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A missed opportunity to connect two related Decatur stories

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* From Saturday’s Decatur Herald & Review…

HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital and Decatur Memorial Hospital have suspended visitors for inpatient care effective Saturday due to the high number of COVID-19 cases throughout Central Illinois.

“COVID-19 is spreading throughout our community. Many people may have COVID-19, and could be contagious before they are showing symptoms,” said Dr. Raj Govindaiah, chief medical officer of Memorial Health System. “Our mission is to improve the health of the people and communities we serve, and this policy will allow us to do that.”

Exceptions will be allowed with approval in areas such as the emergency department, obstetrics, pediatrics, certain outpatient procedures and surgeries, as well as for those who may be in end-of-life care or to support a patient with an intellectual disability.

* Today’s Decatur Herald & Review…

Everyone’s East End Grill restaurant parked within the confines of Decatur Airport is now taxiing to an enviable position: it can cheerfully ignore Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s orders to shutdown indoor dining service starting Monday.

That’s because the new, stricter shut down rules for this region aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 don’t apply to eateries that are deemed part of essential businesses, like airports. […]

He got no arguments from his Sunday morning, post-church dining crowd. Cyndi Haynes and her husband Butch were both enjoying fried breakfasts they said tasted as good as the food’s looks and aroma suggested, and were also deeply satisfied with the attitude of their host.

The construct of that restaurant story is weird. The business has an exemption because of its location, so it doesn’t have to “ignore” anything except, of course, the growing problem at the town’s hospitals.

Anyway, maybe also send that reporter over to a hospital commissary to see what the docs have to say?

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 11:47 am

Comments

If only there were editors to see the big picture in the community and connect dots rather than count beans and cut local staff.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 11:49 am
Heartbreaking losses out of Decatur this week.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 11:57 am
Interesting loophole …

Comment by RNUG Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:02 pm
Bacon and eggs. Can’t get that at home. /S

Comment by don the legend Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:03 pm
A lot of business people, elected officials and individuals are writing checks that they expect health care workers to cash - in some cases with their lives.

Having doctors, nurses and support staff to treat us if we get sick means we have to hold up our end of the bargain and do everything possible not to get sick and overwhelm hospitals.

Comment by Moe Berg Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:10 pm
East End Grill just needs to declare themselves a “sanctuary diner”. That’s language that the Governor understands.

Enforcement is clearly the issue here. Who wants to be the States Attorney that prosecutes a local dining establishment?

Comment by chicago hope Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:10 pm
There is a large meeting planned and hosted by Rep. Caulkins at the Decatur Hotel and Conference Center according to a Facebook post from last week, https://www.facebook.com/dancaulkinsforillinois

“All Central Illinois Business Owners who have been affected by the Governor’s shut down mandates are invited to attend. This is a FREE event to gather information and have questions answered by one of the top attorney’s in Illinois taking the side of small businesses in our fight to stay open.
Featured Panel:
Attorney Thomas Devore
State Representative Dan Caulkins
State Representative Darren Bailey
Keith Ayre - Owner Fox Run Springfield
Meet & Greet - 6-7pm
Q&A w/ Panel - 7-9pm”

Still gonna happen??? Maybe they need to move it to the airport claiming sanctuary (banned punctuation).

Comment by Anon221 Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:18 pm
An airport restaurant open to the outside world is actively thumbing its nose at public health orders in the midst of a global pandemic.

And when you are done dining with the masses at Decatur International, you can walk over and hop on a (heavily subsidized) United connecting flight to O’Hare, and from there travel the world.

What could possibly go wrong?

Nice to see the Decatur park board being such a responsible entity.
Wonder what United thinks about this. Imagine being the flight crew that gets stuck having to serve Decatur and you read about this.

Those might be interesting questions for, I dunno, a reporter to ask.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:24 pm
People are treating the efforts to mitigate the spread of a deadly pandemic like they’re rules put in place for the prohibition of alcohol.

Loopholes shouldn’t be celebrated as being a clever work around.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:38 pm
Is it really a big story that a hospital has suspended visitors? I think the bigger story is that they’re just now doing it. Hospitals in the St. Louis region haven’t allowed visitors since March.

Comment by Dave W Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:48 pm
This is the same city where people all over have been putting up “Pritzker S***s… the life out of small businesses” yard signs since May. Just doesn’t seem like a lot of people in Decatur care much about hospitalizations compared to their “rights” to dine in.

Comment by Treefiddy Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 12:57 pm
Dave W, BJC is open to visitors within guidelines.

Comment by GV Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 1:06 pm
===Hospitals in the St. Louis region haven’t allowed visitors since March===

Because the disease is spreading so much there. Illinois pushed the numbers down, opened the hospitals back up. And now this. So, yes. It’s a story. Try to keep up.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 3:39 pm
Caulkins’ event has moved from the Decatur Conference Center to The Venue in Decatur. He posted this 3 hours ago. Wonder if the Conference Center decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Still think they should have taken this Devorite event to the airport and claimed “Sanctuary” (banned punctuation and heavy snark).

Comment by Anon221 Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 6:49 pm
I realize this restaurant gets most of its business from people who are not flying in or out of the Decatur airport… but I wonder just how many restaurants at O’’Hare are open. It’s all indoor seating there too.
I’m not going to patronize this restaurant - but then I have no vacations scheduled either.

Comment by thoughts matter Monday, Nov 2, 20 @ 8:40 pm