best efforts, some people will choose to engage in higher-risk activities—and instead of shaming them, we can provide them with tools to reduce any potential harms. Want to see your grandkids? Still planning to have that party? Meet up outside. Don’t share food or drinks. Wear masks. Keep your hands clean. And stay home if you’re sick.
In September, Chicago Police Officer John Catanzara made headlines after posting on Facebook a picture of himself, in uniform, holding an American flag and a homemade sign that read, “I stand for the anthem. I love the American flag. I support my president and the 2nd Amendment.”
He was reprimanded for violating rules that prohibit officers from making political statements while on duty. But if that discipline was intended to change his ways on social media, Catanzara instead is living up to the words he uses to describe himself on Facebook: “A give no f#$%s, say it like it is man.”
Since he was disciplined last fall, the veteran officer has remained outspoken and defiant, posting inflammatory material about women, welfare recipients and those who disagree with his politics.
He has tangled with Facebook users who question him. “Keep listening for that knock on the door,” he responded to one critic.
And, more than once, he has boasted that he will continue to avoid serious punishment. Police superintendents have twice tried to fire him, though he appealed the efforts and won.
“The police dept didn’t and CAN’T fire me,” he wrote last fall, after the flag post went viral.
Rank-and-file Chicago police officers have chosen John Catanzara as the new president of their union for the next three years, replacing incumbent Kevin Graham in a runoff election. […]
Graham assumed union leadership three years ago after beating former President Dean Angelo Sr. in another runoff. Graham and Catanzara were two of five candidates running in the general election in March.
Graham’s time in FOP leadership has been hallmarked by his criticism of the Chicago Police Department’s reform efforts and consent decree, which were spurred by the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video and subsequent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. […]
Catanzara was stripped of his police powers and assigned to administrative duty for filing a police report against now-fired police Supt. Eddie Johnson after Johnson marched arm-in-arm with the Rev. Michael Pfleger on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
In August 2008, then-Superintendent Jody Weis sought Catanzara’s firing on allegations that he did not follow orders to complete a psychological exam, according to Chicago Police Board records. But in February 2009, the board cleared Catanzara in a 5-3 decision.
Three years later, then-Superintendent Garry McCarthy tried to fire him for working a side job as a security guard for a restaurant when he was supposed to be on medical leave for a back injury.
The Police Board found him guilty in that case of several Police Department violations, board records show. But instead of firing him, the board voted 7-2 to suspend Catanzara for 20 days.
The department in 2017 issued Catanzara a reprimand — among the lightest punishments a Chicago cop can face — for violating rules that prohibit officers from participating in any partisan political campaign or activity while on duty.
• He was once suspended for 30 days following an investigation into allegations of domestic abuse in 2003.
• He was reprimanded following an investigation into an allegation of excessive force in 2003.
• He was suspended for six days following an investigation into allegations of conduct unbecoming an officer by associating with a felon while off-duty in 2003.
• He was suspended for 20 days following an investigation into allegations of conduct unbecoming by associating with a felon while off-duty in 2004.
• He was suspended for 10 days for insubordination in 2005.
• He was suspended for 15 days following an investigation into an allegation of a personnel violation at an Old Town tavern in 2007.
• He was suspended for 20 days after the Chicago Police Board found him guilty of violating department rules by working as a private security guard while on medical leave for a back injury in 2008. Supt. Garry McCarthy had sought to fire him.
• He was suspended for 10 days following an investigation into miscellaneous personnel violations in 2013.
In his 25 years on the force, Catanzara has received no major awards, but six honorable mentions – more than 55% of officers. But according to the Citizens Police Data Project, he has also been the subject of 50 allegations — more than 96% of Chicago police officers.
Sandoval, an immigrant from Colombia, is among tens of millions of Americans living in multigenerational homes where one of the main strategies for avoiding infection — following social distancing protocols — can be near impossible. […]
In the U.S., roughly 64 million people live in multigenerational family households, or 1 in 5 households, according to Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. But it’s far more common among people of color: 29% of those households are Asian, 27% are Hispanic, 26% are African American and 16% are white.
Fry said two major factors accounting for multigenerational living are location, with higher rates in densely populated urban centers where the cost of living is high, and culture, especially for immigrants in the U.S. Living with family into adulthood, common in many parts of the world, was blamed for contributing to the spread of the coronavirus in Spain and Italy.
For families of color in the U.S., there’s also more chance that household members can’t work from home as federal guidelines suggest. Fewer than 20% of black workers can telework, according to a March study by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute.
Generations living together under one roof doesn’t explain everything, however. According to the US Census, 5.6 percent of Illinoisans lived in a multigenerational household in 2013. Hawaii’s number was 11.1 percent and it has one of the lowest deaths and cases of COVID-19 per million population in the country.
If you combine the lack of teleworking opportunities and the intergenerational living arrangements, you may be on to something. Son contracts the virus at work, passes it along to mom who winds up in the hospital or worse.
Coronavirus outbreaks continue to ravage Illinois nursing homes as new state data show at least 1,553 deaths associated with long-term care facilities.
The death toll climbed by 471 from 1,082 reported a week ago. Nursing home deaths now account for nearly 48% of the 3,241 fatalities statewide, according to weekly figures released by the Illinois Department of Public Health Friday.
Cook County facilities recorded 863 deaths. IDPH reported 203 deaths in DuPage and 107 in Lake.
The case numbers include residents and employees who have symptoms but have not yet had a test confirm COVID-19. State officials also have deferred to individual facilities and local health departments for “the most up-to-date data.”
The worst rated nursing homes in Cook County have the highest concentration of deaths from the coronavirus — and some have failed inspections during the pandemic, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found.
About 28% of the deaths from COVID-19 complications have happened in nursing homes with the lowest federal rating and only 6% in the facilities with the highest rating.
That disparity shows the state should focus testing and inspections in poorly rated nursing homes, experts said. […]
Medicare gives one star to the worst-ranked nursing homes and five stars to the best.
The one-star nursing homes had 28% of all the coronavirus deaths and the two-star facilities had 30% of them.
In contrast, the five-star facilities had 6% of the deaths.
The nursing home with the state’s highest COVID-19 death count was Meadowbrook Manor of Bolingbrook, a 298-bed facility at 431 W. Remington Blvd., about 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. That facility had 26 confirmed coronavirus-linked fatalities and 173 cases — all disclosed by the state within the past two weeks. […]
The next-highest coronavirus death tallies were at Symphony of Joliet, which had 24 fatalities, Elevate Care Chicago North in the city’s West Ridge community, which had 23, and Center Home for Hispanic Elderly in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, which had 22.
Next were three suburban facilities — Bria of Geneva, Glenview Terrace Nursing Center, and Windsor Park Manor in west suburban Carol Stream — that each had 21 deaths linked to the virus. […]
IDPH on Friday listed 176 nursing homes with at least 20 coronavirus cases. Those included 22 facilities with at least 100 cases.
Fewer than 2% of Illinois’ prisoners have been tested for COVID-19, though thousands have been quarantined across multiple facilities because of potential exposure and 11 have died, according to information released [last] week by the Illinois Department of Corrections.
This low level of testing has raised alarm among advocates and lawmakers. They say it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the true picture of the outbreak in Illinois prisons and respond to it appropriately. That includes taking steps to contain the outbreak and limit its spread into the communities where prisons are located, which are oftentimes rural and may have limited hospital capacity.
…Adding… If you think this is an Illinois-only problem, think again. Click here. Lots and lots of states are dealing with this issue.
* Related…
* In emotional Mother’s Day message, health chief says more than 1,000 Illinois moms lost to COVID-19 - Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, detailed in a Mother’s Day sermon that more than 1,000 mothers have died from COVID-19 in Illinois.
After a member of Governor JB Pritzker’s senior staff tested positive for COVID-19, the Governor’s Office employees will follow Illinois Department of Public Health guidance and work from home for an appropriate isolation period. The asymptomatic staff member tested positive late last week and was in close contact with the Governor and other staff members. The Governor and all other staff reporting to the office tested negative. The Governor was tested again early on Sunday and tested negative.
Approximately 20 staff members have been regularly reporting in person to work in the James R. Thompson Center during this crisis while the remainder of Governor’s Office staff work from home. Staff members have followed all IDPH safety protocols including daily temperature checks, wearing face coverings, social distancing and strict hygiene procedures. The office will undergo deep cleaning, and staff are monitoring themselves for symptoms. The Governor and staff will return to the office when IDPH deems appropriate.
The Governor will continue to hold daily press briefings via video conference which are live-streamed at illinois.gov/LiveVideo as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
A plan to reopen Madison County will be voted on Tuesday after county officials asked for more time to study the legality of the plan.
During a special meeting Friday of the Madison County Health Board, members voted to table until next week a plan to reopen the county that would defy Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to open the state on a gradual and regional basis. The action to delay a vote came at the request of State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons.
The meeting was the second special meeting to discuss plans for reopening, the first of which took place Thursday. During that meeting, Bond County attorney Tom Devore argued that the current stay-at-home order was beyond the governor’s power.
Devore is Rep. Bailey’s attorney. He’s getting a lot of free advertising off of this, including a blatant pitch from a state representative…
The Northwest Bible Baptist Church in unincorporated Elgin intends to reopen for Sunday services beginning May 17, defying the state’s stay-at-home order and restrictions on large gatherings.
The church and its attorneys have sent Gov. J.B. Pritzker and county officials its intent to reopen under reduced capacity, using social distancing measures, requiring masks, and more.
“We are grateful for the guidance our government has provided through this pandemic and have respectfully refrained from gathering for weeks,” Pastor Keith Gomez said in a written statement. “However, we are persuaded that now is the time to safely resume meeting together in-person.”
Gomez has challenged stay-at-home orders in the past. When schools closed statewide in March, the church’s Northwest Baptist Academy school stayed open for a few days. Kane County sheriff deputies waited outside the campus on March 23 to greet parents and hand out copies of a compliance letter. That morning, Gomez told authorities they had reversed their decision and switched to remote learning.
Pastor Keith Gomez, leader of the “old-fashioned, independent” Northwest Bible Baptist Church in Elgin, Illinois, argued in a recent sermon that if it wasn’t for slavery, black people “would still be in Africa with a bone in their nose fighting lions.” […]
In the clip, Gomez argues that the book of Philemon supports slavery yet modern day Christians are being taught to hate it.
“When you get in the Pauline — are y’all listening to me? — when you get into the Pauline epistles, you’re getting in the doctrine. So why would you get in Philemon when he’s trying to teach you how to treat your slave? If they should be slaves,” Gomez said.
“See, what you wanna do is turn in to TBN [Trinity Broadcasting Network] and listen to them odd birds who don’t know doctrine whatsoever. And then you hate slavery because we were taught to hate that. Because we’re so nasty,” he continued before scolding white people for feeling guilty about slavery.
“And some of you little whities can’t get it either. If it wasn’t for slavery, those folks would still be in Africa with a bone in their nose fighting lions. And if you don’t like that, you can lump it any way you want. That ain’t a prejudice. That is factual and historical,” he said.
Pritzker has also faced lawsuits, including one filed Friday in Clay County by salon owner Sonja Harrison. She alleged that Pritzker didn’t have constitutional authority to close her business, Visible Changes. A judge in the same southern Illinois county has already ruled in favor of one Republican lawmaker who claimed the order violated his civil rights. The state has appealed. […]
Also Sunday, a Chicago church that sued Pritzker over the stay-at-home order became the latest to defy restrictions limiting worship to 10 people. Roughly 70 people attended Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Masks, gloves and hand sanitizer were made available. Cristian Ionescu, the church’s senior pastor, directed worshipers to stand 6 feet apart inside the church that has capacity for roughly 1,400.
“We feel that we are discriminated against,” Ionescu told the Sun-Times. “We follow the same rules as other places that are also considered essential, and yet we cannot have more than 10 people in a service, which is ridiculous.”
Kinda wondering which Clay County attorney is representing Ms. Harrison.
The restaurant’s owner, Robert Newman, says he indeed opened the restaurant today, and has been in contact with the City of Herrin and the Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department.
Newman says he had people wrapped around the building. Newman says he accepted a phone call from the health department a minute after opening, asking that he “voluntarily stop seating people”.
“He said, “Rob will you voluntarily stop seating people?” I said, “What does voluntarily mean? No, I will not.” He said, “Well, than I will have no choice but to pull your food license.” I said, “you can’t do that!” He said, “yes I can, and I will.”
Newman says, during the phone call, he claimed he would sue the health department. Newman says the man’s response was, “go right ahead.”
Newman says, at that point, he stopped seating people to avoid losing his license. “I don’t think the health department even knows their role in this. I never once got a letter from the health department or a visit from the health department when all of this started,” claimed Newman.
I don’t think Mr. Newman understands the role of public health departments.
Gov. JB Pritzker is no longer holding weekend COVID-19 briefings at Chicago’s Thompson Center, but protesters are still showing up to try to get his attention.
Dozens of people gathered outside the Thompson Center Saturday, calling for the governor to reopen Illinois.
“I think Pritzker is acting like a tyrant,” said Joliet resident Melissa Pointer. “I think he is taking away our constitutional rights, and I am calling him to stand down.”
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As Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tries to meet goals for daily COVID-19 testing and contract tracing, he’s not banking on any help from the federal government, he said Sunday CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.
“I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they’ve made promises not delivered,” Pritzker said. “Very recently they promised a lot of swabs, they’re supposed to arrive today, the first shipment of those, I’m looking forward to that. But what we’re doing is we’re going it alone, as the White House has left all the states to do.”
Illinois officials will continue to increase testing on their own, and are modeling contract tracing practices after Massachusetts’ approach, he said.
“We’ve had contact tracing across the state, we have county health departments that do that, we have our state health department which does that but what we’re now going to put in place and we’re in process is we’re imitating one of the great collaborative efforts that’s happened in the United States and that’s what’s happening in Massachusetts,” Pritzker said. “The Massachusetts contact tracing collaborative, we can do that in Illinois. We are, in fact. We’ve hired somebody who was at the CDC, who was an expert at their outbreak intelligence service and we think that we can have a massive contract tracing effort up in the next few weeks.”
I’ve already told subscribers what I think of the governor’s contact tracing claims. Bottom line: He greatly overstated the state’s progress.
“We’ve gotten very little help from the federal government. It’s fine. I’ve given up on any promises that have been made,” Pritzker said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Out Front.” “I hope something will get delivered from the federal government, but I don’t expect it anymore.”
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board wrote an editorial on Wednesday criticizing Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan.
“He’s being more than just cautious. He has moved the goal posts… Pritzker’s state goal was to ‘get the outbreak under control’ — not eradicate COVID-19 completely… We don’t want his pursuit of the perfect outcome to unnecessarily delay the restarting of activities,” the board said.
Pritzker responded to the board’s editorial by saying they “did not read the plan.”
“The truth is, coronavirus is still out there. It hasn’t gone anywhere. We all are going to have to change the way we do things until we’re able to eradicate it,” he said.
“If the Chicago Tribune thinks everything is going to go back to normal without us having a very effective treatment, or a vaccine — they’re just dead wrong,” Pritzker added.
Asked why Illinois hasn’t yet seen 14 consecutive days of downward movement, the governor said the state’s cases are going up because of increased testing. He said his team is watching the positivity rate, the number of people entering hospitals and the number of hospitals available in the event there’s a surge.
“We’ve done a lot to make sure that we’re keeping these numbers moving in the right direction,” Pritzker said. “And we will not reopen unless we meet all the standards that I’ve set for doing so.”
The governor said the guidelines of the reopening plan are subject to change, depending on how the outbreak evolves, and the recommendations of experts.
* The president’s apparent response…
POTUS just retweeted an outdated story about Rep. Darren Bailey. Rep. Bailey withdrew his TRO and I don't think he's filed a new case pic.twitter.com/CQQRqKCikO
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,325 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 111 additional deaths.
Clinton County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Cook County: 1 male 20s, 4 females 50s, 7 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 9 males 60s, 7 females 70s, 13 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 8 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 4 females 90s, 1 male 90s, 1 unknown 90s, 2 females 100s
DeKalb: 1 male 60s
DuPage: 1 female 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 7 females 90s, 1 male 90s
Iroquois: 1 female 90s
Kane: 1 female 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s
Kendall: 1 male 50s, 1 female 90s
Lake: 1 female 70s, 2 males 90s
LaSalle: 1 female 60s, 1 male 80s
Madison: 1 female 80s
McHenry: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s
Rock Island: 1 male 80s
St. Clair: 1 male 40s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
Will: 1 female 60s, 1 male 70s
Winnebago: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
Out of State: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 76,085 cases, including 3,349 deaths, in 98 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 16,617 specimens for a total of 416,331.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,656 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 57 additional deaths.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 77,741 cases, including 3,406 deaths, in 98 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 13,653 specimens for a total of 429,984.
12 percent positivity rate.
Since reporting started, the overall positivity rate is 18 percent.
* Charts…
It's Mother's Day so I'm only doing these four charts
- 12.1% positive test rate statewide. - A low-ish number of test results reported to @IDPH. BUT - Lowest number of positive tests since April 21. - Low number of daily deaths.
Government-funded needle exchange programs — such as the Community Outreach Intervention Projects’ storefront that serves Galorath — have cut services and closed exchange sites due to staff shortages and safety concerns as the virus sweeps the nation, so far killing more than 70,000 in the U.S.
In fact, the amount of needles exchanged by the Chicago program in March plummeted by more than 78% from the year before. It has left hundreds of high-risk users to fend for themselves — more likely to reuse or share needles and unable to get the help on which they have come to rely. […]
Staff reductions at COIP prompted it to close two storefront locations, in South Chicago and Humboldt Park, and reduce hours at three other storefronts, while also halting daily mobile efforts on the South and West sides. The Chicago Recovery Alliance, a mobile needle exchange and delivery operation, cut visits to two of its less-frequented sites and stopped providing supplies to another exchange in Edgewater, which also closed.
The programs — which together supply more than four million clean needles every year to the more than 10,000 injection drug users in the Chicago area — reported significant declines in the number of people the exchanges have served so far during the pandemic.
In a Capitol Connection interview, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) poured cold water on an idea Illinois Senate President Don Harmon proposed in a letter to Congress last month.
“I would just characterize his letter to me and others as ambitious,” Durbin said in the segment that aired on Sunday morning.
Among other items, Harmon’s letter requested Congress send Illinois $10 billion in pension relief for state retirement systems.
“He was looking for federal assistance at a level at which is unrealistic, and I am sorry that he made reference to our pension challenge,” Durbin said. “Many states face a pension challenge. We should not be looking to the federal government at this moment or expecting in the future that it’s going to step in and fix these problems. What we need to do is ask for help for not only our state, but also local units of government, for their actual budget losses that are associated with this current national emergency. That, I think, is realistic.”
For 43 Wisconsin Republican lawmakers, the urge to bash Illinois and go on record against bailouts for state governments during the coronavirus pandemic was just too good to pass up.
The lawmakers signed on to a letter sent Friday to the members of Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation asking them to reject a bailout package for the states. […]
“No one knows how long and how deep this economic crisis due to to COVID-19 will be, and Wisconsin is not immune to these fiscal challenges,” the letter said. “However, we do know our neighbors to the south have spent decades spending and borrowing recklessly.
“After years of failing to fund their overly generous pension system, Illinois is already asking for the federal government to bail them out of these series of poor financial decisions. The State Senate in Illinois has requested $44 billion – and that’s just for one state. Wisconsinites can’t afford to bailout reckless budgeting from other states.
“Wisconsin taxpayers should not be responsible for funding bailouts for irresponsible states across the country, like Illinois, New York and California. Please stand with Wisconsin taxpayers and reject the multi-trillion dollar bailouts being considered by Congress.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he’s delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments.
That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators (although he’d undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard). And the governor’s position seems to have emboldened some local officials to defy the governor’s executive order and open up their economies on their own.
But when local governments refuse to enforce the governor’s order, it appears that trial lawyers might step in and insurance companies might take a walk.
A growing number of Downstate sheriffs, state’s attorneys and other officials have declared they won’t be enforcing the governor’s stay-at-home order. The Woodford County state’s attorney has said he won’t prosecute violators, as has the White County state’s attorney. Johnson County’s sheriff is one of several who’ve said he also wouldn’t arrest anyone for violating the order.
East Peoria’s mayor has gone beyond even that, officially allowing the “opening” of several businesses in his city on May 1 that were ordered closed by the governor’s executive order, including hair salons, spas, gyms and indoor recreational facilities. On May 15, bars and restaurants will be allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity, and churches and theaters also will be allowed to reopen on that date.
But the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association has a message for those renegade municipalities and businesses preparing to throw open their doors: Watch out for lawsuits.
“The risk of opening early outweighs the benefit of limiting liability not only for the municipality but also for any employer who follows the guidelines of the municipality,” said ITLA President Antonio Romanucci in a written statement. “The prudent course would be to stay closed for another 25 days and limit any further potential spread which could lead to litigation.”
I asked Pritzker at a recent press conference what he thought of the warning from trial lawyers.
“Well, I was a businessman before I became governor,” Pritzker replied, “and I have to tell you that I would not want to defy the executive order because I believe that I would be taking on liability if I did that.”
Those towns and businesses could find themselves without insurance coverage should something go wrong.
Kevin Martin, executive director of the Illinois Insurance Association, told me that insurance policies are “not going to cover intentional acts.” In other words, if a business intentionally reopens in violation of the executive order and somebody injures himself at the establishment or contracts the virus, insurance coverage won’t be a given. The same may go for municipalities that openly violate the executive order.
The Illinois Department of Insurance also chimed in, saying via press release: “If businesses reopen contrary to public health guidelines and the state’s executive orders, there is risk that an insurer could find reason within the policy language to deny COVID-19 related claims.”
I asked Pritzker at that same press about insurance issues.
“It would not surprise me if insurance companies are found to not be required to cover you when you are defying essentially state law or a state executive order,” he replied.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association has taken the position from the beginning that the executive order is “the best course of action for both consumers and employees,” the group’s president, Rob Karr, said via written statement. “We have also advised retailers of both the liability, insurance and other legal issues that may arise from not following the state’s guidance.”
The Illinois Restaurant Association also released a statement saying the group has encouraged its members to follow the executive order. The Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, which represents tavern owners, said it “does not advise” its members to violate the executive order.
The governor has pointed out several times that many of the businesses that are defiantly reopening have state licenses. Your local barber or salon owner needs a state license to open and operate. Cosmetologists, electrologists, massage therapists and nail technicians are just some of the others who must have state licenses. Restaurants and taverns are under state oversight and can be closed down by local public health departments in situations just like this.
The bottom line is, if you don’t fear the virus, then you might want to start to fear being wiped out by lawsuits not covered by insurance or losing your license
My dad has a "Little Richard" tattoo on his bicep. I used to think he got it after I was born. Nope. He was honoring THE Little Richard. Dad is a rocker. RIP Little Richard https://t.co/aeqcXflNbD
* My mom’s birthday was earlier this week, as was my niece Rosalee’s. My niece Tonya’s birthday was last month. My niece Reagan was profiled by her college newspaper a couple of days ago. My niece Isabel is graduating from SIUC’s school of journalism tomorrow and is heading to Medill in the fall. And, of course, Sunday is Mother’s Day.
To these wonderful women: I love all of you and, despite your exceptional brilliance, I’m sorry that you have to put up with stuff like this…
We get it dude
We’ve already heard enough from you
And on that note, I’m outta here. No work this weekend after 62 days. Woohoo!
* After a quick update on where testing stands, the governor took questions from reporters.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
Obviously the mayor had her news conference a short time ago and a couple of differences in the timetables. Hers talks about 14 day timetables across all of the important metrics. You have 28 days on hospital admissions. Can you explain the difference? Are you considering making revisions to 14 days as well?…
No, but I think if you look at the mayor’s plan, and of course the mayor and I have spoken about this plan before, and indeed earlier today. It really is within the parameters of the plan that we put forward.
In other words, it is likely that, because they have some more stringent parts of their plan that when you put all of the pieces of it together from a timing perspective, it will fit I think nicely into the framework that we put forward.
And I think you know other local governments should be considering doing the same thing, thinking about how they can fit their timetables for opening businesses that are particular to their area of the state within the timetables that we’ve laid out, because those are the kind of the safety guidance and guidelines that we’ve set out, but the local governments, like the city of Chicago, are allowed to be more stringent than the state.
* This is the fourth day in a row of 100 plus fatalities. I believe that’s the first time we hit four days of triple digits. What does this suggest in terms of where we are and what the trend says?…
Dr. Ezike: Again, I think people who studied statistics know that you can’t go by a couple of days. It’s the average and where we’re going.
So I think if you look at our averages per week, we definitely have hit a peak of deaths in two weeks, maybe a week ago, so I don’t think overall this is one of our heaviest weights, even though there may have been a cluster of deaths that were reported that seemed high in four days in a row. But if you maybe take the aggregate and look at weeks I don’t think this week has been worse than last week so again, looking day to day or even looking at several days is a little bit harder. I think when you stand back and maybe take a week at a time, we can get bigger trends and to get a more more balanced view and I think, overall, I think we’re going in the right direction I think definitely this week.
Is that as important of a metric as positivity for hospital admissions?…
Well they’re related, they’re all related. So you could imagine that the deaths might be proportional to people being hospitalized, people being hospitalized will be proportional to the number of people who got infected. So I think it’s a continuum. If you think of how the disease would happen first, there would be the virus, somebody would get infected, somebody might get sick, somebody might get hospitalized, might get into the ICU, so there is a continuum there. So all of these statistics and these metrics actually do relate to one another.
Dr. Ezike then said that the Kawasaki type illness seen in young children lately will be made a “reportable illness” by IDPH.
* Restaurants, they are desperately asking that they can reopen in phase three perhaps at 25% capacity. This is an industry that’s used to being regulated they’re great at compliance, they’re professionals. What are the experts telling you that the scientist and they have to be knowledgeable about why 25% capacity in phase three can’t happen according to your plan?…
This is now secondhand information that maybe Dr. Ezike has something to add to because she’s been in many of those conversations too. But first of all, I mean I want as much as anyone to make sure that small businesses are able to open and so many restaurants and bars out there so people who risk their capital and their time and effort and energy to start those businesses and I know they are devastated and it’s why I support you know Sam Toia who’s the head of the Illinois Restaurant Association, has advocated for and he’s right that there ought to be support for the restaurant industry that comes out of the supports the cares act type supports that come out of Washington DC.
In terms of why the epidemiologists have seen restaurants as more difficult to open than let’s say other kinds of small shops. My understanding of it is that, because it’s very difficult to socially distance as between a server and the food, the server, the food and delivery of the food to the table. It’s also difficult even to seat people at tables the way they’re normally configured in a six foot distance for everybody that’s sitting at a table. So that’s my understanding of why you know as between I think you probably add to that the dishwasher. And the person who’s the chef in the back, the bartender and so on. Just the number of people who kind of come in contact with the thing that you’re ultimately getting delivered to you, and they can’t be delivered in a socially distance way is the reason.
Are you on the phone with Senator Durbin, with other congressional representatives regarding a federal bailout or relief package specific to restaurants because they’re as you indicated they’re really calling for that?…
Yeah, so I’ve been on the phone, I have been in contact with the restaurant association with many of the people in the industry, about that and certainly as I discuss the broader issue of support for state and local governments and small businesses with our federal representatives. I try always to bring in the different industries that I think they particularly a particular day, Illinois. And this is a good example, because we have so many restaurants and so many great restaurants in Illinois that attract people from around the world. So yeah, I try to bring up the industries that are most affected by COVID-19.
Is the restaurants, the [same as] how you went to bat for the hospitals for instance?…
And I do and I just to be clear, I just didn’t want to overstate I mean I do there are other industries that I also talked about I didn’t want to overstate how I talk about restaurants, but I do believe that Sam Toia and the industry is correct, that they deserve support so many small businesses and so many people depend upon those jobs as entry level jobs as well as permanent positions.
[This was followed by very detailed questions about IDES. I’m going to skip them for now because I’m behind.]
* Amy Jacobson from WIND asking you if Chicago sports teams can’t play in front of fans later this summer or fall, do you support the idea of letting them play in neighboring states?…
Well, I would listen we’re gonna work very hard to have a play here. I have spoken with the commissioners of the various major league teams. And they all are looking for ways to do it safely. They want to protect their players. They, none of them have suggested to me, short of getting to stage five really, that they would have fans or many fans in the stands. They are looking for television, the ability to broadcast a game. And so, as far as neighboring states, well we have all the facilities here for them to do it. We would want to see their plan. I’ve suggested that they are putting a plan together, where they already have put a plan together and they intend to submit it to have it reviewed by our medical experts and by me and to make sure that it fits with the stages and considerations that we’ve made for businesses. But look I’m the first person, I want to see sports play and I think it’s good for everybody. I think they can do it here in Illinois, and especially if you look at the timetable, there’s a high likelihood that they could do it within a timetable that we’re hoping that we’ll be able to reopen many businesses.
[Gotta hand it to her. That was a pretty good zinger.]
* Jordan: [A reporter] has a question that we are going to amend so we can get multiple questions out of the way. Governor, are you aware of the back to business plan made by representative Wilhour and Bailey in an effort to reopen Central Illinois regions, is this something you’ll consider? There are also many questions about XYZ plan from various places around the state. So let’s answer that all at once…
I am aware of multiple plans from multiple places around the state of Illinois. I think this demonstrates why there ought to have been a federal plan that was put forward. Because, now what you’ve got is a patchwork of states doing different things, some of us creating pacts in various regions of the country. And now you see counties want to put together their own plans, cities and counties, you know, cities want to work with other cities, mayor’s talking to each other, submitting plans. Everybody’s got a different plan. The truth is, this is why you need leadership. This is why you need to make sure that we’ve got a plan that works for the regions, that allows regions to move forward or backward if they’re meeting or not meeting the requirements for health. ButI have read many of these plans that have been put forward and I’ve included many of those ideas in our [plan].
* Should parents assume that summer camps will be canceled this year?…
I mean I suppose it depends upon the timing. I wouldn’t assume anything and I would look very intently for whether treatments are being developed. That will be appropriate for us to change the playbook because that’s what I’m really hoping we’ll be able to do. And of course in phase four we’ll be able to have 50 person gatherings and that is something that would work with summer programs. Maybe not overnight camps but there certainly could be camps of 50 people together.
* You said the other day that you don’t think the public will want to go to restaurants too soon, has the industry’s response to your reopening plan changed your thinking at all? Also Why doesn’t your plan require a decrease in cases like Mayor Lightfoot?…
I think if you look at other states that have simply flung the doors open on their restaurants you’ve seen that there are you know the expectation was very high that people go rushing back to restaurants they haven’t. And so that’s why I made the comment that I did I did make.
[On the Lightfoot part of the question] That’s a different approach that they’ve taken. That is absolutely something that we considered, but I just want to say that for those who think that we ought to be opening more quickly, I would say that our plan is makes it more likely that one could open at the end of May, than some other plans. And so you know I just say that requiring a decrease as opposed to a stability, when we have hospital availability if you meet all the other criteria then you know making sure you have positivity rates at a certain level hospital availability at a certain level and so on. Those things all work in tandem with one another, to get us you know healthy reopening. So I think the mayor’s plan is a is a good one for Chicago I haven’t looked at details, at least, you know, in the last day. If any changes were made, but it’s a good plan, it fits within the plans that we have for the state.
* Hundreds of thousands of people use public transit in Illinois every day during normal times. When the Northeast Region eventually reaches phase four, where gatherings of 50 or fewer are permitted, what direction will you give the RTA? Will there be limits on the number of people in train cars or buses, will large downtown companies who have a lot of employees coming into the Loop be required to participate in some sort of agreement of staggered work from home days to get ridership down?…
We will certainly be working on staggered work hours with major businesses, and all across the state honestly that are reliant upon mass transit. But that’ll obviously be much, much more concentrated in the collar counties and Cook County.
It is very important that we have our mass transit clean, and make sure that it is COVID free and that we protect all the people who are riding on mass transit. That’s something that I’ve expressed to the mayor and to many of the surrounding county leaders because we just have to make sure that people can use mass transit in a reopening society, on a regular basis. Otherwise, we won’t be able to reopen safely.
* Lori Lightfoot said today she’s determined to open schools this fall. Do you have a response to that statement and whether you’re considering this for the state?…
I think we’re all determined, want very badly for schools to open and that is my hope and desire. I think that’s what she is expressing as well, and planning I think you’ve got to do planning for reopening in the fall. So I, none of us knows what the future exactly holds but I think we have a great hope that and desire for reopening schools.
* Congressman LaHood joined two state lawmakers for a press conference in Quincy today. They say you should visit Quincy to see your impact to the order is having downstate. Will you leave Chicago?…
Yeah, and you know that I have regular contact with people in Quincy/ I certainly understand, read the newspapers, understand the challenges that all the areas of the state are undergoing. I think that someone who lives in Quincy can understand what’s going on in Cook County in the collar counties just as easily as somebody who may be standing in the cook and the collar counties can understand by reading what’s going on in their area. But I look forward to traveling around the state, and to, you know, speaking with elected officials and people about the challenges that people are having.
And, most importantly, I think, rather than traveling is just addressing those challenges which is what we’ve been doing for two months now. You know, this is my 61st day straight on the job, not just standing in front of a microphone, but working for the people of Illinois on this coronavirus crisis. And I’m not going to stop until we overcome it. I’m not going to stop until we revive the economy. It’s our obligation, we’ve got to get things moving again safely for our families.
* A restaurant owner in Southern Illinois reopened his restaurant this morning with plans to space people out, to practice social distancing. He says the local health department called and threatened to revoke his food permit. Now he plans to sue. Why isn’t the state’s criteria to reopen based on an individual business’s ability to practice social distancing?…
Because this virus isn’t limited to the four walls of that one business. That’s why.
* Exelon had its quarterly earnings call today and said it wants Springfield to deliver a subsidy package for its struggling nuclear plants by the end of May, or possibly the summer. Is that a priority for you right now, and how big of a problem is it for Exelon to advance any kind of agenda at the Capitol with all of the investigations into its lobbying activities still unresolved?…
Yeah, I’ve said that, you know, we’re gonna make sure that we work on an energy package for the state and we don’t need the high paid lobbyists to be guiding that for us. I think the legislature has been working on this for some time. I have been working on it for some time. And I can’t tell you exactly when something will get passed on it. My hope is that the legislature has been continuing its work in the working groups that have been created for it, as it has on so many other topics, and I look forward to the legislature getting together again to address so many challenges that we have. But is it true that that there are higher priorities right now? Yes there are higher priorities right now, and that’s reviving our economy.
* The city of Bloomington has canceled the Fourth of July fireworks display. Do you recommend more cities and towns do this considering it’s a gathering of more than 50 people?…
Again, I think people can read for themselves what the health consequences are of not following the rules that we put in place for each phase. So I think those are decisions that will have to be made at the local level. And again, you know I’m hoping that by July there will be some areas that we’ll be able to have gatherings of 50 or less, but there’s no guarantee of that and we’re watching it for the data, the science to determine whether and when these things can take place.
* Massachusetts and Illinois both reached 1000 cases within two days of each other. Massachusetts started contact tracing in April and they now have 1600 investigators. Why is Illinois so far behind Massachusetts?…
Actually we’ve been contact tracing since the very beginning and I think Dr Ezike was suggesting that earlier. Remember we have local county public health departments, they have health workers, neighborhood health workers. So does the city of Chicago, Cook County and other counties.
So there’s it’s not that there’s no contact tracing going on. What we’re spinning up in Illinois is a much more robust contact tracing effort, and it is like the one in Massachusetts. And indeed, you know we are following the model of Massachusetts taking a lot of advice from Massachusetts and we are working hard to spin that up but remember that much of what Massachusetts has is what much of what Illinois will be starting with which is all of the existing contact tracing that’s already going on and then we’ll be adding on workers and volunteers on top of that
[My question was why the state is lagging behind the state of Massachusetts and he did not answer it. I’ll ask again next week, I suppose.]
* Black and Latino people have disproportionately lost their jobs due to this pandemic, according to today’s jobs report. What will the state do to help workers of color who have been impacted by this?…
Yeah, well you know that’s what we’re trying to do as we reopen the economy, is to make sure we’re providing supports for families, as they get their jobs back or as they go seek a new job. It’s very important to me, in particular that we, those communities have been left out and left behind for decades, are the ones who are the first ones that are affected when we’ve got a downturn. And this downturn, which is caused by this invisible enemy, has so badly affected communities of color. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re focused on providing supports for communities. And by the way that also includes everybody else in the state that has been so badly affected. So those supports though in the communities that are poorest are the communities that are most hard hit are vitally important, so that’s part of what we’ll do. And then of course you know trying to revitalize the industries that employ many people across the state in particular communities of color is part of the plan going forward. I’m not, the plan that we put forward for restoring and reopening the state is just a beginning, you know, economic development, encouraging the creation of or the rebuilding of small businesses has got to be a vital part of what we do to build up the economy of the state in the aftermath or at least as we’re trying to deal with COVID-19 in a phase three, phase four and phase five world and that’s one of the reasons that I’ve gone back to Washington DC, to the people in Washington DC to ask them for support for the state so that we can do the work on the ground that a broad federal program can’t do, and that’s helping put back these jobs that have been lost.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were distributed by the federal government to municipalities across the country but in Illinois, local governments have yet to see those dollars because Governor JB Pritzker has not released them.
Congressman Rodney Davis wants to know why those dollars are not going to communities in Illinois when many are already planning on struggles once the coronavirus has been defeated. Congressman Davis says programs like the PPP helped small businesses and their employees, it is time to help local governments.
The Congressman from Taylorville says it is too soon to start talking about more stimulus bills before we know what the economy looks like as Americans begin getting back to work. He says there is still stimulus money to be distributed, and those dollars need to get out before they disperse more.
* I asked the governor’s press secretary about the alleged holdup. Jordan Abudayyeh’s reply…
Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, Lake County, Will County, and Kane County all received direct funding from the federal government under the CARES Act.
That leaves 97 counties and approximately 1200 cities outside the collars without funding. We have been working with the IML for several weeks on a plan to allocate the remaining portion of local money not claimed by Chicago and the collar counties, approximately $800 million, to those municipalities. In order to do this, the administration has proposed creating a grant program through DCEO.
This requires legislation and we have presented this plan to all four caucuses of the General Assembly for their consideration. We look forward to Congressman Davis supporting that plan when the General Assembly returns to Springfield.
Congressman Davis should’ve probably read the bill he voted for.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,887 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 130 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 female 90
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 2 females 40s, 2 males 40s, 2 males 50s, 2 females 60s, 16 males 60s, 6 females 70s, 15 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 14 females 80s, 10 males 80s, 9 females 90s, 8 males 90s, 1 unknown 90
DuPage County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Grundy County: 1 male 70s
Jasper County: 1 male 90s
Kane County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 2 females 70s
Kankakee County: 1 male 70s
Lake County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 2 females 80
LaSalle County: 1 female 40s
Macon County: 1 female 50s
Madison County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
McHenry County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Sangamon County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
St. Clair County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s
Will County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Williamson County: 1 male 60s
Pope County is now reporting a case of COVID-19. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 73,760 cases, including 3,241 deaths, in 98 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 20,671 specimens for a total of 399,714.
All employees at Rantoul Foods will begin undergoing COVID-19 testing today, according to Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde.
An outbreak there grew to 52 positive cases among employees Thursday, with the addition of three more.
Pryde said the Champaign occupational health practice SafeWorks Illinois would begin doing testing at the plant today, with hundreds of employees still remaining to be tested.
“I believe only about 200 of the 700 employees have been tested,” she said in a Thursday afternoon media briefing.
Southern Illinois lawmakers in an online news conference Thursday called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to allow the Amateur Trapshooting Association to host its annual championship at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta this summer.
State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, State Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, and State Rep. Nathan Reitz, D-Steeleville, spoke Thursday about the impact of the Grand American not just on Randolph County, but also on the region.
Schimpf reminded meeting attendees that the ATA is in a contract with the state of Illinois to host its yearly Grand American World Trapshooting Championship at the Sparta World Shooting and Recreational Complex. 2020 would be the 15th year for the competition in Sparta. It is currently scheduled for July 31 to Aug. 15.
However, with limitations on gatherings put in place by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to curb the spread of the sometimes deadly COVID-19 respiratory virus, the ATA’s ability to hold the contest this year has been put in doubt. Schimpf said the ATA has penned two letters to Pritzker’s office asking for a definitive yes or no to hold the event by June 15. Schimpf said the group has yet to hear a reply.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s battle against the coronavirus faces a new religious challenge in federal court, this time from churches in Chicago and Niles opposing his Restore Illinois plan and insisting on the right to worship with extensive social distancing guidelines in place.
Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Chicago and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles asked for a temporary restraining order Friday. Just last week, a church west of Rockford launched a similar but unsuccessful challenge that has moved on to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But the latest lawsuit points to Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan — unveiled just this week — and the two churches laid out proposed social distancing guidelines they would implement if allowed to move forward.
Governor Pritzker, D-Illinois, announced on Wednesday that the state fairs likely won’t be happening.
Besides being a week of fun for Illinois residents, the state fair drives tourism in Springfield over the summer. The hospitality industry has already been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s no substitute for consumer demand,” said Todd Maisch, the president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “If you take one of the biggest sources for consumer demand out of the Springfield economy. There’s just no replacing that.”
Local restaurants and businesses also would lose out on tourism dollars they usually see in the summer
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Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, alongside the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), today announced the “Protecting Chicago” framework that the City will be using to guide Chicago’s reopening process amid COVID-19. The framework – organized into five phases in alignment with the State of Illinois’ “Restore Illinois” plan – will advise Chicagoans on how to safely exit from shelter-in-place while continuing to prioritize the health of our most vulnerable residents.
“Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, we have been committed to basing our decisions on the science and data related to this disease and communicating our actions to the public in an open and transparent way,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Though we still have a way to go before we can begin reopening our city, when the time comes, that reopening will follow our thoughtful, data-driven process aimed at ensuring all our residents and businesses are informed and supported every step of the way.”
The framework lays out how the City is thinking about reopening, and the details for each phase are being informed by economic and health data, and a combination of input from industry working groups, health experts and the public. As part of the reopening strategy, the City is soliciting public input to gauge sentiment on shelter-in-place and ensure the reopening is phased in a way that eases concerns that residents may have. To provide feedback, residents can visit https://www.chicago.gov/coronavirus/reopeningsurvey to complete a short survey.
The “Protecting Chicago” framework comprises five phases, and Chicago has already transitioned from phase one (Strict Stay-at-Home) to phase two (Stay-at-Home):
PHASE ONE: STRICT STAY-AT-HOME – Limit the amount of contact with others; goal is to limit interactions to rapidly slow the spread of COVID-19
• Essential workers go to work; everyone else works from home
• Stay at home and limit going out to essential activities only
• Physically distance from anyone you do not live with, especially vulnerable friends and family
PHASE TWO: STAY-AT-HOME – Guard against unsafe interactions with others; goal is to continue flattening the curve while safely being outside
• Essential workers go to work; everyone else works from home
• Stay at home as much as possible
• Wear a face covering while outside your home
• Physically distance from anyone you do not live with, especially vulnerable friends and family
PHASE THREE: CAUTIOUSLY REOPEN – Strict physical distancing with some businesses opening; goal is to thoughtfully begin to reopen Chicago safely
• Non-essential workers begin to return to work in a phased way
• Select businesses, non-profits, city entities open with demonstrated, appropriate protections for workers and customers
• When meeting others, physically distance and wear a face covering
• Non-business, social gatherings limited to <10 persons
• Phased, limited public amenities begin to open
• Stay at home if you feel ill or have come into contact with someone with COVID-19
• Continue to physically distance from vulnerable populations
• Get tested if you have symptoms
PHASE FOUR: GRADUALLY RESUME – Continued staggered reopening into a new normal; goal is to further reopen Chicago while ensuring the safety of residents
• Additional business and capacity restrictions are lifted with appropriate safeguards
• Additional public amenities open
• Continue to wear face covering and physically distance
• Continue to distance and allow vulnerable residents to shelter
• Get tested if you have symptoms or think you have had COVID-19
PHASE FIVE: PROTECT – Continue to protect vulnerable populations; goal is to continue to maintain safety until COVID-19 is contained
• All businesses open
• Non-vulnerable individuals can resume working
• Most activities resume with health safety in place
• Some events can resume
• Set up screenings and tests at work or with your family
• Sign up for a vaccine on the COVID Coach web portal
The epidemiological criteria for transitioning between phases are rooted in public health guidance and will be reviewed and revisited on an ongoing basis. Health-based metrics are one of the many considerations that the City is weighing to determine the details of the City’s reopening approach and sequencing. Foremost, Chicago is monitoring answers to these four questions in order to help determine when and how the transition between phases takes place:
1. Is the rate of disease spread across the city and surrounding counties decreasing?
2. Does the city have the testing and contact-tracing capacity to track the disease and limit spread?
3. Are there enough support systems in place for vulnerable residents?
4. Can the healthcare system handle a potential future surge (including beds,
ventilators and PPE)?
“While our goal is to get as many people back to work as quickly and safely as possible, we will keep data and science as the north stars of this work, as we have throughout the COVID- 19 pandemic,” said Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, Allison Arwady, M.D. “We also recognize that some populations and families are suffering more than others in this crisis, and we are taking that into consideration as we prepare for reopening as well.”
A set of epidemiological factors has been established to guide the next transition from phase two (Stay-at-Home) to phase three (Cautiously Reopen), including:
• COVID-19 Case Rate (over 14 days, as a rolling average):
o Declining rate of new cases, based on incidence and/or percent positivity
• Severe Outcome Rate (over 14 days, as a rolling average):
o Stable or declining rates of cases resulting in hospitalization, ICU admission, and/or death
• Hospital Capacity Citywide (over 14 days, as a rolling average):
o Hospital beds: <1800 COVID patients o ICU beds: <600 COVID patients
o Ventilators: <450 COVID patients
• Testing Capacity:
o Test at least 5% of Chicago residents per month
• Testing Percent Positivity Rates (over 14 days, as a rolling average):
o Congregate: <30% positive tests
o Community: <15% positive tests
• Syndromic Surveillance (over 14 days, as a rolling average):
o Declining emergency department visits for influenza-like illness and/or
COVID-like illness
• Case Investigation & Contact Tracing:
o Expanded system in place for congregate and community investigations and contact tracing
The specific health criteria for transition between the latter phases will be established and released over the coming weeks to ensure the City is open and responsive to new data and information as it arises. In addition to determining the health-based metrics to move from one phase to the next, the City is actively determining the appropriate sequencing of reopening businesses and public services – taking into consideration both economic enablers such as transportation and childcare concerns, as well as keeping an eye towards economically disadvantaged populations.
Those guidelines for moving forward are different than the governor’s plan. Should be interesting to hear what he says at his own presser today.
…Adding… From the presser…
"distance even as we gradually open up and come back together? How do we take care of and safeguard our most vulnerable residents?"
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Across all of these states, most of the decline in these economic indicators occurred before official closure orders.
Even states that never put in a statewide stay-at-home order, like Iowa, South Dakota and Utah, saw significant drops in consumer spending and employment, as well as in the share of small businesses open.
This basic pattern is visible in other corners of the economy: Well before shutdown orders, restaurant reservations were plummeting. Electricity usage, which falls when office buildings and factories empty out, was dropping, too. Public transit in many cities was in free fall. So was the number of air travel passengers passing through T.S.A. checkpoints.
Such data, combined with opinion polling today, suggests that Americans who were turning off the economy on their own may not readily reopen it soon — even if officials say it’s OK to.
* Related…
* Trump administration pushed use of remdesivir, but unequal rollout angers doctors - Introduction of the first coronavirus treatment is marked by lack of transparency and incomplete medical data, physicians say
But Harmon defended his letter [to the Illinois delegation] pointing out the request for pension relief was only a part of the aid he was asking for. He said Illinois state tax revenues will be much reduced as a result of the economic slowdown caused by efforts to control the pandemic and the federal government is best positioned to help.
“Whenever there is an economic crisis in this country Congress is quick on the draw to dole millions of dollars out to Wall Street and big corporate interests,” Harmon said. “I am not at all bashful about speaking up for the state of Illinois, for our first responders, for our public employees, for our retirees, and for the people that we serve. The letter was a broad request to Congress for relief from the profound economic consequences of the pandemic.” […]
“State governments and local governments are going to need help from the federal government, the only government that can successfully deficit finance an episode like this,” Harmon said.
Harmon said his request for pension relief was taken out of the context.
“The request I made for support for pension funding was not in any way a bail out,” Harmon said. “It’s a recognition that our revenues are going to be squeezed. . . I asked for many things. I asked for block grant funding to help us patch the general hole in our revenue stream. I asked for support for the unemployment trust fund that could easily run dry with all the claims for unemployment.”
A judge on Thursday sided against an Illinois organization that claimed restrictions implemented to combat the novel coronavirus made it impossible to gather the necessary signatures to place a constitutional amendment on November’s general election ballot.
The official order was expected to be released sometime Thursday, a court clerk said.
The Committee for the Illinois Democracy Amendment is advocating for a constitutional change that would obligate the General Assembly to take roll call votes on bills proposing “stronger ethical standards for Illinois public officials.”
It would also allow residents to propose related bills by submitting a petition with at least 100,000 signatures.
The committee’s attorneys argued in a court document that social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions “forced” voters to weigh their health against their First Amendment rights.
Read the rest and you’ll see that former Gov. Pat Quinn is one of the attorneys in the case.
*** UPDATE *** Local 150 of the Operating Engineers has filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago to have the state constitution’s revision provisions declared unconstitutional, enjoined and/or modified. The union is pushing a state constitutional amendment that would outlaw “right to work” laws…
This is an action to declare unconstitutional, enjoin and/or modify the requirement contained in Article XIV, Section 2, of the Illinois Constitution which requires that proposed amendments to the Illinois Constitution be passed by the legislature at least six months prior to the next general election. This case is an emergency in light of the current public health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, which resulted in the Governor’s emergency orders effectively shutting down the State. Consequently, the General Assembly cancelled sessions in both the House and the Senate from March 18, 2020, through at least May 3, 2020.
Governor, I know you’ve said the regional breakdowns for your reopening plan are based on EMS regions. But why are counties like Grundy, Kankakee and Kendall being grouped with Cook County, which will be the last county in the state to be able to open? If the numbers are vastly different for those counties compared to Cook, could their businesses be able to reopen quicker?
So first I would say that there’s probably no way to draw these lines that would satisfy everybody.
But I’d also say that people who live in counties that are within a region where people feel like ‘Well, hey nobody in my village or my town or my city has gotten it, or I don’t know anybody who has,’ remember that many of the people in outlying counties around Cook County, around the collar counties travel in and out frequently sometimes for their job to those locations. And so that is one of the reasons why those counties are where they are. It has in part to do with the radius from from the collar counties, which have significant numbers of cases.
Not to mention that people in Cook County might very well venture forth into Kankakee, Grundy and Kendall counties.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is taking “under serious consideration” a request to leave Kankakee County and surrounding areas out of the Chicago region in his plan to reopen the state, Rep. Lindsay Parkhurst said Thursday.
Parkhurst, a Republican representative of the 79th District, said Pritzker called her Wednesday evening in response to a letter she wrote explaining her disagreements with the plan.
She said the plan “blindsided” legislators, as they were not consulted regarding their regions.
Parkhurst argued in her letter that Kankakee and Grundy counties and Peotone in southeastern Will County represent significantly fewer COVID-19 cases (less than 1 percent of the state’s total) than Chicago and its surrounding suburbs (92 percent of the state’s total).
* Some suburban mayors are also arguing that they shouldn’t be in the same region as Chicago and Cook County…
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said by combining the city of Chicago and Cook County with the collar counties, Pritzker’s plan will prevent DuPage towns from advancing to phases with fewer restrictions.
“We can follow the plan and be successful, but we will still have to wait for Chicago and Cook County,” where the majority of coronavirus cases in Illinois have been reported, Grasso said. “He has taken our hope away.”
* Not everyone is unhappy with their regions, though…
Sangamon County falls in the central region with counties like Macon and Champaign counties.
“I know the administrators were all dealing with our own issues but also talking about the re-opening and what’s going on in our region. Those conversations have just started,” said Gail O’Neill, the Director of the Sangamon County Health Department.
Looking at data from the Illinois Department of Public Health from May 1-6, the central region had an average of 47% ICU bed availability and a COVID-19 positivity rate under the 20% threshold.
Barring a major uptick, Springfield is moving to the next phase on May 29.
* The president says states should decide when to reopen. In some states, counties that want to reopen even faster say they should decide. In some counties, mayors who that want to reopen faster say they should decide and not counties or states. And in some towns, individuals who think they should be allowed to reopen are doing so in defiance of their city, county and state. Here’s Phil Luciano…
A Peoria businessman is suing Gov. JB Prtizker, alleging the state’s stay-at-home order is unconstitutional and therefore does not apply to his business.
Further, Adam White, owner of RC Outfitters (formerly Running Central) is requesting a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the order at his business. Meanwhile, in defiance of the stay-at-home order, White has reopened the store, 311 SW Water St. […]
The Attorney General’s Office is requesting a change of venue from Peoria County to Sangamon County, the seat of which is Springfield. Its claim: because the governor’s office is in Springfield, the case should be heard there.
White’s attorney, Drew Cassidy of Peoria, counters the case should proceed in Peoria, where White’s business has suffered financial harm because of the order.
Mayor Jim Edwards says Goodfield is open for business.
Edwards on Thursday announced guidelines “to be followed by any business either when a business decides to open or when the governor’s shelter-in-place order is lifted.”
The village, which has about 860 residents, is in Woodford County.
“Look on this as a fragile opportunity and treat it as such, because nothing could be worse than to see a dramatic surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths,” Edwards said. “None of us are bullet-proof, so let’s all be cautious out there.”
Restaurants can open starting May 15 to 50 percent of the posted building capacity. They can open June 1 at 75 percent capacity.
Clark County, in southeastern Illinois, is about to implement the same sort of plan. Click here.
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau has called for his community to reopen faster than is outlined as part of Governor JB Pritzker’s plan.
He says it just can’t wait. […]
Mayor Pekau posted video on social media Thursday. The village said that it may lose $2.7 million this year in sales tax revenue because of COVID-19 restrictions, so it has laid out its own plan to reopen businesses at a faster pace.
East Peoria appears to be bucking the Illinois governor in allowing some businesses to reopen before statewide coronavirus-inspired restrictions are lifted.
For now, at least, it appears Peoria won’t be joining its eastern neighbor.
City legal representatives suggest municipal officials can’t override Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said earlier this week.
“Even though the community has done a good job and our hospital capacity is in a decent place, we want to be respectful of the governor,” Ardis said. “He’s the governor, right?
“In a nutshell, that’s why we haven’t done anything. We don’t see we have the authority to do that.”
* And it’s being fueled in part by the behavior of surrounding states. For instance, this is from the Quad City Times…
Friday marks the reopening of parts of the economy in Scott and Muscatine counties. It doubles as a sign of hope for business owners in the Iowa Quad-Cities.
“Finally there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We’re not through it completely, but there’s some hope to get back to a new sense of normal,” said Amy DeFauw, owner of Katsch Boutique.
DeFauw is reopening her Davenport boutique store, 5619 Utica Ridge, at 10 a.m. Friday, while the Geneseo location remains closed for the time being. Eight stores at North Park Mall, such as Von Maur, also plan to reopen to in-store customers Friday.
Scott County is right across the river from Rock Island County. Whether or not you agree with them, it’s gotta be hugely tough for Illinois business owners to see that happening just a bridge away.
[Edgar] told the governor that, from his own experience in responding to the first days and weeks of a crisis, “what you’ve been through is kind of the easy part. Now’s the tough part — you know you’ve got to decide how to open up. If you do it too soon, you’ll kill people. If you do it too long, people go broke and they’re all going to get to grumbling, and that’s just going to happen anyway.” […]
“Listen to scientists, you’ve got to listen to the experts — and you may have to realize you might have to take a few chances,” Edgar told The Spin, noting that some of the states that are now opening up their economies will be a good barometer of how to proceed.
“When I was governor, one of the things I always said was, ‘I never wanted to be first on anything other than on election night,’” he said with a laugh. He said it underscored his approach in the office: When solving a problem or planning a new initiative, look at how other states handled something similar.
“But you know in the end you have to do what’s right, but you’ve got to … have public support to make it work, too,” Edgar said. “My definition of leadership is convincing folks to go where they don’t want to go. You can’t sit around and wait for polls — you’ve got to act but you’ve got to make sure you’re bringing the folks along with you as you do this.”
The head of a Chicago not-for-profit organization fraudulently converted or misappropriated at least $200,000 in State of Illinois grants intended to develop suburban commercial properties and fund a job training program, according to a 15-count federal indictment.
YESSE YEHUDAH operated the not-for-profit organization Fulfilling Our Responsibilities Unto Mankind, also known as FORUM. From 2013 to 2016, Yehudah, on behalf of FORUM, applied for and received three grants totaling approximately $575,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Two of the grants were intended to develop commercial properties in south suburban Dolton, while the third was meant for FORUM to operate a weatherization jobs training program. The indictment alleges that Yehudah fraudulently converted substantial quantities of the grant funds by making materially false statements and submitting false documents to the DCEO. The indictment describes several of the alleged false statements, including when Yehudah represented to the DCEO that FORUM had spent almost all of a $100,000 grant on construction work, when, in fact, no actual construction work had begun. […]
In addition to the alleged fraud in obtaining the DCEO grants, the indictment accuses Yehudah of scheming to defraud a bank. After FORUM received similar development grants from the DCEO and other federal and local agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, Yehudah issued checks from FORUM and another entity he controlled to various subcontractors, the indictment states. Yehudah then forged the subcontractors’ signatures – without their knowledge – to endorse the checks over to himself, the indictment alleges.
The indictment is here. It’s the first political-related indictment since the pandemic kicked into high gear.
In 2002, Yehudah was named in a lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Jim Ryan after the Chicago Sun-Times reported accusations of misspent agency funds that also involved Yehudah’s FORUM charity. The lawsuit accused Yehudah and David Noffs of improperly spending charity money on an alleged kickback scheme. Noffs was a friend of then-Illinois First Lady Lura Lynn Ryan.
Reached by telephone on Thursday, Yehudah acknowledged that the FBI had questioned him about FORUM’s Dolton projects but said he didn’t know anything about any misappropriated funds.
He declined further comment, saying he was unaware that criminal charges had been filed and had yet to retain an attorney.
As the leader of FORUM, Yehudah has long had ties to South Side politicians and legislators in Springfield, using his connections to win taxpayer-funded grants for everything from youth violence prevention to computer-literacy programs.
Just about everybody who is anybody on the South Side knows Yehudah. We’ll see if this goes anywhere else.
Under Pritzker’s order, “The earliest we’d be able to open is on June 26,” Illinois Restaurant Assn. President Sam Toia said. Those restaurants initially shut in early March. “I don’t know any business that can go 16 weeks with 80 percent or more reduce income and stay viable.”
Toia urged Pritzker to move restaurants from phase four to phase three, which sets lesser standards for testing, et al. Restaurants should have to require staff to wear masks and other personal protective gear and at least initially limit capacity, as has happened in some other states, Toia said. But moving restaurants to phase three would allow some to reopen by Memorial Day weekend.
* Toia, who came to the table and bargained with the governor over his minimum wage plan and then did not stand in the proposal’s way, has kept up the public pressure on this topic…
Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said the announcement caught him, and other industry leaders, flatfooted.
“The state did not really collaborate with us,” Toia said, “and we’re the largest private-sector employer in the state of Illinois. We’re having some communication now, but the plans are already out there.” […]
“Even if it’s slowly,” he said. “Let restaurants open June 1 at 25 percent capacity, then 50 percent by June 28. Some states are already open — Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee. So we’re going to see in another 10 days if there’s a spike in cases. If there is, OK, but if not, why can’t we look at June 1?”
“And when he’s saying the earliest date is the 26th, he’s not saying which region this is,” Toia said. (Pritzker’s plan divides the state into four regions.) “Is it the South? Does that mean Northeast (which includes Chicago) waits even longer?”
The Illinois Restaurant Association is hoping to persuade Pritzker to follow models in other states, where restaurants are allowed to partially reopen at a quarter or half of their capacity.
“We’re not opening till June 26 and we’re not even sure what the occupancy will be at that time,” Toia said. “We know that it’s 50 people or less. But a restaurant with 3,000 square feet is different than a restaurant with 30,000 square feet.”
It’s something he said Illinois restaurants would be willing to try, he said.
“Chicago is an independent restaurant town,” Toia said. “That’s what makes it such a great restaurant city. But independents need cash flow, and the governments want their taxes paid. But if something doesn’t change, we’ll lose at least 25% of our businesses, some say it could be 50%. And then what?”
Then Chicago will look like DeKalb, or Bloomington, or most any other Midwest town off the interstate: with a Walgreens on one corner, a Chili’s on the next, and don’t forget that Asian crunch salad at Applebee’s, or is that TGI Fridays?
Stay tuned. Mayor Lightfoot is set to unveil the city’s “reopening framework” today at 1:30. She abruptly canceled the unveiling yesterday, claiming a scheduling conflict. Should be interesting to see if Toia is there today.
*** UPDATE *** The mayor just told the city council that Toia will be at her event.
Circuit Court Judge Ken Deihl gave a groom the signal to kiss the bride in a wedding on Friday. Days later, she tested positive for COVID-19.
Macoupin County Public Health Director Christy Blank said her staff interviewed the woman after the lab results showed she had tested positive. Blank would not confirm the identity of the infected patient, and declined to comment when asked about the wedding ceremony.
In the process of contact tracing, public health staff reviewed video footage at the courthouse that revealed the infected patient had come into close contact with several people while on the premises.
Health officials abruptly closed the courthouse to the public in order to conduct a deep cleaning on Thursday. Anxious staff who were on site for the ceremony are now undergoing testing. In lieu of a honeymoon, the newlyweds were ordered into a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
“Three employees at the Macoupin County Courthouse in Carlinville were exposed to and came in close contact with a person who has since tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19),” the county public health department confirmed in a press release on Thursday afternoon. Those three employees have not tested positive at this time, but are also now under a 14-day quarantine.
Deihl is a Democrat and I’m told is generally respected. But this was a really stupid thing to do…
There was some confusion/disagreement at the local level over whether marriages were allowed. Apparently, the 7th Circuit allows each county to pass its own administrative rules. While every other county put weddings off, Macoupin rules allow weddings with a two-guest limit. pic.twitter.com/EPoNbusupZ
Is the nation’s largest shopping mall owner, Simon Property Group, planning to open malls soon regardless of government orders that most stores stay shut? Emphatically not, Simon said late Thursday, shooting down media reports.
The Indianapolis-based company said it had publicly posted instructions to tenants about preparing for a possible reopening. Spokeswoman Ali Slocum said those instructions were interpreted as announcing mall reopenings. They have been pulled from Simon’s website.
Orland Park Patch carried a story that said Simon’s Chicago-area malls would be back in business May 31. No such decision has been made, Slocum said. “Simon will comply with all state and local orders and only reopen properties when permitted to do so,” she said.
The Patch story linked to company announcements that have been taken down. Similarly, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News in upstate New York said Simon had announced, then retracted, plans of reopenings. It was all a “kerfuffle,” Slocum said.
[This post’s time stamp has been altered for Friday visibility.]
* The governor focused today on unemployment insurance claims. We’ve covered most of this already. Click here and scroll down to the update about how IDES has processed 1,006,925 initial unemployment claims from March 1 through May 2. And click here for some of the upgrades done by the administration.
That’s over 1 million claims in just the first nine weeks of this crisis. Compare that to the first nine weeks of the Great Recession of 2008, when there were 180,000 claims in Illinois.
This historic number of claims has also lead to historic levels of benefits being paid out in the first four months of 2020, Illinois has paid out over $2 billion in claims. That’s $500 million more than what was paid out in all 12 months of 2019.
Remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* On to questions for the governor. Some business owners are wondering who is going to be making the final decision on when regions may move through the five phase plan. Is it county board chairpersons, mayors, teams of leaders or your office?…
Actually it’s a healthcare determination. As you saw each of the criterion for meeting the regional reopening is a healthcare measure, so it will be done by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
* Whenever you are asked about enforcing executive orders, you slough it off to the locals. You make it sound as if your orders are merely suggestions. What gives?…
Well first of all, that is how laws are enforced across the state of Illinois, by local law enforcement. We have state police, but there are 2000 State Police, and there are many many 10s of thousands of police officers all across the state that work for local and county governments, as well as sheriffs. And so it is true that laws are enforced at the local level. We expect that they will be enforced. That’s the responsibility of law enforcement officers of State’s attorneys and others at the local level.
* We hear of large businesses seeing outbreaks of COVID and reporting that information in numerous counties. In Champaign and Sangamon counties the health departments will release the names of businesses, stores where confirmed cases are at, but the Macon County Health Department refuses to provide that information, saying it is IDPH guidelines. [The rest was garbled, but it was essentially what the governor made of this.]…
I think that it is important for the people who work at those locations, and people who patronize those locations to know if there’s been an outbreak so I think it’s a responsibility to local public health department to make that known. […]
There is a mandated reporting to IDPH regarding outbreaks. And so, I think people are reporting that information to us, we are capturing the information, all the information you have regarding outbreaks is what has been reported obviously from the locals. Regarding putting out information regarding manufacturing. I don’t know if we have specific guidance related to that. So I think people are using their discretion to do what they think is appropriate in their accounts.
* A growing number of police and state’s attorneys say they will not enforce your order even if complaints are made. Have you considered utilizing state police and state licensing agencies to hold people accountable?…
Yes, and I’ve talked about that before
* The NFL is announcing its 2020 schedule this evening. If Chicago is not at phase five will even a reduced number of fans be allowed to attend games at Soldier Field?…
Well, again, we want to make sure that everybody’s safe all across the country. If the nation isn’t in a state where we can have 10s of thousands of people together in a stadium, then I don’t think you’re going to see football opening up to having fans in the stands. However, you may know that many of the leagues and teams, and I have spoken with many of them, are considering opening their seasons, or continuing their seasons without fans in the stands, so that people can enjoy sports online on TV.
* A valet for President Trump has COVID-19. Given the President’s reluctance to wear a mask, do you believe he should quarantine for 14 days and can you outline when you and your staff wear masks at the office? What’s the status of your staffer who had covid?…
Yeah I think as a leader you should set a good example for people, you should follow the rules. You can get tested after you’ve been exposed to somebody to determine whether you have COVID-19 and I would hope that the President of the United States has been tested after finding out that he’s been exposed to somebody with COVID-19. But I think that wearing face coverings in public and in offices where you can’t keep social distance, and where it may be required by the IDPH in its guidance is appropriate and we do wear face coverings in the office, it’s something that we began doing not that long ago but a number of, maybe two weeks ago, where we when we have meetings or anything else everybody is encouraged to and asked to wear a face cover.
* How does the general election fit into the new phase plan?…
Well I think you’ve heard me say this, many, many times. We need to have a mail balloting for everybody in the state of Illinois, so that we can make it much, much easier for people to vote, who otherwise may not be able to leave their homes. It’s especially true for those most vulnerable populations.
So it’s very important that we pass up a law, the legislature when they get together to make sure that we have the ability to do that in the state. Obviously, there will be in person voting as well. And so, you know how we implement that will be important, but I think that’ll be again with a lot of guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
* Was everyone given the phase three green light on May, 1, or will historical data be used for some of the regions to push forward towards reopening, is historical data back to march 20 being used at all?…
Not for the purpose of the Restore Illinois plan.
* Would you respond to complaints from the convention industry that putting them in phase five will just force them to meet in another state?…
First I would tell you that, once again, just like we were talking about large gatherings for sporting events. This is all dependent upon where we are at the time if we have a very effective treatment. And, or we have a vaccine available. Then I can’t wait to welcome people back to large gatherings to conventions and so on. I’m the first person that wants to bring business to the state of Illinois and put people back to work. So I’m looking at that, I mean in terms of when we will get to stage five, I don’t know. And, you know, we’ll be evaluating that as we go. I think, you know, again we’ve talked about the treatments that may become available before a vaccine. And I think we’ll all be watching very closely.
* You explained that your Restore regions are in part about hospital availability. Are you also looking at available beds in neighboring states that people are most likely to utilize like in Southern Illinois that includes the Paducah, St Louis, Evansville?…
Dr. Ezike: No, that’s a very good question and a very astute point that we have many different communities, both in the Quad City area in East St. Louis, other areas that border other places. We of course, know that as well as the fact that there are people who could travel into another state. There are also individuals from the other state that could come into our state so you potentially could say that that’s a wash in terms of trying to figure out what extra amount of beds, you could either add or take away based on the added population of neighboring states versus our people going to that. So they were not outside of our Illinois, all the lines were drawn within the state borders, and we did not add beds from neighboring states.
[I don’t that’s true of the area north of Paducah, however.]
* Running Central, a clothing and running store in Peoria, has filed a lawsuit against the governor for the extended stay at home order and is seeking an exemption. How do you respond?…
Once again, everybody has a right to take your case to court to file a lawsuit. But the fact is that the goal here is to keep everybody healthy and safe in every community, even in that community. And I certainly would encourage the people who might patronize, who might be patrons of that store, not to do so, and the local officials to enforce the executive order that’s in place. And again, the goal here is for us to keep everybody safe and healthy and to reopen the economy in phases. So the opportunity for that store to open may arise just in three weeks or so.
* When will the state start reporting COVID-19 recovery numbers?…
Dr. Ezike: So, I have been trying to do that on a regular basis once weekly here from the podium, and we will work to get that on the website that’s not a problem to give our percentages.
* A new study from Harvard shows Illinois among the 41 states that fall short of benchmarks for adequate testing. Is it realistic that Illinois will be able to reach the suggested target of 64,000 tests a day, what specific steps are you taking to get there?…
Every state in the country, let’s be clear, is trying to ramp up testing. We’re doing it better than most indeed, we’re, you know, number two among the top 10 most populous states in the nation. Even now, and we continue to ramp up our testing. So all I can say is that with a worldwide shortage of all of the supplies that has existed for so many weeks and with the challenge of not having any coordination of testing from the federal government or ability to gather supplies only recently, some swabs from the federal government I’m grateful for. But yeah, I mean we’re all trying to get to the you know a sense of adequacy. I don’t think 64,000 is adequate for the state of Illinois. I think we’re going to need many more tests than that. We want people to be safe when they go to work, we want to be people to be safe when they go to school. We want people to be safe in all their activities and they want to know that others have been tested around them, so that you know nobody is is without an opportunity to get a test.
* I talked with former governor Jim Edgar who said he spoke by phone with Governor Pritzker this week. Governor Edgar said they talked about the stay at home order, plan to reopen the economy and about the criticism that will inevitably come as a pandemic wears on people are out of work and or have cabin fever. He said he also shared that in crisis he learned that doing the right thing supersedes politics and praised governor Pritzker for doing that. What was your takeaway from that conversation, any advice governor Edgar had that turned up and your plan to reopen Illinois?…
I have reached out to Governor Edgar on a number of occasions since becoming governor, indeed before that. He’s someone who has demonstrated terrific leadership capabilities. I reach out to people who I think have important things to offer me as advice in difficult circumstances and I would just say that Governor Edgar, you heard some of what he did say to me, and I think the most important thing that he said, which I already knew but it’s important to hear it over and over again which is doing the right thing is always the right answer.
* Have you determined any new guidelines for hair stylists and barbers to follow for example requiring salons to use disposable capes or dividers between stations?…
We are working with industry leaders and workers in industries even now to make sure that IDPH has all the information that industries would want to see considered as they open and that they are issued guidelines for each industry, so that they are safe and, and that includes our stylists and barber shops.
* The new call center that you had mentioned, is that just for the 1099 workers in those claims? Can you describe that for me?…
It’s not just for that purpose. Although, as you can imagine there will be a new set of claims coming in and so expanding the workforce, and the capability to answer phone lines is important.
* Why was it necessary to hire 50 call center workers from a Texas company to handle 1099 Unemployment Claims beginning next week, and are all those 200 call center employees trained and ready for Monday’s launch?…
Every one of the people that is hired in that call center is from Illinois, and everyone that will be hired will be from Illinois.
And they are all trained and ready to go … I just want to be clear that the training that’s required to take a full intake form is training that’s mandated by the federal government and takes quite a long time. So some of what’s happening in that call center is answering questions, making sure that people have the right information so that they know how to fill it out when they go online when they have trouble online, they can get advice about how to get it right. So that’s some of what goes on with those folks in the new call center which which is designed to take difficult technical questions but not personal information.
* Will high school sports be determined by local school districts, or by you? Say Central Illinois region moves to the next phase, but our region up here does not. How does that happen, do they have extracurricular sports but these regions up here don’t?…
These are certainly issues that need to be worked out. Over the next few months, and it will be done together with the Illinois State Board of Education, the local authorities as well as IDPH.
* And professional teams, you touched on this a little bit but in some other states they’re kind of starting to open this stuff up, not necessarily fans but just the sports in general, what does that mean here for Illinois?…
Well, again, I’ve had conversations with league commissioners and I you know I’m absolutely I’m listen I want to get sports up and go I think people need this as an outlet. No it won’t be in person. At least not in the next month or two. But, but I think it’s very important for everybody psyche. I think, you know, we’d have some terrific sports fans all across the state of Illinois that want to see this up and running and so there’s a desire to have it work. I think they’ve got to come up with a set of plans that there’s a, you know, when you’re talking I think they’re incentivized by the way the league’s are to do the right thing, partly they’re incentivized because they have players that are worth millions of dollars to them that are going to be on the field. So, you know, I think they want to protect their for lack of better term assets. And, you know, their people. So, I am looking forward to seeing the plans that the various teams are putting together.
You haven’t seen any of those plans, no one’s come forward yet?…
No one’s come forward yet. Not to me.
* What about places like Great America Six Flags a large waterpark, do they wait for phase five to reopen or possibly phase four?…
Well, again,under the current guidance that’s been provided and that’s again with a lot of input a significant amount of input from epidemiologists and doctors, as you saw at phase four, we would only have gatherings of 50 people or less, and that was the recommendation of the experts. So obviously, that would be difficult for a waterpark or, carnival or, they’re kind of a large venue. But again I’ve said this before that the hope I think we all have is that an effective treatment I know everybody sees a vaccine is happening. Who knows when, you know, but an effective treatment I think is potentially on the horizon and that will change everything. This plan can evolve I’ve said that, we’re going to change the playbook if we need to. Because things will change as we go forward. So I’m somewhat hopeful that we’ll be able to address things, think large venues like that.
* Fox 32 wants to know about malls and specifically places like Orland Park the tax revenue comes from the mall area of town, about those kind of things…
Again, indoor venues with hundreds and hundreds of people who will be walking together,that’s an extraordinarily difficult circumstance under the epidemiological recommendations here. So, that’s something that will have to happen over the course of months and not in the immediate next phase.
* The Northwest Bible Baptist Church in Elgin, apparently your office has received a letter informing you that starting on May 17 they will resume in person services, while instituting a long list of safety and social distancing measures. Can you respond to this and what do you say to local law enforcement about making arrests?…
Well, I haven’t seen that letter and you know that I have discouraged local law enforcement from arresting people. I have not discouraged them from reminding them what their obligations are to each other and I would think that a house of worship, and a pastor would know better, and not encourage their parishioners to put themselves and their families in danger. […]
And I think that if people can just hang on a little bit longer as we bend the curve down. Yes, the curve has bent, but it has bent too flat. And as you may see in the Restore Illinois plan that we put together, we actually made it easier than the President the White House plan for regions to open up, because we essentially said as long as your hospital beds are flat or net new admissions aren’t going up over the course of this period of time and as long as your positivity rate is stable and under 20 and that there is a capacity availability, that you can open up. And I actually think that’s going to turn out to mean that some areas of the state will open earlier than the President’s plan would have suggested they could.
Is that because you think we’re going to be on this plateau for a long period of time?…
I don’t know, but I certainly am concerned that we’re going to be on a plateau for a long period of time because we all wanted,I think we saw the curves from very early on, but said you peak and then you’d head down the other side. I think I have said many times from this podium though that we don’t know. You don’t know until you see it in the rearview mirror whether you peaked. And so we could plateau, and then go up again after that, and so what I’ve said is if you can maintain a plateau for a period of time, and there is still hospital bed availability that that’s good enough, and that’s what the recommendations were, that’s the decision that I made, but I made it based on the science and data and recommendations were made to me by the experts.
* Dr. Ezike, what do you see when you look at this data, we’ve plateaued it appears. How many days have we plateaued and what do you see looking at all this?…
Dr. Ezike: I think we so successfully flattened the curve but it stayed flat for some time now and so where do we go from here is critical and effectively. May 1 did signal a change. I know in coming to work it seems like there’s quite a bit more traffic, it seems when I look about there’s a lot more people out again I’m just talking about this area and we’ve heard what’s happening in some other regions. So, the baseline has changed and so it’s very important that we look very critically at what effect that has on number of cases and number of hospitalizations so whenever we had two weeks ago, again was a result of people staying home pretty consistently. We now need to see what will happen with the new attitudes that are prevailing and the new behaviors that are prevailing and if it stays the same. That’s great, we’ll quickly move through the phases, but we have to be realistic. The more people are out, the more infections, there will be the more infections, there will be the more hospitalizations, there will be the more hospitalizations some fraction of those will go on to have severe complications and potentially die. […]
[Regarding how long we’ve plateaued] It depends on where you are. There are some places where, and again it depends on which geographic distinction you’re using, whether you’re dividing it up by counties, or by cities or by you know 11 EMS regions or but now the for Restore regions. There are places that they are still increasing the number of cases, but slowly, but they are increasing and then there are other places where it has been flat so it’s it’s different. It’s not uniform across the state, and we understand that and so that’s why we’ve looked, we’re looking very closely, every day multiple times a day just to figure out where we’re at and figure out who’s going up in what dimension who’s going down in the other dimension, at what rate, all of that and again if something, a game changer happens like a very promising cure comes out and it looks like it actually heals people not just decreases the amount of time that you’re in the hospital, they, we reset and we have to sit back down and figure out, okay, what can we lift up.
Everybody wants us to get back to normal, we want to get back to normal. I think we are sending some of the frustration towards the wrong entities. You should be sending it towards the virus and then we should all see how we can support ways to find cures if people have had the virus and want to try to donate antibodies, tried to donate their plasma we can see if there’s a potential cure there. We’re hoping that scientists can come up with a pharmacological cure. So that’s where we’re trying to go. We are following the numbers closely, we’re trying to see the trends and we want to make sure that we don’t put the citizens of Illinois in a precarious situation where if there’s a surge, if we open up that we don’t just end up where we could have been. And we’re scared to be, you know, six weeks ago.
* Sometimes there’s discrepancies in what you say. For example, the number of deaths reported. I believe the site today says 137. You said 138. Is data changing that rapidly, are there other reasons?…
Dr. Ezike: It could be that somebody has found already an additional number that needed to be added or taken away. Again it is very fluid. We’re trying to put information really faster than I’m comfortable with. But in an aggressive attempt to make sure we put everything out there, we will see that there are things that need to be corrected and adjusted but we are putting it out.
We are also the stewards of all the cancer data. So when we put out all the cases of cancer and we have a world renowned cancer registry here at IDPH. When we put out the information about cancers that occurred for a year, it can sometimes can take eight months into the next year or longer to get that information out. It takes that long to deal with this much data. And so I beg people’s indulgence. No one’s trying to hide information. It’s just to get it right, it actually takes some time and we’re not being afforded that time.
* With projections showing lower state revenue in the coming year, will you consider reductions to LGDF or the school funding formula? If so, what will that mean for local property taxes?…
There’s no doubt we have a serious budget challenge for the coming year. And so we’re looking at virtually everything that’s in the budget. But with an eye toward protecting, particularly the services that are offered to people the support that people need in this very difficult time, children included.
So, you know, we’re considering, there’s almost nothing that I would say is off the table I mean, DCFS, just give us one example. I mean people asked me about, you know what, why aren’t you just cutting the budget in some massive way? And the answer is because I want DCFS, think about it. Think about the agencies that are now front and centerm the most important agencies right now in this pandemic right. The IDPH. Think aboutthe agencies that have been underfunded for many many years. IEMA is another good example. And then add to that, like I said, DCFS and others. It’s very difficult to say that that now in this circumstance, well, now’s a good time for us to cut DCFS or now’s a good time IDES. I told you how much smaller IDES is over the last 10 years and yet now everybody’s, you know, needs it to operate at peak efficiency and, and in a way that it’s never operated before and yet it’s 500 people, fewer than it was 10 years ago. So IDPH is just another amazing example, these folks are working night and day. Each person is doing the job of three people. And so anyway, these are the difficulties of looking at how we’re going to deal with a budget going forward.
* You said on Face the Nation that you hope there aren’t too many strings attached to federal funding for Illinois. Senator Durbin said today, he thinks it’s fair that federal funding be associated specifically with the pandemic, not for pension debt. Considering the toll the virus took on state tax revenues, can you make the argument that COVID-19 blew a hole in our ability to pay pension debt, and that the feds should fill at least part of that hole?…
That is not what I’m asking the federal government to do and I don’t know that there’s any governor in the nation attesting that. What I am asking for is help replacing the lost revenues that came because of this virus. Everybody’s experienced this, you can go to the most republican state the most democratic state. You know I like the term that Mark is using blowing a hole, it really blew a hole, and you know we had a balanced budget for this year this fiscal year, and we were on our way to having a mild surplus for the year. First time I think in quite some time. And we would have used it to pay down the existing bill backlog by some amount. And now all bets are off and all bets are off indeed for the plans for having a surplus for next year, as well, unless the federal government steps up to the plate. And I think Senator Durbin has it right, that these funds should not be used for something that has nothing to do with coronavirus COVID-19 and instead should be a replacement for the revenues that we lost.
Please be advised that the session days scheduled for next week (Tuesday May 12 – Friday May 15) are cancelled. The deadline for House Bills out of Committees, which had previously been rescheduled for May 15, will be extended to Friday, May 22.
The Orland Square Mall, which has been closed since March 18 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, is slated to reopen on May 31. The Simon Property Group that owns the mall announced this week their plan to open all their Illinois mall properties on that date.
Other Simon shopping centers scheduled to reopen on May 31 include Chicago Premium Outlets, Gurnee Mills, White Oaks Mall in Springfield and Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. […]
In its reopening announcement, Simon outlined safety protocols it is taking with each mall reopening, including preemptive employee screening for coronavirus, requirements that all employees wear masks and frequently wash their hands. Employees that fail health screenings will be sent home. […]
Malls will implement occupancy limits and use “traffic measuring technologies” to ensure that occupancy does not exceed one person per 50 square feet of space, Simon said, adding, “As needed, we will restrict the number of open entrances to the property while complying with local fire code requirements, and have queuing protocols in place to manage traffic. Each tenant will be responsible for managing to targets set by state or local authorities for their leased spaces.”
It looks like they’re interpreting the EO to apply to individual stores, not the mall itself.
* The governor was asked about the mall in Orland Park today…
Again, indoor venues with hundreds and hundreds of people who will be walking together,that’s an extraordinarily difficult circumstance under the epidemiological recommendations here. So, that’s something that will have to happen over the course of months and not in the immediate next phase.
To date we have run a total of 379,043 tests for COVID-19 with 17,783 tests being resulted in the last 24 hours. Of those 17-plus thousand tests, 2641 tests were positive. That’s a 15% of positivity rate, and that brings our total number of positive cases to 70,873.
Most sadly, we report that we have exceeded 3000 deaths related to COVID for the state of Illinois. With the additional 138 lives reported as lost over the last 24 hours we now have a total of 3111 fatalities.
Regarding inpatient admissions related to COVID, 4862 individuals as of midnight were in the hospital with COVID, and of those 1253 patients are in the ICU, of those ICU patients 766 patients were on ventilators.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,641 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 138 additional deaths.
- Clinton County: 1 male 70s
- Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 30s, 2 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 5 males 50s, 1 unknown 50s, 6 females 60s, 12 males 60s, 1 unknown 60s, 9 females 70s, 19 males 70s, 10 females 80s, 14 males 80s, 17 females 90s, 6 males 90s, 1 female 100+
- DuPage County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 4 females 90s
- Jackson County: 1 male 60s
- Kane County: 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s
- Kankakee County: 1 female 80s
- Lake County: 2 males 60s, 1 female 80s
- Macon County: 1 female 70s
- McHenry County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
- Peoria County: 1 female 90s
- Rock Island County: 1 male 70s
- Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
- St. Clair County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
- Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 2 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- Winnebago County: 1 female 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 70,873 cases, including 3,111 deaths, in 97 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 17,783 specimens for a total of 379,043.
*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 have changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
Today marks, our 60th daily update in a row. To the delight of many reporters who have been working these long days with us, beginning this weekend we will no longer hold weekend in person briefings. But instead, we’ll release daily medical statistics on Saturday and on Sunday.
* The city’s vital convention business is edging toward a major disaster…
Pritzker’s plan, announced Tuesday, has put the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies in an impossible situation, said President and CEO Jim Pittas.
The group’s annual PACK Expo is scheduled for Nov. 8-11 at McCormick Place, and last year drew about 71,000 people. Pittas said he doubts a vaccine will be available by then, and is unsure what would constitute a readily available treatment option.
Pittas said he is worried that canceling without a specific mandate from the city or state might make it harder to file an insurance claim. “Right now, we can’t plan for a show and we can’t cancel it. We’re right in between with no clear direction,” he said. “We’re in no man’s land right now.”
Between July and December, McCormick Place is scheduled to host 67 events with an expected attendance of 781,168 people, said spokeswoman Cynthia McCafferty. Those meetings and conventions translate to 585,199 nights in hotel rooms and generate $922.7 million in economic impact, including spending on food and entertainment.
If the conventions are canceled, they’ll probably move to an “open” state like Florida and might never come back. But if Illinois allows hundreds of thousands of people from all over creation to attend conventions, the region risks a series of major and potentially disastrous outbreaks.
* Gov. Pritzker said the other day that he didn’t think we’d see a meat shortage. Welp…
“Where’s the beef?” has been a marketing slogan associated with Wendy’s for more than three decades, but customers have literally been asking the question in recent days as the Dublin, Ohio-based fast food chain fights COVID-19-related meat shortages.
Just over 1,000 Wendy’s restaurants — or nearly 20% — had no beef items available on their online menus Monday night, according to an analysis by Stephens Inc., an investment bank.
In a statement, the company said it was continuing to supply hamburgers to its restaurants, but that “some of our menu items may be in short supply from time to time at some restaurants in this current environment.”
The chain’s three Springfield stores are limiting customers to single-patty burgers to deal with the supply crunch, according to employees at those locations.
One key requirement for moving to a less restrictive phase of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s economic restoration plan is 14 consecutive days of no more than 20% of COVID-19 tests being positive.
That countdown did not start on Wednesday, when the infection rate was 22.8% in the region that includes Chicago and the suburbs, according to a Daily Herald analysis of Illinois Department of Public Health infection and testing records. […]
Statewide, the infection rate Wednesday was 15.2%. The rate has declined significantly in the past two weeks as more testing has become available.
Illinois State Representative Terri Bryant has sent a letter to Governor JB Pritzker to express her disapproval of the state’s reopening plan when it comes to religious gatherings.
The 5-phase plan Gov. Pritzker revealed on Tuesday does not allow for gathering of more than 50 people until the requirements of Phase 5 have been met.
In a letter to the governor, Rep. Bryant said this part of the plan goes against allowing people to freely worship.
“That, to me, is completely unacceptable. If my church calls for a regular in-person worship service prior to the state reaching Phase 5, I can guarantee that I will be one of the first parishioners through the doors,” wrote Bryant. “Quite simply, when it comes to your plan for how I am ‘allowed’ to worship, I will not comply.”
Illinois congressional delegation seeks extension of 2,000 National Guard troops to assist with pandemic through June
Chicago Park District summer camp season will be abbreviated
Chicago doctors — mostly moms — join together to advise officials and the public. ‘We can’t not say something.’
Field Museum to host blood drives
Lightfoot cancels news conference to outline Chicago’s plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions
Harborside golf course forced to close Thursday by city
COVID-19 in Illinois, the US and the world: Timeline of the outbreak
Wave of infections from New York travelers swept through US before city began social distancing measures, research shows
Chicago can’t reopen without decrease in the number of coronavirus cases, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says
Latino communities in Illinois see uptick in COVID-19 confirmed cases: “Physical distancing is a privilege”
The high-rise office you left in March may not resemble the one you’re going back to. Here’s what workplaces may look like after the coronavirus shutdown.
Extremists and conspiracy theorists often use protests or rallies to spread their beliefs, but the pervasiveness and extensive media coverage of lockdown protests – which actually represent a minority opinion – has created an irresistible public platform.
There is ample evidence of extremists using these rallies to broadcast their beliefs. Members of the Three Percenters, a wing of the anti-government movement, attended events in Michigan, Oregon, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and California
A wing of the militia movement that arose as part of a resurgence of the militia movement in 2009. The term “Three Percenter” refers to the erroneous belief that only 3% of colonists fought against the British during the Revolutionary War—but achieved liberty for everybody. Three Percenters view themselves as modern day versions of those revolutionaries, fighting against a tyrannical U.S. government rather than the British. With anyone able to declare themselves a Three Percenter, the concept allowed many people to join who were not suited, physically or by inclination, to engage in paramilitary activities. The Three Percenter logo—the Roman numeral III—has become very popular among anti-government extremists.
* So I asked the ADL what evidence they had that those folks were at an Illinois rally. They referred me to this tweet. Check out the Roman numeral III on the rally sponsor’s sign…
Every politician who spoke at the rally stood in front of that sign, including Kendall County GOP Chair James Marter, Rep. Dan Caulkins and Rep. Darren Bailey.
* Orphans of the American Dream has a podcast and a Facebook site. Here’s its logo…
The Reopen Illinois rally was organized on Facebook by Orphans of the American Dream. Participants want their voices heard as Governor JB Pritzker extends the stay-at-home order on May 1. Pritzker announced changes coming to his executive order during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve honestly been watching the press conferences from President Trump and Governor JB Pritzker and just been getting more and more infuriated every time we watch them,” said Matthew Walder who organized the rally. Walder was happy with the turnout, despite the rain. “I can’t even imagine if it was nice out, how many people would be here.” A similar protest took place at the Capitol on April 19 as part of the national Operation Gridlock.
Walder hosts a podcast for Orphans of the American Dream, but he says this isn’t a partisan issue. “I think this is medical tyranny and our economy is about to crash, let’s be frank. That’s what we’re worried about. There are businesses that are probably closed off now that probably won’t open again, and that’s a travesty,” Walder said.
I’ve reached out to the group via Facebook. I’ll let you know what they say.
…Adding… From comments…
I’m one of the hosts of that podcast you speak of. We are not actually associated with any militia groups whatsoever. We are a news podcast and social media page. Just 3 guys who like to talk about politics. Listen to our show and you will find the facts. Thank you
* Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) proposed his own re-opening plan today. You can click here to read it. It’s probably not the worst idea in the world, but it’s not great. His mask mandate applies only to employees, not customers, for instance. But, hey, at least he has a plan, which is more than I can say for others (like the Tribune).
The totally predictable and hilarious part, however, is the reaction from his online legion of fans. Lots ain’t happy…
SERIOUSLY? Who, what or when did Bailey get bought out by???
Holy cow! Way too much nanny state guidelines still here. To take temperature every day in each phase and sometimes twice a day.
Churches & restaurants, & small businesses just need to get open NOW
Take the STUPID non life saving, life hindering mask out of the equation. I want my immune system to stay in tack!
So to put it in simple terms, we’re screwed till Nov.7. No pay no constitutional rights and no help. Good thing we pay these guys.
With some of these restrictions some of these businesses might as well not even open.
There should be no mandatory face masks or mandatory vaccination
Way to much stuff to worry about! Wash hands and stay home when sick.
Why are we still playing this game?
So even in phase 3- Public venues like community centers can’t even open?
You have got to be kidding !!! way to many guidelines !
I’m not a fan of this plan.
WOW. I thought you were fighting
This is still bu*****t
To be fair, there are several supportive comments. And, again, kudos to Bailey for doing more than just throwing rocks. But I wonder how long he stands by this proposal, or if he’ll quietly disown it like the White House has done with its plan.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture instructed 26 inspectors in the Weights and Measures division to return to work on Monday, the same day Governor J.B. Pritzker warned private businesses who reopen too soon that they could “be taking on liability.”
State law requires the Department of Agriculture to inspect gas pumps, small scales, fuel trucks, propane trucks, large scales, grain elevators, warehouse receipts and other measures as a form of consumer protection and safety. Only the gas pump inspectors have been called back to work.
“We’re grabbing a nozzle four times after thousands of people grabbed it days before, and then we go to the next pump to do the same thing,” 15-year veteran inspector Scott Miller said in a phone call on Tuesday.
“If the station has one gas pump with the virus on it, by the time I get done, all pumps have the virus on it,” Miller said. “Even wearing wearing rubber gloves, it’s still on the gloves. So it’s not getting me, but I could be spreading it all across the station. So then, everybody who pulls up at that station has the possibility of getting the virus.”
According to emails obtained by WCIA, Miller is one of several concerned inspectors who fear that without the proper personal protective equipment and training, they could unintentionally act as state-sanctioned super spreaders of COVID-19.
“They gave us no training at all,” he said. “They gave us some CDC guidelines and some YouTube videos.”
* The Illinois Federation of Teachers represents the workers, so I reached out to the union…
“The Illinois Federation of Teachers has been in communication and is working closely with the DOA to make sure all employees are safe and that training is available so that they can execute their job safely - with proper PPE and practices in place that inhibit the spread of COVID-19 when they return,” said Monica Trevino, IFT’s Director of Communications. ”Additionally, the Products and Standards employees have not returned to active status in the field and are still in remote work status.”
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* Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, speaking yesterday…
I think it’s pretty clear if we had something that would decrease the rate of fatalities, if we could decrease the rate of people ending up in the hospital, you know, something that maybe can shorten the severity such that people don’t end up hospitalized, don’t end up in the ICU, anything like that would be a complete game changer in terms of people could say, well, maybe I could go out because it’s less likely that I’ll end up hospitalized, it’s less likely that I’ll end up in the ICU, it’s less likely that I’ll die. Maybe it’s something that would cause a situation where elderly people weren’t so disproportionately hit and so if you interacted with Grandma, you think that there’s a treatment should she get the virus, there’s a treatment that she wouldn’t die. So it’s pretty clear like if we have something that is effective, that we know can actually decrease either hospitalization rate or fatality, that would be a completely different story than what we have now.
The governor has talked about his “three Ts” for a while now: Testing, Tracing and Treatment.
Testing has finally gotten to a point where we are significantly above the national average. Tracing, which has been done so far by counties and community health agencies, will be ramped up statewide later this month. And that beginning will allow regions to check a box that’ll allow them to move to the next phase.
Treatment appears to be on the horizon. Until then, what’s the point of going back out into the world and running up the infection rate while not having any treatment available for people who will most definitely get sick?
After nearly seven weeks of battling COVID-19 while enduring economic and emotional hardship, it’s reasonable for Illinoisans to ask whether the goals of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order are being met. Or, to put it in terms every anxious resident feels: When can the state reopen and life begin to resemble normal?
People are dying of the coronavirus, but many lives are being saved. That’s because everyday activities have been suspended or curtailed, and people are taking this pandemic seriously while practicing social distancing. The rate of infection has slowed enough to allow hospitals here to manage caseloads. That’s what success was supposed to look like. Illinois is, indeed, bending the curve on an escalating health pandemic we feared could overwhelm hospital resources. […]
Pritzker’s latest plan extends the benchmarks for victory from bending the infection curve to defeating the virus altogether. Schools would not reopen and restaurants and gyms would not be able to open with capacity limits (that’s Phase 4) until testing and contact tracing are in full use and there has been no overall increase in hospital admissions for 28 days.
His 28-day yardstick exceeds the White House and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention benchmark that calls for opening up a state or region after seeing a downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period.
1) Does the editorial board read its own editorials? Those last two paragraphs are contradictory. It’s actually easier and very likely quicker to meet Pritzker’s 28-day goal of no increases in hospitalizations than it is to meet a 14-day goal of consistently declining cases. No region could meet that White House goal.
2) The Chicago Tribune is deemed an essential business. Editorial board members are free to go back to the office today. So, let me know when every member of that editorial board is meeting together in person, including any with health problems like diabetes. Maybe bring in groups of legislators (who are also deemed essential workers) to talk in person about their own plans to reopen. In other words, you first, Tribune.
3) The editorial takes no position on when the state should “return to normal.” Indiana’s governor put hard and fast dates into his reopening, but it’s getting bigtime pushback, even from churches…
Holcomb said churches would serve as “a test or control group” because he thought they would be the most responsible body to let fully reopen.
Most mainstream sects didn’t buy in, and one Gary Baptist preacher was insulted being called a “control group.”
Leaders from Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist and Methodist churches urged congregations to continue with online, not in-person services.
During a private call on Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott admitted that “every scientific and medical report shows” state reopenings “ipso facto” lead to an increase in novel coronavirus cases, even as he publicly announced plans that same week to end an executive stay-at-home order in the state.
“How do we know reopening businesses won’t result in faster spread of more cases of COVID-19?” Abbott asked during a Friday afternoon phone call with members of the state legislature and Congress. “Listen, the fact of the matter is pretty much every scientific and medical report shows that whenever you have a reopening—whether you want to call it a reopening of businesses or of just a reopening of society—in the aftermath of something like this, it actually will lead to an increase and spread. It’s almost ipso facto.”
He’s right. So if the goal is, as the Tribune points out and even supports, to keep the curve below a level that doesn’t overwhelm the healthcare industry, how does a much more robust reopening accomplish that goal?
Pritzker didn’t move the goalposts, the Tribune did.
State Supt. of Education Carmen Ayala in a Facebook live interview with State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch this week laid out a number of possibilities for how school might look in the fall, including a return at “full force” — but said it will all depend on how controlled the pandemic is statewide in the coming months.
She specifically referred to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 5-point plan for reopening the state that he revealed Tuesday, which said schools could potentially be a part of Phase 4, requiring the region in which a district is located to have seen a “continued decline” in virus infection rates and hospitalizations.
“How soon we start the school year, that will all depend on the phase we are in, come August, come September,” she told Welch, a Democrat from Westchester. “We will have to see where we are with the coronavirus to determine how much we can gather, if it’s going to be 10, if it’s going to be 50, what that might look like.”
What’s certain, she said, is summer school will be held remotely. After that, she wants districts and schools to prepare for various possibilities and come up with a “plan A, plan B and plan C.”
There could be remote learning in the fall, or “we may see a combination where some children are allowed to come to school on certain days, or we take the upper grades and we are able to spread them out in the school building with social distancing norms,” she said.
* We’ve talked a bit about the IDPH guidelines for the General Assembly when legislators return to session. But I thought you might want to see the entire document, so here it is…
Mission and Purpose:
This document provides guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to the members of the General Assembly and legislative staff in response to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Illinois. These recommendations will ensure the public health and safety of legislators, legislative staff and other support personnel.
Travel and Stay in Springfield:
• Members who either share a residence or a hotel room in Springfield, use individual hotel rooms in order to continue the practice of safe social distancing.
• Public transportation and ridesharing should be used for essential travel only. When possible, drive yourself.
Upon entry to the Illinois State Capitol:
• IDPH recommends that the Secretary of State (“SOS”) should have the Capitol Police screen all those entering the capitol for a temperature of 100F degrees or greater and/or other symptoms.
• SOS should have a robust sanitizing practice in the Capitol multiple times a day, with special attention to door handles, elevator buttons, and other frequently touched surfaces.
• SOS should maintain limiting the number of people into the State Capitol (only state employees directly supporting session, which means excluding lobbyist and the public).
• If a member is feeling ill, they should NOT travel to Springfield for session. While in Springfield if a legislator becomes ill or symptomatic, they should call their doctor, a nurse hotline, any telehealth hotline set up specifically for COVID-19 or an urgent care center. If they are experiencing symptoms, they should return home and follow the guidelines provided by their physician.
• If a member has a serious underlying medical condition they should NOT travel to Springfield for session.
• IDPH advises that members 65 years of age or older should consider NOT traveling to Springfield for session.
• The common areas that include the Rotunda, and the House and Senate galleries should remain closed to the public.
• Signs should be displayed around the state capitol reminding staff and legislators to wash their hands and practice social distancing (i.e. coughing or sneezing into elbow, and using hand sanitizer)
In- Person Floor Debates and Voting:
• IDPH recommends only requiring necessary staff in the chamber. Those would include the following: Chair, parliamentarian, clerk, member presenting the bill and one appointee from each caucus to ask questions, essential doormen and sergeant at arms, and essential staff support for substantive items.
• Only necessary members should be on the floor and voting, per the leader’s agreement in advance and only enough to meet the minimum quorum requirements. Members should be arranged so they are six feet away from the next member. This may require having members occupy the gallery space.
In- Person Committee Hearings and Voting:
• IDPH recommends all meetings, such as committee pre-meetings, caucuses, and negotiation sessions for bills, should be conducted via phone or video conferencing system in advance.
• If committees are held, bills should be agreed upon prior to committee, to avoid unnecessary debate.
• Only necessary staff should be present.
• Consider only the minimum number of legislators necessary to establish a quorum (i.e. Chairman, Vice Chairman, Minority Spokesperson and limited designated members).
• If debate must take place, agree to vote the bill on a partisan roll call so that Chair and Minority Spokesperson of each committee can perform the business of their caucus.
• Only two larger committee rooms should be used so that members can be arranged six feet away from the next member.
• Only legislators should be there, witnesses who want to testify must do so by providing written testimony that can be read into the record (rather than in person).
• Members of the public can still engage with the democratic process by live steaming, engaging with their legislator by means of communication that include emails, telephone, and by filing an electronic witness slip.
• Capitol staff should stay in their workspaces as much as possible or continue to work remotely if possible. If Capitol staff need to report to work, staff’s workspaces should be six feet away from each other.
Upon adjournment:
• IDPH recommends social distancing and isolation for at least seven days post legislative session.
Frontline nursing home workers who were poised to start a historic strike on Friday have reached a tentative agreement with nursing home owners for a two-year contract with significant wins that will help safeguard both workers and residents through the current pandemic and beyond.
The agreement impacts over 10,000 members of SEIU Healthcare who provide care to residents at the 100+ nursing homes of the Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities. The contract gains are a testament to the courage and commitment of workers who were poised to strike at 64 facilities in order to protect themselves and the residents for which they care during this time of unprecedented vulnerability and risk.
The workers won significant contract gains, including:
• Higher baseline wages bringing all workers above $15 an hour and establishing greater parity in wages across geographic areas
• Hazard pay for all workers for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis
• Additional fully paid sick days for COVID-19 related testing, illness or quarantine for duration of the crisis
• Provisions ensuring that employees are not required to work without adequate PPE as determined by regulatory agencies for the duration of the crisis
All of the major contract gains will help safeguard the health and safety of workers and the residents for which they care—at a time when both are vulnerable to the risks associated with COVID-19. While residents are at increased risk of the virus due to age and compromised health, workers face increased negative impacts from coronavirus due to their history of poverty wages, lack of paid time off, and the underlying health conditions that often accompany poverty. Additionally, a majority of workers are African-American, and a disproportionate number of African-American lives have been claimed by COVID-19.
Significantly, the agreement continues to build on the progress made by nursing home workers in recent years to lift wage standards for the industry.
The tentative agreement was overwhelmingly supported by members of the bargaining committee, but must be ratified by the larger group of members who will be impacted by its terms.
*** UPDATE *** Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities…
The Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities is proud that is has negotiated the largest wage hike in our history for our employees. With base pay raises up to 24%, the IAHCF has achieved the Fight for $15 ahead of the city and state for our dedicated employees on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. This two-year contract includes $2 per hour COVID bonus pay for all 10,000 employees during the duration of the stay-at-home order and beyond, as well as expanded paid sick leave. While negotiations have ended, this insidious virus has not. We are grateful a walkout was avoided, and that our heroic staff members will continue caring for our vulnerable seniors as we fight this battle together.
Thursday, May 7, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Democrats, who have a supermajority in both legislative chambers, were assumed to control the 2021 remap. However, a move by the Census Bureau could delay population data being sent to the states until July 31, 2021 putting that control in jeopardy.
If census officials win a delay, the Illinois Constitution outlines a process that calls for the appointment of an eight-member commission, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, to draw maps. If they cannot agree, a ninth member – either Democrat or Republican – is randomly chosen, allowing either party the opportunity to gerrymander to their partisan advantage.
Our democracy is too important to be left to a game of chance.
We need an independent, nonpartisan redistricting commission to determine maps that are fair and equitable for all communities across Illinois.
Let’s end partisan gerrymandering and create a process that gives power back to the people.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 74,476 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of April 27 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday. […]
During the week of April 20, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates 81,245 new unemployment claims were filed in Illinois.
During the week of April 20, there were 3,169,000 new claims filed across the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 102,736 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of April 13 in Illinois
*** UPDATE *** Yikes…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) today released new statewide data showing the department processed 74,476 new initial unemployment claims for the week ending May 2, and with upward revisions from weeks past, has now processed 1,006,925 initial unemployment claims from March 1 through May 2. This nearly 12 times the number of claims the department processed over the same period last year, when IDES processed just 78,100 initial unemployment claims.
Statewide unemployment claims data, which reflects activity for the week prior, will be available on the IDES website every Thursday afternoon. Previous initial claims data has undergone an upward revision to properly account for a number of successfully processed claims. While the number of initial claims has slightly declined over the last two weeks, IDES may experience an increase when the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program becomes available on Monday, May 11, 2020.
Workers who believe they may be eligible for new federal benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, must first apply for regular unemployment insurance before applying for benefits under PUA when a new application portal opens on Monday via the IDES website.
Claimants who receive an eligibility determination of $0 can then appeal that decision by providing verification of wages earned or they can submit a claim for PUA benefits. Claimants who have already applied for and been denied regular unemployment benefits can submit a claim through the new PUA portal when it opens. Receiving a denial for regular unemployment benefits is a mandatory first step in determining eligibility for PUA.
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 is contracting with Deloitte to implement and maintain the web-based PUA program. While a program of this magnitude would normally take up to a year to design and implement, the department worked swiftly to get the program up and running within 4 weeks.
PUA claims will be backdated to the individuals’ first week of unemployment, but no earlier than February 2, 2020, and will continue for as long as the individual remains unemployed as a result of COVID-19, but no later than the week ending December 26, 2020. The program is similar to the federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance program which provides unemployment benefits in response to local disasters.
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan released the following statement Wednesday:
“First and foremost, we need to ensure the health and safety of members, staff and the general public is considered at all times when thinking about a return to Springfield. While the governor’s actions have reduced the curve and saved lives, it’s clear that Illinois is not out of the woods. Just yesterday, Illinois saw an all-time high in deaths, and it was recently announced that another 136 people died today.
“While I am eager to see a return to normalcy, we are talking about people’s lives, and any plan for a return to Springfield must have the health and safety of all those involved as a top priority, including the communities the members represent.”
Although nearly half of those who have been tested did not fill out their demographic information, of those who did 7.6% self-identified as Hispanic. Of these, more than 26,000 individuals, nearly 16,000 of them have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s a positivity rate of 60%. That’s nearly three times our state average.
As a point of comparison, for the half of people who left their race blank on their forms, about 18,000 tested positive for the virus. That’s 10%. We don’t know what portion of those unknowns might also qualify as Hispanic or Latinx. But what we do know is that our data from the start, until today, shines a concerning spotlight on which of our residents are most likely to get sick from COVID-19.
Decades of institutional inequities and obstacles for members of our Latinx communities are now amplified in this pandemic. And while we can’t fix generations of history in the span of a few months, we must advance equity in our public health response today, everywhere and anywhere we can. My administration has made it a priority to enter into testing partnerships in as many areas around the state as possible, with a focus on communities, home to significant populations who are more vulnerable to this virus. We now have over 200 public testing sites in Illinois, a third of which are located in communities with a significant Latinx population, measured here as greater than or equal to 17%, which is the Latino population number statewide. […]
Of the seven drive-thru sites that the state does formally run, each offers bilingual support for Spanish speakers. And as we build on our existing contact tracing abilities at local health departments, we will continue to make a push for robust relationships with trusted partners in Latino communities and ensure our tracking capabilities reflect Illinois multilingual diversity.
* More…
At this time, face coverings are required in public situations where social distance cannot be maintained. And that applies only to those who are medically able to wear a mask.
I recognize that this is a new practice for many in Illinois and the entire United States, but it’s on us to change how we think about face coverings. Protecting your fellow Americans by wearing a face covering in public is a collective act of patriotism. And doctors will tell you it’s one of the best things that we can do for public health right now. There have been reports of misplaced assumptions about masks, leading to incidents of racial profiling against Latinx,and black Americans, especially men, as well as you know phobic attacks against Asian Americans. And I want to call on the public to help us stop these hateful incidents by speaking out and standing up for others in your community. If you witness or experience mask-related discrimination or any form of discrimination, please report the incident to the Illinois Department of Human Rights
* On to questions for the governor. Governor, what would you say to those who say Democratic governors are trying to keep their states closed for as long as possible in order to make better cases for federal bailout funds?…
I can only speak for this Democratic governor and I certainly have talked to enough, a number of others and I’ll just say that we are listening to the scientists and the epidemiologists, the doctors about what’s best for the people who live in our states. And that’s what we’re doing all of us. Indeed, I’ve talked to many of the governors across the nation. They have shared their epidemiological findings, as well they’re experts with us, and we have terrific ones here that we’ve shared with them.
* Can the governor provide more clarity to churches regarding holding services, should they plan not to hold services larger than 50 people until their region has moved to phase five?…
Well you know that in phase three there can be gatherings church gatherings of 10 or fewer and phase 4 is 50 or fewer. So that’s the guidance that’s been given to me. I’m not the one providing that guidance, it really is what the scientists and epidemiologists are recommending.
* As an entrepreneur at heart could you talk about what areas of business and industry you see emerging post pandemic and how they might benefit state government?…
That is really interesting. So I guess I’ll just say that I think there are going to be a number of new businesses that get started as a result of this. I think you’ve already seen that at least before there is a vaccine. There are lots of entrepreneurs who have started mask and face covering businesses, others who are trying to address the medical needs that are associated with people who are in isolation, or people who are COVID positive. And of course, I think there’s no question there’s going to be an advanced effort to provide to make sure that we are ready for the next pandemic, and all the things that may be required for that whether it’s technology on your iPhone or other device, or making sure that we’re, you know, producing the PPE in the United States that will be available. So I think there’s there’s an awful lot that I can see happening after this pandemic is over.
* We’ve heard reports saying IDPH has hospital resource numbers are incorrect in the Edwardsville region. Is IDPH aware of any discrepancies and if so are they working to correct them, she mentions that the numbers on the resource website are higher than some of the hospitals are saying they have available…
Dr. Ezike: IDPH has a repertoire of a lot of information and the information that we have is what information has been given to us, so we have information that comes from each hospital. Every day we pull that information at midnight, the information we get from whoever is assigned to give it to us is what we have. If there are errors, we recommend people have the people who are entering that data give the correct information but information out is what was the information in.
* How can people safely open their quarantine circle, if at all, to family and friends who have also isolated? Can we safely hug or visit moms for Mother’s Day?…
Dr. Ezike: The whole point of where we are now is that, I think we’ve tried to stress that we still don’t have a cure, we still don’t have a vaccine, so we really aren’t that far from where we were a month ago or before we started the stay at home order. So, our elderly people are still at high risk, and we’ve had them, essentially, you know shelter in place, even you know my mother, or the kids can only drop something off at the door because we don’t want to expose her to any additional risks. So that really hasn’t changed and so we really don’t want to put anyone at risk especially our most vulnerable. So that really hasn’t changed.
Virtual hugs are still, I would say the order of the day. Expanding your circle will increase your risk of infection. It’s that simple. The more people you’re around the higher the risk of contacting a contracting the virus from someone in this new expanded circle. So, again we are trying to minimize the risk for everyone that’s why staying home with that nuclear established cell that you’ve had is the best way forward as you expand that you are absolutely increasing the risk of contracting the virus.
* More tests mean more cases, but with several days of 2000 plus cases a day, when might we see that reflected in our hospitalization numbers? Is there a good percentage of how many people will enter hospitals from these counts? Also, is there a percentage of COVID-19 fatalities that have included comorbidities?…
Dr. Ezike: In terms of cases go on to have a certain percentage of people who end up in the hospital, a certain percentage of the people who end up in the hospital ended up in the ICU. So we know that about 30% of our total positive cases have ended up in the hospital so, potentially, we could see that going forward. Again, we’re looking at the number of people who have been tested and as we’ve expanded testing, we have some less sick people who have had testing. So maybe that 30% won’t hold going forward but from previous numbers we’ve had about 30% of people end up in the hospital. So assuming we had the same mix of people getting tests that could be the same, but again, as the number of people tested disbanded, maybe this, the illness the baseline status of those people might not be exactly the same.
The last question was, is there a percentage of COVID-19 fatalities that have included comorbidities. Almost 90% of the fatalities have had an associated comorbidity, and we’ve seen that in in data across the world. Mostly, I actually have to add age, so age isn’t necessarily a comorbidity but it puts you in a higher risk status so we have seen people over the age of 65 who’ve talked about heart disease we’ve talked about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes, so there’s a list of conditions which are quite common in our population, along with elevated age. Please don’t forget pregnant women or people who have been recently pregnant are also at high risk, anybody who has an immunocompromised status may be a recent cancer patient or somebody who’s actively going through chemotherapy. So there are a lot of people that form that group that are in a higher risk category.
* Governor, the Restore Illinois plan will last for months or even years until we have a vaccine, a treatment or herd immunity. Do you plan to continue issuing 30 day disaster declarations and executive orders the whole time, or would you rather legislate the plan with the General Assembly knowing you might have to negotiate on some points?…
I don’t want to be in the position that I’ve been in which is to put in emergency orders.
But I’ll say that we’re going to work through this together I’ve certainly been in communication with many many legislators have worked with them to determine what aspects of these emergency orders need to be changed altered I talked yesterday about how we’ve included their opinions in the restoring Illinois plan. I hope that we’re out of this situation of COVID-19 being prevalent and no treatment and no vaccine out we’re out of the situation as soon as possible. And I’m, you know, watching very carefully to see if there’s a treatment or a vaccine that will come. Available very soon, but we’re no doubt about it we’re going to have to keep, you know, on top of this do it as best we can, you know, I’ll work with the legislature in any way that they would like to work together, but my job and their job is to help keep the people of Illinois safe and healthy.
* In terms of determining whether a certain region is ready to move to the next phase, will infection data be weighted for congregate settings like prisons and residential homes since they’re not necessarily representative of the community?…
I’ve heard this question before, but I want to point out that there are staff people who go in and out of these facilities all the time. And so even if you were to keep everybody in a nursing facility that’s a resident, which is the case now unless somebody checks out and goes home with their family, that you have staff coming in and out literally every day multiple shifts. Many of those people live in the areas that those nursing homes and prisons exist. And so I don’t think people should ignore the idea that there’s an infection in one of these kinds of good settings, thinking that it doesn’t have any effect on the community. So no we’re not ignoring those when the calculations are made about infection rates and, and the number of people who go into the hospital with COVID-19
* The CME plans to reopen its options pits as early as three weeks after Illinois stay at home order lifts. The exchange is asking traders to sign waivers and accept the risks because it can’t guarantee safety once the floor opens. Can you comment?…
I really can’t. I’m not sure what the circumstances are that are requiring that.
* One of our readers had to communicate to a fearful and scared group of employees at the office would be opening up June 1. Will employers be given guidelines about how to safely open up offices?…
Yes, in fact, we’re working with industry groups and with workers representatives unions and others as well as obviously with IDPH and experts in epidemiology and and understanding COVID-19 to make sure that the rules that are put in place for each industry. Manufacturing is different than warehousing is different than offices and so on.
All those rules will be made clear to people and indeed as you look in the plan that we put forward, you’ll see reference to IDPH safety guidance. And of course social distancing and face coverings will be the norm.
* Would you please reply to some of the pushback from business groups, especially restaurants, who say giving them no hope of even partially reopening until the end of June is much tougher than nearby states in near certain to result in mass permanent closures?…
Well, my first response to that is that I’m not the one that’s writing those rules for restaurants and bars, it is doctors and epidemiologists that I’m listening to.
And indeed, as many people I think understand these are situations where you are naturally going to be putting people close to one another, their servers who will be serving food which can transmit the disease, the infection, bartenders and so on. And so all of these things are playing a role in the decision making, I think by the doctors and epidemiologists. And, look, I also think that the public understands this and even if you flung the doors open on bars and restaurants today I think many people would say, I don’t want to be in a public location like that where it is more likely that things might be transmitted. But we very much want to get to opening the restaurants and bars, we need to see what the effect is on our hospitalizations and and infection rates across the state as we gradually open the economy. And as we saw, you know it is written into stage four phase which is just the next phase right after this phase three that might come up for some regions in June.
* Governor you are in charge of the State Fair. Given your own criteria is there any realistic way to consider holding the fair this year?…
I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be able to hold our state fairs. I’ve been to the state fairs, I think many people have you know that this will be many people packed together in buildings or even on pathways. So I do not believe that we’ll be able to open the state fair. But I do want to point out to people that as something I said yesterday, and I’m very hopeful for and that is, we have many treatments that are in the works. The researchers and experts are hard at work now there’s one that’s been emergency approved by the FDA called remdesivir. I hope there will be many others and maybe by the time these larger events roll around we might be able to have a treatment that’s very effective. And then I think there is the possibility.
* Some suburban republicans say the four groups hamstring communities with low COVID-19 numbers by lumping them with Chicago, could you respond?…
Remember that these regions are based upon the hospital regions for the emergency medical service regions that have been set up for decades by the Department of Public Health. So really they’re not based upon how many COVID positive people are in your particular village or town or city, but rather how many hospital beds and and health care workers how much health care is available. If and when there is a surge.
And let’s be clear, the virus hasn’t gone away. It is still out there, and nothing that we’re doing now is changing that fact what we have changed what has made things better. What has reduced the number of potential infections and the number of people going into the hospital and dying, is the fact that people have adhered to the stay at home order. And so the more we turn the dial up of, you know, allowing more and more interactions to occur in business and otherwise, the more risk that we’re taking. We’re going to be watching very closely, we all want the economy to open. I want it as much as anybody. And I’m the one, you remember I’m a business person, at least before I became governor I was a business person and I’m the one who’s debating these things with the scientists and epidemiologists, and they’re making cogent well founded arguments and I’m listening to the science.
* You’ve said all along that a 14 day decline is the benchmark you need to see to lift restrictions. Now it’s 28 days. What changed?…
I would say a couple things. There are a lot of differences between the White House plan that was put forward and our plan. But as you can see from the various plans across the country, each one has a slightly different set of criteria. What we’re watching for is the effect of the on hospitalizations on infections and so on.
But remember, we made changes just on May 1. So even if we were to watch this for just 14 days, what we’ve seen already is things are flat, not declining. So if I were to follow the White House plan to the letter, we would not even have begun the 14 days that is suggested in the White House plan. But instead what I’m suggesting is that if we have hospital beds available, if we have the ability to provide health care for people, and we can see that there’s a maintenance of that ability over a period of time, then we will be able to open things up. And I think honestly it might even be, because it’s different than the White House plan, indeed, you know, makes things more available to open up than the White House plan would in Illinois. I think we’re gonna have to be very careful. That’s why we have these 28 day periods.
* Some mayors decided to open up their city on May 1, could that cause businesses to lose their license if operating before the IDPH approves the region for their respective phase?…
They could. And you know the state often licenses some of these businesses so they absolutely could, and we will be looking at each of those businesses to determine whether we have the ability to do that. And when we could do that.
* The Lake County Sheriff’s office said Monday they will not issue tickets or be able to enforce the two-person a boat rule because they have not received any guidelines for for specific citations. Will you be providing more guidance to local authorities for enforcement?…
We absolutely can do that. I mean, it’s important that people adhere to the two person per boat guideline, it was really intended, we wanted people to be able to go out to go fishing, to be able to enjoy being on the water. But it’s important that people be able to enjoy social distancing while also being safe out there on a boat. So, we do want enforcement to take place and we’ll certainly be working with law enforcement as they ask us for assistance.
* With bordering states opening earlier in many cases, how will that affect your Restore Illinois plan both health wise and economically?…
Well, it certainly may make it more difficult because we will see potentially infections across the border. I can’t speak to the decision-making that’s been made in those states. What I can say is, I know that Governor Holcomb in Indiana shares the same goals that I do, which is to make sure that we’re keeping people safe and healthy. But I’m listening to the epidemiologists about what their best recommendations are in terms of timing and how we open these industries up. And I’m going to follow that, I’m going to do what’s best for the people of Illinois. I know people of Illinois want to do what’s best for themselves, which means to me, not going into these places that clearly are going to be, you know, potential hotbeds of infection, and then coming back into your community or into your home.
* This morning, you’re well aware of certain House Republicans held a press conference, they are calling for a couple of things. One, they want the legislature to come back into session. They say IDPH has provided safe guidelines for doing that. What would you say to Speaker Madigan and Senate President Harmon about getting lawmakers back into session? Republicans want to work with you and compromising as legislators for how we go forward and they feel you’re kind of just dictating a one person show…
Well that’s kind of crazy let’s just start with this. I have talked to the leaders on the Republican side, many Republican legislators. I’m frequently reaching out, listening to them ,I take a lot of notes, and I’ve done a lot of the things that they’ve asked. Along the way they are legislators I have great respect for the legislators on both sides of the aisle. And I am listening to them, they are acting as legislators and as a legislature, they are meeting in working groups, I know that Republicans and Democrats are sitting down talking about the budget they’re sitting down and talking about the Department of Human Services they’re talking about the various functions of government, they’re doing it, you know in committee style, Zoom conferencing and elsewhere and otherwise. So they’re doing exactly what I think they would be doing if they were in session having committee meetings, and they absolutely have the ability to get together in session. That’s one of the reasons that we didn’t just provide that, you know, for no reason we wanted to make sure that the legislature knew there are ways to do this now. Let’s also be clear that there are legislators who are concerned about getting together in, 177 of them, add in staff and all the other staff that work for them not to mention all the other people who work in the Capitol, and maybe members of the public. I mean that could be a potentially dangerous situation. That’s why we need the legislature to ask us for get you know what guidance they may need in order to get together, which were, you know, shown you that we’re willing to provide.
* Mayors out in DuPage County are saying how can you lump them in with Chicago, you’re going to kill our businesses. Other you know communities are saying, we’re being lumped in with larger areas where there’s a bigger problem, why not break it down closer to the 11 separate EMS districts and do it that way?…
Well, again, we were trying to this is all based upon hospital availability. We thought it would be better and more manageable for everybody if it was done in this number of regions I’m sure that there are a lot of opinions about how you could draw the lines. I know I spoke with one or another DuPage County mayors who want to just to draw the lines around their city.
And so my view is that no matter how we drew these lines, there were going to be people who might complain but remember why they were drawn. They were drawn because we want to make sure that there is healthcare availability, I had to point out to some mayors in areas that are around the Chicagoland area that many of the people that live in their villages or in their towns or in their cities, go into the city of Chicago on a regular basis, perhaps on a daily basis. And so when they say, well, but they’ve the problems in Chicago, but not here. That’s just wrong. You know the people who live there are going to places where there is a, maybe a higher infection rate and coming back to their village or their town.
* Is it realistic to hold some parts of the economy at bay for a vaccine that doesn’t exist or may not exist for 18 months, and can you provide more information on what a highly effective therapy looks like?…
Well, I’m not the one holding back the economy to, you know, from stage five, the COVID-19 virus is. That’s the thing that’s been causing the very high infection rates, the hospitalizations and the deaths. So I would pay attention to the fact that that’s still out there and the fact the reason that these rates have come down over the last two months has been because of orders that we put in place, and the fact that people across Illinois are obeying those.
Dr. Ezike: I think it’s pretty clear if we had something that would decrease the rate of fatalities, if we could decrease the rate of people ending up in the hospital, you know, something that maybe can shorten the severity such that people don’t end up hospitalized don’t end up in the ICU, anything like that would be a complete game changer in terms of people could say, well, maybe I could go out because it’s less likely that I’ll end up hospitalized, it’s less likely that I’ll end up in the ICU, it’s less likely that I’ll die. Maybe it’s something that would cause a situation where elderly people weren’t so disproportionately hit and so if you interacted with Grandma, you think that there’s a treatment should she get the virus, there’s a treatment that she wouldn’t die so it’s pretty clear like if we have something that is effective that we know can actually decrease either hospitalization rate or fatality, that would be a completely different story than what we have now.
* Indiana’s not using nursing homes, healthcare workers or prisoners when it comes to their positivity rate. Is that a better way to determine the rate in the general public?…
Dr. Ezike: I think Governor Pritzker answered that very, very appropriately. People work there. There are hundreds and thousands of people in a single facility, whether it’s a group home or a prison or a jail or a nursing home. People are going in and out every single day, and those people returned to communities. So those facilities are not separate from the communities. They’re part of the community. People make deliveries to those communities. It’s definitely part of the community. So I can’t separate it and say that that’s not part.
If there are significant outbreaks in the community that is a significant warning sign because we know that that that infection is in the community, it’s in the staff that work there that go back to their homes every night.
Gov. Pritzker: If I may just add to that. Remember that the nursing home residents that live in that area get sick and need a hospital, and they need a hospital bed, and they need an ICU bed and they may need a ventilator. And so that’s part of why, you know, we have to include those because you’re talking about the availability of health care when people get sick in that area. That’s also true for prisoners in a prison inmates in a prison there. That’s also true for group homes. So it doesn’t make sense to me to exclude the people who live in those residential communities or in those congregated settings from the calculation.
* Hinsdale approved a plan to close a downtown street so restaurants can have more space for outdoor dining. Under your plan restaurants can open in phase four. Can they have their outside seating only?…
That’s not in the recommendation of the epidemiologists and, you know, curbside delivery, pick up, drive through, delivery to the home. Those are all things that have been considered acceptable by the experts.
* What has IDES completed to make sure that the system will be up and running Monday for 1099 workers? And just in addition to that, we’re hearing there is continual continual problems with the website, people just cannot get through, they’re having to make, you know, hundreds of attempts to even get through…
So a couple of things. One is we’re going to talk about this later in the week we’re going to have a complete presentation, so people can see what’s being done and you know in terms of people trying to get on the website. The website actually has very good uptime so you know the the idea that the website is crashing for everybody, that shouldn’t be the case that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Having said that, I’m sure there are people who have had trouble. But remember that the many many many applications have been processed, 800,000 applications or more, and the numbers of people that we’ve seen that are having trouble are, you know, a fraction of that. That doesn’t make it any easier I know and so that’s why we’ve increased so significantly the ability for people to call in. And I know that even that can be difficult sometimes but I would ask for people’s patience and, and those who are having significant difficulty, they may be logged in, but not able to get their benefits and that may be because there is an arbitration that needs to take place that hasn’t yet taken place, and we’re working through all of those.
* When can things get back to normal at nursing homes and when can families visit their loved ones?…
Yeah, it doesn’t address that I mean obviously when we get to phase five, when, you know, we will not have the same issues. But look the great concern here is that this epidemic this virus is so dangerous for elderly people and particularly those in congregate settings so I’m deeply concerned about it. I couldn’t speak to what the timing would be for lifting restrictions on nursing homes but perhaps Dr. Ezike has an opinion.
Dr. Ezike: So again it ties into the same thing that we’ve been saying all afternoon, and there’s nothing in this situation has changed to decrease the risk for that most vulnerable population. When there is a game changer, when there is a treatment that would be able to counter the devastation that we have seen thus far in our long term care facilities, we can think about listening . Right now trying to open up visitation to create more [garbled] for this group that has already been so hardly hit, it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. It doesn’t seem like an act of protection, it actually seems that it would be increasing their risk.
* How quickly do you expect to hire the 3800 people that you say you need for contact tracing?…
The contact tracing effort which we have been talking about is a robust, you know, we gave the estimate about maybe needing maybe 4000 people. We are not going to have 4000 people start at once this month, we will start to on board some people. Of course remember that contact tracing is something that is done by every local health department already, now people are you know trying to identify the cases. But the problem is, as the numbers have grown, we’ve gone larger than the than the staff that’s in place can do. So we have people at the local health department, we have community health workers, we have different people who are already have already been engaged in this kind of work before we have some of the grantees of IDPH that already does this kind of work. We have people who have signed up to be volunteers, through Illinois help so we are going to be using the resources that are in place to get started and then we’re going to scale up with time to get the full number that we need. But it’s going to be a gradual process and not something where you know we’ll have 4000 in place next week.
We have over the last 24 hours 14,974 tests with 2,270 being positive, that’s a 15% positivity rate. We’ve run a total of 361,260 tests for COVID-19. And we’ve had a total of 68,232 total cases. Over the last 24 hours, we were limited to 136 new COVID deaths, which brings our death total to 2974.
In the hospital we have 4832 individuals who are hospitalized with COVID 19 illness. Of those in the hospital 1231 are in the ICU and 80 patients are currently on ventilators.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,270 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 136 additional deaths.
Cook County: 2 males 40s, 1 female 50s, 6 males 50s, 8 females 60s, 8 males 60s, 1 unknown 60s, 10 females 70s, 12 males 70s, 14 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 7 females 90s, 4 males 90s, 1 unknown 90s, 2 females 100+
DuPage County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 males 70s, 2 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s, 2 males 90s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 3 females 90s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
Kendall County: 1 male 30s
Lake County: 1 female 60s, 2 females 70s, 2 males 80s, 4 females 90s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
LaSalle County: 1 female 80s
Madison County: 1 female 80s
McHenry County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s
Peoria County: 1 male 50s
Rock Island County: 2 females 90s
St. Clair County: 1 female 80s
Will County: 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 3 females 90s, 1 male 90s
Winnebago County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 68,232 cases, including 2,974 deaths, in 97 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have processed 14,974 specimens for a total of 361,260.
* Press release from the Illinois Conference of Churches…
The Leadership Team of the Illinois Conference of Churches (ICC) believes sheltering-in-place guidelines save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. We support careful, evidence-based steps to re-open the economy.
We believe that the health and safety of our wider community rises above individual autonomy in this unprecedented global emergency.
Limiting public excursions for anything but essential purposes and exercise and the wearing of masks in public while practicing social distancing are practical ways of showing respect for the communities where we live and serve.
But we don’t like it.
Those we love and serve are hurting.
We grieve the myriad losses our communities are experiencing, not the least of which is the loss of life. Even in the midst of this crisis, more have died in this country from the coronavirus than in the Vietnam War. Business owners, closed now for weeks, wonder how long and if they can hold on. Teachers and parents are struggling with teaching from home. Our front-line workers have held the line steadily with grace and courage. While some families are enjoying down time and togetherness, economic and social stresses are tearing others apart. Our state must rely on science-based directives so that we will properly protect the people who live here.
While the CARES Act, unemployment benefits, and other programs are helping some, many people fall through the cracks. Small businesses, the homeless, the seriously disabled are struggling. There is evidence that the fault lines of race and economic disparity that have always divided our communities may widen. The pandemic has caused many problems for Black and Brown people because of employment as essential workers. Many are not eligible for the stimulus money or unemployment. Health care is not an option for part time workers while pre-existing medical conditions plague Hispanics and African Americans.
While we do not know what science will indicate about coming back together for worship, movies, concerts, and even haircuts, we are hopeful that human kindness, not to mention the grace of God, will flourish just as wildly as springtime is blooming across our state.
We are in prayer for our beloved state and her people, particularly mindful of those whose lives and livelihoods are most endangered.
The Leadership Team of the Illinois Conference of Churches
We represent approximately seven million Illinois Christians in 13 denominations.
* We talked yesterday about IRMA’s report of problems at retail establishments caused by mask-haters. From the Sun-Times…
Stores have done their part to institute the policy meant to curtail the spread of the virus, said [IRMA CEO Rob Karr], whose association represents hundreds of retailers statewide. Under Pritzker’s extended stay-at-home order effective through May, merchants have posted signs and played recordings over sound systems about the face covering requirement.
“But retailers are in no position to enforce it,” Karr said. “We can’t physically restrain anyone, so anyone can walk right by, and we can’t do anything about it.” […]
“But it doesn’t take a huge problem. It takes one argument that turns into something more serious,” Karr said. “We want to avoid something tragic.”
Karr called on the state to issue “a clear direction that local law enforcement have the responsibility here” in enforcing the face covering requirement.
* This is a 430,000-square-foot facility employing nearly 2,000 workers that produces enough food for nine million meals each day…
There has been an outbreak of COVID-19 at a JBS USA pork processing plant in Beardstown, with at least 30 people having tested positive for the virus, officials said Tuesday.
“I can confirm an outbreak,” said Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The plant is located in Cass County, which as of Tuesday reported 44 positive cases including the infected JBS plant workers, according to Teresa Armstrong, public health administrator. There have been no COVID-19-related deaths in the county. […]
Armstrong said it is possible that beyond the 30 people who work at the plant — either for JBS or for contractors who provide services such as security, cleaning or cafeteria work — live in other counties and are being reported as cases there, she said.
Republican lawmakers in the Illinois House on Wednesday gave scathing reviews to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s regional five-phase plan to reopen the state’s economy.
“This plan does not work,” House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said on a videoconference.
“This plan presumes that the governor shall rule the state for the upcoming months — and possibly much longer — if the vaccination is not available,” Durkin said. “I took an oath of office to faithfully discharge my duties in the coequal branch of government called the legislature. I did not abdicate nor relinquish my elected responsibilities to the executive branch.” […]
“Speaker Madigan, you set the calendar,” Durkin said. “Mr. Speaker and the House Democrats, get back into the game. Get your head out of the sand, and let’s go back to work.”
Under the timeline and criteria set out in the plan, [Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington] said, it could be “months or years” before the state fully reopens.
Durkin said the state’s hospitality industry will be destroyed under the timeline of the plan. If everything goes well, the earliest Phase 4 could be achieved is the end of June, he said.
“That will force bankruptcies and closures. This plan does not work,” Durkin said.
* More…
Durkin says 10% of Illinois’ workforce — some 594k people — work at bars and restaurants.
“Quite frankly, [@GovPritzker’s plan] will force bankruptcy and the permanent closure of large and small restaurants throughout the state.”
“Business is happy that he has a plan,” said Todd Maisch, CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “They’re not happy with this plan.” […]
Under Pritzker’s order, “The earliest we’d be able to open is on June 26,” Illinois Restaurant Assn. President Sam Toia said. Those restaurants initially shut in early March. “I don’t know any business that can go 16 weeks with 80 percent or more reduce income and stay viable.”
Toia urged Pritzker to move restaurants from phase four to phase three, which sets lesser standards for testing, et al. Restaurants should have to require staff to wear masks and other personal protective gear and at least initially limit capacity, as has happened in some other states, Toia said. But moving restaurants to phase three would allow some to reopen by Memorial Day weekend.
“We obviously care about the health and safety of our team members and customers,” Toia said. “But let’s be realistic.”
I really think these folks are way over-estimating the eagerness of people to go back to eating in restaurants and using public restrooms. Right now, you’re only as safe as the covidiot closest to you.
After 9/11, lots of folks were criticized for still thinking they lived in a 9/10 world. I just don’t think the restaurant business, regardless of any executive orders, is going to be what it was for a while.
With a h/t to @hannahmeisel, the Governor would like to apologize to Rep. Bourne for asking about her family’s health before he asked about the concerns of her constituents. It won’t happen again. pic.twitter.com/R4NIUTbhjX
I’ve been talking with a lot of the health professionals, and I’m hearing a concise message that it’s time to get back to work.
The link is now broken, but I asked Rep. Bailey back then who he was talking to and here’s what he said via email…
I communicate directly with all of the County Health Departments and hospital officials in my district frequently. My comments are based on these ongoing conversations.
* Fast-forward to today when Rep. Bailey was interviewed by Fairfield radio station WFIW…
The law of Illinois in a pandemic, and any kind of a crisis such as we are experiencing, each county should be governed, monitored, laws or monitoring should be put in place, as each county public health office deems fit. If they need help, then they reach out to the state and the state can come in and help.
Fairfield is in Wayne County and the county is in Bailey’s district.
* But the way Rep. Bailey describes how he believes the system should work is not actually happening in Fairfield. More from WFIW…
The Barb Wire Grill in Fairfield opened yesterday and has weathered complaints filed against it to the Wayne County Health Department. After releasing a statement discouraging congregate settings in restaurants yesterday, the department approached the Wayne County State’s Attorney to render an opinion for a closure order from the Circuit Court.
* That health department statement was signed by the county’s public health administrator and two medical doctors who are both official county medical advisers. You should read the whole thing, but here’s an excerpt…
(W)e are finding it difficult under the current political landscape to impress upon sections of the population that we are not out of danger and that widespread community transmission could still occur. Once we experience widespread transmission, it will likely result in a medical surge forcing mass care and fatality management issues which may not be sustainable.
I’m guessing those folks weren’t on Rep. Bailey’s call list last month. /s
State’s Attorney Kevin Kakac said he was approached by the health department to render an opinion for a closure order from the circuit court. Kakac said the health department would have to produce, quote, clear and convincing evidence that the public’s health and welfare are significantly endangered by a person or group of persons who have been exposed to, or that are reasonably believed to have been exposed to COVID-19. Kakac says the department would have to prove all other reasonable means of correcting the problem have been exhausted and no less restrictive alternatives exist because Wayne County has had only two positive tests, both of which are out of quarantine. Kakac believes there is not currently a legal basis to support a closure order.
So, the public health departments “told” Bailey to open up when at least one didn’t, and while Bailey says local public health departments have all authority over these matters, they don’t, at least not in that county.
Nobody says that I can’t. Nobody said that I can’t have people come in. The governor’s order, you know, he says that we’re not supposed to have dine-ins. But it goes against the Illinois constitution. And he was only able to do that for 30 days. And I think it was April 9th it ended, and he cannot extend that. That’s why Darren Bailey has taken him to court and is suing him.
Same Deputy Governor texted me to “Get a life” when I raised concerns about how IDES was handling unemployment claims. Anger management issues should never be on display when responding to a member of a co-equal branch of government @cljmitchell
I asked Wehrli for a screen cap of the exchange, but he declined.
* I also asked Mitchell and the governor’s press secretary and she sent it to me…
* From Jordan Abudayyeh…
Members of our staff are working long hours under a lot of stress. Lawmakers have continually asked for open lines of communication and members of our administration are always willing to discuss any issues that arise. But this crisis has made it clear there are two types of people: those who rise to the challenge putting aside ideology to help and those who snipe from the sidelines instead of offering constructive solutions.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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With workers at nearly 70 nursing homes across the state planning to go on strike because of unsafe working conditions, several Illinois Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the Illinois Department of Public Health and many local health departments Tuesday requesting to know the amount of Personal Protective Equipment that has been distributed to those nursing homes and the process by which it was distributed.
“The hardworking people who put their own health on the line to care for our state’s most vulnerable population should not have to do so without proper protection,” said State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago). “Workers shouldn’t be left wondering when and if they’ll get more supplies, and management shouldn’t have to find and pay for most PPE that is needed out of its own pockets.”
The request comes from members of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus who have at least one nursing home in the district they represent where management received strike notices last week. Employees of 64 nursing homes across the state sent strike notices to management, saying facilities do not have enough PPE, safety protocols, and adequate hazard pay.
In an effort to stand up for those workers in their districts, the group sent a letter to IDPH and local health departments to ask how facilities are chosen to receive PPE and how much PPE these nursing homes have received since the start of the outbreak.
“When our nursing home staffs aren’t afforded adequate PPE, that puts worker and resident lives in danger,” said State Senator Laura Fine (D-Glenview). “PPE is scarce right now, but our frontline workers need these supplies in order to continue caring for those who need it the most.”
“We need to do everything possible to provide a safe environment for our nursing home workers, who day in and day out protect our most vulnerable loved ones,” said State Senator Laura Murphy (D-Schaumburg).
Creates the Personal Protective Equipment Responsibility Act. Requires an employer designated as an essential employer under a disaster proclamation issued pursuant to the Illinois Emergency Management Act or an executive order issued pursuant to the disaster proclamation to provide personal protective equipment to independent contractors and to all employees during the duration of the disaster proclamation or executive order. Defines terms. Authorizes the recovery of damages, including punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. Effective immediately.
A group of progressive lawmakers on Monday unveiled proposed legislation seeking a six-month “cancellation” on rent and mortgage payments for those impacted by the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic. The proposal would wipe out rent payments for six months whenever Pritzker’s stay-at-home order eventually lifts, and it would defer home mortgage payments until late in the year. In addition, the bill would freeze rents and waive penalties for failing to pay property taxes. During a virtual press conference Monday, State Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago) said 27 percent of Illinoisans were not able to pay their rent in April. She cited a much higher figure for the city of Chicago — approximately 67 percent. “We can’t even imagine what’s going to happen in May,” Ramirez said. “We need to take immediate, proactive and bold action.” The draft proposal released by Ramirez’s office would make the relief available to anyone suffering “any negative financial, medical, or other impact, on an individual or household because of Covid-19 and associated governmental orders, including…loss of income, furlough, hour reduction or other interruption to employment due to workplace, school, and other facility closures; or increased household, childcare, health care or other expenses.” The bill would also establish a Housing Relief Fund that Ramirez said she hoped would be funded by another major stimulus package passed by Congress, which would also benefit small landlords.
The Peoria senator and his staff have been pounded with calls from constituents wondering why the state has kept shut Banner Marsh State Fish and Wildlife Area and Spring Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area. Many state parks got reopened Friday 1, but not those two.
The reason: they don’t have flush toilets and hand-washing sinks. Because of the coronavirus, the state insists state parks must provide both.
Koehler thinks that’s an overreach, especially as there’s an easy solution. Meantime, instead of helping constituents with unemployment benefits and other important matters, he has been busy explaining the state’s stringent bathroom requirements.
A confrontation was sparked the other day when state Democratic state Rep. Natalie Manley spoke harshly to a state Health Department worker about prisoners with coronavirus getting hospital care.
Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell responded with a text, telling Manley if anyone speaks to that employee again in such a way, “I will burn their house to the ground…the entire f—ing house.”
The governor’s office acknowledged the exchange got heated but said of course Mitchell wouldn’t burn down anyone’s home. “He was standing up for a public health employee who was berated for working to ensure prisoners were getting health-care,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh told Playbook.
Manley dismissed the exchange, saying “this is not a story… The focus needs to be on how hard people are working… Legislators are working very hard, as is the governor’s office and all his administration.”
Some Will County legislators are upset about the number of Stateville prisoners being treated at some local hospitals. It’s been a bone of contention for weeks. From WJOL almost exactly a month ago…
Stateville Correctional Center is a hot spot of coronavirus. One-hundred and twenty-five people have tested positive for COVID-19, 30 employees and 95 inmates. But the issue of where to send very ill inmates remains. Currently, St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet is still taking a huge majority of sick inmates. Illinois State Senator Pat McGuire says despite a plan by the Lockport Township Fire Protection District, the deputy governor has not signed off on it yet.
McGuire is hoping WJOL listeners will call the Deputy Governor, Christian Mitchell and ask him approve the plan. Call 312 814 -2121 or email, christian.mitchell@illinois.gov.
Mitchell got flooded with angry calls and emails after that. Trouble is, nobody really knew what they were actually complaining about.
Same Deputy Governor texted me to “Get a life” when I raised concerns about how IDES was handling unemployment claims. Anger management issues should never be on display when responding to a member of a co-equal branch of government @cljmitchell
I asked Rep. Wehrli for a screen-shot of the entire exchange. He politely declined, saying the tweet “speaks for itself.”
* I had some questions about the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s unemployment application system, so I sent them to the Pritzker administration and the governor’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh sent me a response…
Question: How many new servers have been brought online to handle IDES calls and how many simultaneous connections can the system handle?
Phones system: maximum number of caller capacity increased from 160 to 1700, we have a contract with Deloitte to stand up a call center to bring on additional people to answer calls. [I followed up and was told that Deloitte is scaling up to 200 workers and that some started this past Friday.]
IBIS Application: more than a 10x increase in server capacity; implemented best in class, real time application performance monitoring; and performed more than 30 configuration changes to optimize performance
Question: About how long does it take to cross-train workers to meet the federal guidelines and is this an ongoing process? How many have so far been trained?
It can take a year or more to train a staffer working with unemployment to understand the unemployment insurance program. This includes claims filing for regular, federal, military, and combined wage claims, resolving monetary eligibility issues, responding to employer protests, understanding employer charging, properly identifying non-monetary issues, overpayments, integrity, etc. Continuous education in all of these areas is required.
The Deloitte call center agents have received basic training, consisting of how to complete a claim application and the benefit rights information, which includes, but is not limited to, when and how to certify, how to file appeals information, payment options, able and available to work, reporting earning on certification when applicable, etc.
Question: Does IDES have a call-back system for people who can’t get through? If not, why not?
Yes. The call center has a call back function for those who select it. The claimant will keep their place in line and the system will automatically connect them to an agent.
Question: Is there any update to IDES’ PUA [Pandemic Unemployment Assistance] launch date [for 1099 workers]?
Gov. JB Pritzker has said there is no real backlog on jobless claims in Illinois.
But on Monday night, our sources said the backlog is real, and getting longer by the day. […]
The [IDES] employee sent a screenshot of unemployment claims that are yet to be adjudicated – 12,440 to be exact. All are out-of-work people waiting for interviews to find out if they can even get benefits.
The IDES employee said most were filed back in March and won’t even get interviewed until late this month – if then.
* Response from Rebecca Cisco at IDES…
For the weeks ending April 11 – April 25, which are the most recent periods for which data is available, 99.9% of claims have been paid in a timely manner as measured by USDOL guidelines.
The number reported in the CBS story, which attempted to reveal a 12,000 claim backlog, is highly inaccurate, misleading, and misrepresentative. The 12,000 number represents a number of current assignments in a system created to assist staffers in keeping track of the workflow action items that need to be conducted on any given day. This number is not indicative of claims, nor is it representative of a backlog. Assignments do not affect or interrupt claimants receiving benefits. Furthermore, there simply is no backlog of claims currently being processed, nor is there a backlog of claims to be paid.
But our IDES source says it’s true those 12,440 people are receiving benefits but are waiting for interviews to make sure, as reported, they are actually eligible to get them. If an interview later determines they are not eligible, some or all of these people will have to pay the money back to the state.
Well, yeah. That’s how the unemployment system works. First, the station was repeatedly crusading on behalf of people who couldn’t get immediate assistance because they’d been found to have committed unemployment insurance fraud or other misdeeds in the past. And now this nothing-burger? Weird.
Illinois could lose close to $560 million in gas tax revenue this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, which may delay some big state road and rail projects, according to a new report. […]
But the report from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank, found that with road travel down by almost half, the state could lose $296 million to $559 million this year alone, depending on different scenarios. […]
The scenario for state funding could be even worse than the report predicts, and could extend into next year and beyond, said Frank Manzo IV, report co-author and the institute’s policy director.
“If we do not have more testing, if we don’t have more treatments and a clinically proven vaccine… there is a chance that our estimate is conservative,” Manzo said.
* Press release…
“As part of the Rebuild Illinois plan, annual revenues from the state’s Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) were expected to increase from $1.3 billion to nearly $2.6 billion,” said study-co-author and ILEPI transportation analyst Mary Tyler. “After applying the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s (CMAP) estimates on pandemic related travel disruptions to three scenarios, with travel disruptions lasting from 6 to 10 months, we found that the state could under-perform expectations on MFT revenue by between $300 million and $560 million in 2020 alone.”
That upper-end estimate uses a 10-month disruption model, with the virus being most acute through August. The lower-end is based on a 6-month disruption, with the most acute period lasting through May.
