By Rebecca Anzel
All of Illinois is “on track” to move into the next phase of governor JB Pritzker’s plan to reopen the state safely, he said Tuesday during his daily update teleconference in Chicago.
The current phase of the plan allows residents to visit golf courses and State parks, retail shops to deliver orders placed remotely and medical centers to allow elective surgeries to resume.
By moving into the Recovery phase in 10 days, offices, salons, barbershops and manufacturers will begin to return with some capacity restrictions. Pritzker said the progress in various metrics, including the rate of positive COVID-19 tests, hospital admissions and ventilator availability is, “terrific news.”
The governor added while some residents are itching to move ahead quicker than the 28-day period prescribed, the Restore Illinois plan was designed by experts to ensure safety.
“I can say with confidence that here in Illinois, we’ve committed to operating with a focus on public health and transparent measurable benchmarks to move to each new phase,” Pritzker said. “…There’s no doubt this is hard, but public health means that each of us is working to protect all of us.”
Difficult is residents living in border communities seeing restaurants, bars, and shops open in Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin, he added.
The federal government should have instituted a national procedure to avoid a patchwork of rules and regulations, Pritzker said. Instead of following the guidance issued by the White House which would have delayed Illinois’ reopening, the governor added, president Donald Trump “decided to inject politics where science and data should have won out.”
Keeping Illinoisans safe is the job of Illinoisans, lead epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine Dr. Emily Landon said.
“Now we all realize there will be no swift rescue, no knight in shining armor in the form of a vaccine, or an antiviral that will sweep in and return our lives to normal before the summer comes,” she said. “…Our transmission balance is tenuous and business as usual could set off another wave of infections that threatens our lives and livelihoods.”
Protestors over the weekend in Springfield and Chicago rallied to encourage officials to reopen the State sooner than the government’s plan allows. Some had signs depicting Pritzker, who is Jewish and whose parents escaped persecution in Europe, as the German dictator Adolf Hitler. Others threatened his life.
The governor said he is “frankly disgusted by the failure of so many people to call that out,” including lawmakers.
“This is a fight against a virus, not an ideology,” Landon said, encouraging residents to continue wearing face coverings when shopping, frequently washing their hands and observing social distancing guidance.
Health update:
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 1,545 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 146 related fatalities. That brought the State’s total to 98,030 cases and 4,379 deaths in 100 counties. There were 18,443 tests completed in the past 24 hours through Monday, to bring the total number tested to 621,684.
Illinois’ metrics, though, show the number of hospital admissions, intensive care unit beds and ventilators occupied by those with COVID-19 are at the lowest levels since the State began publishing the statistics daily April 12.
There were 4,002 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of midnight Monday, the lowest since there were 4,091 hospitalized April 12. There were 993 COVID-19 patients in ICU beds, the first time that number fell below 1,000 during the period of daily updates. There were 576 COVID-19 patients on ventilators, the first time that number fell below 600 in the period.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It receives funds primarily from the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
— Capitol News Illinois