Guv dismisses new suit as COVID cases top 50k
Pritzker, Ezike turn attention to nursing homes, small businesses
Gov. Pritzker turned his attention to nursing homes and small businesses at his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
The governor dismissed a new lawsuit filed against his stay-at-home order Wednesday, as COVID-19 cases statewide climbed past 50,000.
Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported 2,253 new cases at the daily coronavirus briefing at the Thompson Center, bringing the state total to 50,355. Some 92 new deaths brought the statewide toll to 2,215. Testing remained strong, with 14,478 registered, but hospitalizations rose to 5,036, as did the the number of coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units, at 1,290, and on ventilators, at 777.
While the rising curve of infections has clearly flattened, Gov. Pritzker and Ezike emphasized that cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to increase, thus the need for the extension of the stay-at-home order through May. Pritzker was dismissive of a new suit against the order filed by state Rep. John Cabello of Machesney Park, just outside Rockford, lumping it in with a previous suit filed by state Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia.
“I think it’s a similarly irresponsible lawsuit,” Pritzker said, calling it “another attempt at grandstanding.”
According to Pritzker, Attorney General Kwame Raoul is taking an appeal of a judge’s ruling earlier this week siding with the Bailey suit directly to the state Supreme Court in a bid to quash all such nuisance suits at a single stroke.
The governor said the state is turning its attention to nursing homes and other so-called long-term-care facilities, which have been particularly hard hit in the pandemic with their senior citizens housed together at close quarters. He said the state is intensifying testing at what Ezike called “congregate settings,” with 18,000 swabs going to 68 targeted facilities to collect specimens. He said Quest Diagnostics was processing 3,000 of those tests a day, with results coming back within 48 hours.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is also sending 200 nurses out to nursing homes and the like, assigned to conduct swab testing, train others in that testing, and raise hygiene standards and the use of personal protective equipment. Pritzker added that medical personnel assigned to the McCormick Place Alternate Care Facility and other ACFs across the state were also being redeployed to nursing homes and hospitals where they’re needed.
“These are some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans,” Pritzker said, “and the state will do everything in its power to protect them.”
The governor re-emphasized his commitment to small businesses, which he has pointed out are a main source of jobs across the state. “It is a concern of mine to to open small businesses as soon as possible,” Pritzker said. But the call for social distancing, he added, simply did not allow it at businesses like hair salons, where people are literally face to face.
“There’s no social distancing that can be done in those circumstances,” he said. “We have to be responsible,” Pritzker added. “We’re also keeping the patrons safe.”
President Trump ordered meatpacking plants to remain open this week as critical infrastructure under the Defense Production Act. Pritzker pointed out those plants are under federal jurisdiction, but he called for extra protections for their employees. “The guidelines for those workers in those facilities need work,” he said. He called for all meatpacking workers to be equipped with personal protective equipment like masks, and emphasized that they be allowed to stay home if sick.
Pritzker and Ezike reemphasized that the stay-at-home order — which has thus far served to limit infections, hospitalizations, and deaths — must be maintained statewide.
“The virus is everywhere,” Ezike said.
Pritzker granted that six counties do not have COVID-19 infections, and others have felt minimal impact from the pandemic, “but by population you might have a hot spot in less-populated counties,” as in Jasper County in Bailey’s district outside Effingham, as he pointed out Tuesday, which has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the state.