New one-day high for COVID-19 deaths: 192

Pritzker targets nursing homes for tests, PPE, renews threats to stay-at-home scofflaws

Lorado Taft’s sculpture “Eternal Silence” attracts a masked visitor during the coronavirus pandemic at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

The governor made stern threats to scofflaws ignoring the stay-at-home order in the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday, as the state reported a new one-day high with 192 deaths due to COVID-19.

Citing the 192 deaths during his daily coronavirus briefing, Gov. Pritzker directly addressed those ignoring the stay-at-home order or threatening to violate it, saying, “How is that not real to you?”

“This is a real disease. This is a serious disease,” said Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “It’s not a hoax. And people need to take it very seriously. Please continue to stay home. Please maintain physical separation or social distancing. Please wear your mask. Please help us decrease the spread of this virus. And please help us save lives.”

“Folks, I know this is hard,” Pritzker said. “I know that people are hurting. This virus has taken many lives and destroyed many livelihoods. COVID-19 has turned our world upside down and stolen our sense of normalcy and stability. … But this virus is still among us. This pandemic is not over.

“Things are not declining,” he added. “There is a flatness to the curve, but not a decline.”

He chided public officials attempting to undermine the stay-at-home order and other mitigation efforts, saying, “You weren’t elected to do what’s easy. You were elected to do what’s right.” And he warned of “consequences” for counties or businesses that violate the order, saying they were leaving themselves open to litigation if people get sick and that damages would not be covered by state or federal funding.

“Let’s be clear,” he added. “What we’re trying to do here is keep people healthy and safe and to reopen the economy simultaneously.” He repeated that the three regions outside the Chicago area as designated by the Restore Illinois plan are all on track to move to the next phase easing restrictions by the end of the month, and he expressed optimism that the Chicago area would as well by lowering its testing positivity rate below 20 percent over the next two weeks.

“What we’re trying to do here is keep people healthy and safe and to reopen the economy simultaneously.”

Gov. Pritzker (Illinois.gov)

Other than the 192 deaths, which brought the statewide toll to 3,792, all other coronavirus data figures were down Wednesday. Ezike reported 1,677 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state total to 84,698, but the 17,668 tests conducted produced a positivity rate below 10 percent, while COVID hospitalizations, patients under intensive care, and those on ventilators all declined.

“Testing is one of the keys to reopening the state safely so that we avoid a potential second wave,” Ezike said.

Pritzker advised restaurant owners asking him to visit their businesses and see how social distancing might work to instead visit a hospital and ask nurses and doctors what they think. He stressed, “It is a minority of folks who are breaking the rules and putting people at risk.”

A national poll released by the Washington Post this week found overwhelming support for governors in their efforts to curtal the pandemic, with 71 percent of Illinoisans backing the governor and 27 percent opposed.

Pritzker dismissed a call by former Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson for people to attend church, calling it “ridiculous” and an “enormous mistake” to urge the already at-risk population of elderly African Americans to gather.

Pritzker and Ezike both emphasized that public-health officials “prioritize” nursing homes, veterans’ homes, and other long-term-care facilities — which have been prone to outbreaks and deaths — with intensive testing and additional shipments of personal protective equipment to more than 1,200 such locations across the state.

“These are some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans, and in this crisis the state is doing everything in its power to protect them,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker cheered word that the General Assembly plans to reconvene in Springfield next week, saying, “It is very important to me that we pass a COVID relief package for the families of the state and the small towns of Illinois and the small businesses.” He said the package should target those passed over by previous federal relief packages, but he also insisted that “vital, vital to this is getting support from the federal government” in the form of another relief package providing funding to states and local governments.