Coronavirus risk 'remains low to general public'
Pritzker, Lightfoot praise readiness, collaboration between state, city, counties in stemming potential outbreak
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike discuss concerns about coronavirus Friday at the Thompson Center. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
CHICAGO — The governor and Chicago’s mayor drew their top health officials together Friday to address concerns about the coronavirus, emphasizing that the public risk remains low and that they’re prepared to confront any potential outbreak.
“Our top priority is to keep Illinoisans safe,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker in a news conference at the Thompson Center in Chicago.
Emphasizing that the health risk “remains low to the general public,” Pritzker added, “I want to be clear. The best thing the public can do at this time is to continue with the same precautions that you take during flu season, with renewed vigilance.”
Although the coronavirus, known by medical professionals as COVID-19, has spread alarmingly fast in China, where it originated, and has since spread to Japan, South Korea, and now all continents but Antarctica, health officials stressed it is a respiratory disease spread much like the flu and should be confronted as such, even though it has a higher mortality rate. Pritzker said doctors consider it a mild illness for relatively healthy people, while being a “more serious illness in the elderly and infirm populations” with diminished immune systems.
Calling it “the first line of defense,” Pritzker said health officials are advising residents to wash their hands, keep surfaces clean, stay home if sick, cover the mouth or nose when coughing or sneezing, and visit a doctor if symptomatic, “especially if you or a loved one recently traveled abroad.”
The only two Illinois cases of coronavirus involved a suburban Chicago husband and wife, with the woman having recently returned from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated. Pritzker stressed that both had been hospitalized and treated successfully and returned home without having spread the illness to anyone else.
“There really is no cause for alarm,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She urged citizens to follow the health advice about preventing the spread of germs, but otherwise to maintain their daily routines, stay active, and visit neighborhoods, “particularly Chinatown,” which has seen businesses suffer with reduced traffic as coronavirus fears have spread. “Thoughtfulness and preparation are the rule of the day,” she added.
“There really is no cause for alarm. … Thoughtfulness and preparation are the rule of the day.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
To that end, state, city, and Cook County officials emphasized Friday that they’re working together to monitor the situation and any spread of the virus to Illinois.
“The risk of infection to Illinoisans is low,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the state Department of Public Health. “However, we have to plan and prepare for all possibilities.”
Pritzker and Ezike said the state’s relatively strong health system was prepared to meet the challenge, as it has with previous global outbreaks like SARS or Ebola, and Pritzker said other governors were calling him to get advice. Pritzker said Illinois was the first state in the country to have coronavirus testing, at IDPH’s Chicago lab, and testing would expand next week to agency labs in Springfield and Carbondale. They added that only last year state health agencies had conducted what’s termed a “tabletop” simulation to practice for and prepare responses to just such an outbreak from China.
Lightfoot and Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s commissioner of public health, said they already have another tabletop simulation scheduled next week to prepare for any additional complications.
“Here in Chicago and here in Illinois our public-health organizations are strong,” Arwady said, adding that her department has been “ramping up testing,” both at O’Hare International Airport, where it’s complementing screening conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in testing for coronavirus in those being treated for the flu, something IDPH is also doing statewide.
“So far, our plans have played out exactly as we have expected them to,” Arwady said. “Certainly, we’re planning ahead,” she added. “We’ll adapt as needed as conditions change.”
“The experience level here is very high,” Pritzker said. “So we are ready. Let’s also be clear. Readiness for it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It means that if there are changes in conditions, we will be prepared. We have the right personnel in the right places, and we’re ready to go.”
President Trump has been criticized for what’s considered a weak U.S. response to the global outbreak, and for putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of it this week, with federal health agencies reportedly ordered to feed all information to Pence for release to the public. Without criticizing the Trump administration, Pritzker said, “We do not rely upon what’s going on at the White House. What we rely upon are the medical professionals at the CDC.”
“We have a singular goal,” said Terry Mason, chief operating officer at the Cook County Department of Public Health, “which is to reduce the impact of COVID-19 by detecting new cases quickly — thanks to the new state lab being able to help us do that — minimizing the spread of the disease and protecting the health of community members.”
“The takeaway from today is a couple things,” Lightfoot said, “No. 1, the risk is low, the level of preparedness is very high,” and second the state, city, and all Illinois health agencies are ready to scale up their response if necessary.
“None of us can stand here and say there’s no risk,” she added, “but we believe based upon the diligence of the medical professionals … that the risk remains low. But we’ve got to be vigilant.”
“We’re ready to put the full weight of the state behind a full-fledged response when needed,” Pritzker said, and he pledged a level of transparency that might be lacking at the White House. “This is a situation that has demonstrated an ability to evolve rapidly, and it’s my priority that as the information changes that you will have all of the available information that we can give you.”
Ezike advised, “It’s not too late to get a flu shot,” in that any cases of the flu that are prevented could help doctors and hospitals from being overrun should coronavirus become widespread.
Pritzker said there was no need for the public to make a run on surgical masks. “We need to treat this as you would the flu,” he said. “There’s no need for people to go out and get a mask.”
Arwady said parents should tell children to take the same precautions they already do to ward off the flu, and she advised telling kids to wash their hands for as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice, which amounts to about the 20 seconds health experts advise for a thorough cleansing.