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SPRINGFIELD – Two more of the 11 regions of the state’s COVID-19 mitigation plan have reached a threshold necessitating increased restrictions, joining two other regions which remain above the key metric. Will and Kankakee counties in Region 7 and DuPage and Kane counties in Region 8 will be closed for indoor service at bars and restaurants and will see capacity limits of 25 people or 25 percent of maximum occupancy among other restrictions. The mitigations will take effect Friday. “Numbers throughout most of the regio...
SPRINGFIELD — New confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the number of tests results reported skyrocketed Friday, reflecting the clearing of a data backlog in the state’s public reporting of case counts. The backlog lasted approximately two days and drove down test counts, apparently starting Tuesday, Sept. 1. After clearing the backlog by Friday, Illinois Department of Public Health reported 5,368 new cases among 149,273 test results recorded over 24 hours. That made for a 3.6 percent one-day positivity rate. The number, taken by...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker announced a new tool to track county-by-county progress in the fight against the novel coronavirus Thursday, but as the state readied to enter the next phase of reopening, he also warned that he would not hesitate to move certain regions backward if progress subsides. The announcement came as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 894 new cases of COVID-19 over the previous 24 hours, the most since June 6 when there were 975 reported. But IDPH also announced there were 31,686 t...
SPRINGFIELD - Illinois released new guidelines for schools, colleges and universities to return to in-person learning in the fall, but leaders warned those plans could change if health metrics related to the COVID-19 pandemic stop improving. "This fall will not be business as usual, and we will update our guidance as needed," Carmen Ayala, state superintendent of education, said during a news conference Tuesday in Chicago. "In response to challenging and changing public...
SPRINGFIELD — Restaurants across the state are set to open for indoor dining Friday among other additions to allowable activities under the state’s Restore Illinois plan. The state on Monday released new guidance for reopening businesses. Restaurants must arrange their seating facilities so that tables are 6 feet apart and parties larger than 10 people will not be allowed, per state guidelines. Standing areas such as bars will be allowed to operate at no more than 25 percent of capacity, and staff is required to wear fac...
The state health department filed emergency rules Thursday mandating long-term care facilities to develop testing plans to better protect residents and ensure they are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic appropriately. “The overwhelming majority of long-term care facilities in Illinois are privately run,” Gov. JB Pritzker said during his daily COVID-19 news conference Thursday in Chicago. “In response to the COVID-19 crisis, some of those facilities have acted proactively, some only reactively.” Pritzker said of roughly...
SPRINGFIELD — All of the state’s 5,000-plus child care providers not in operation will be advised to reopen Friday, May 29, provided the state’s four regions under Gov. JB Pritzker’s reopening plan continue to progress toward the third phase of the plan by that date. Providers that have been closed must develop a reopening plan that ensures they have revised operational and preparedness policies in place before opening, the governor said. All providers will be expected to resume compliance with all licensing standar...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday announced the launch of Illinois’ contact tracing program and defended an emergency rule filed Friday to allow for misdemeanor charges against businesses defying his stay-at-home order. The contact-tracing effort for COVID-19 — one that is required to move the state along the governor’s “Restore Illinois” reopening plan — will begin in two pilot counties. Pritzker said contact tracing, which was used early on in the state’s coronavirus outbreak when the number of cases was manageably...
SPRINGFIELD — The state saw its largest daily increase in COVID-19-related deaths with 192 Wednesday as Gov. JB Pritzker warned business owners and local governments of consequences they will face if they defy his stay-at-home order. Pritzker said there are no “easy decisions” in a pandemic and said he sympathizes with local elected leaders struggling with difficult choices. “But what I don’t have sympathy for is those so intent on disregarding science and logic, so afraid to tell their constituents what they may not want...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday he would consider withholding federal pass-through funds to counties ignoring his stay-at-home order and said it “would be best” for the General Assembly to meet before the end of May to take up key state business. When asked in his daily COVID-19 briefing via videoconference Tuesday if the state would consider withholding federal aid to counties reopening early, Pritzker said, “we would consider that.” “The state already provides a lot of support for cities and counties,...
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker said the state is making modest progress in terms of COVID-19 hospitalizations and that his stay-at-home order will continue to be enforced at a local, not statewide, level. The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday reported 2,341 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 63,840. IDPH also reported 46 additional deaths — the lowest daily number since April 19 — related to novel coronavirus, bringing that total to 2,662. “As to the number of fatalities today, I would just encourage...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker urged southern Illinoisans to continue to comply with a stay-at-home order and named a pair of counties where the rate of those killed by the virus is higher than in Cook County. As he was speaking at his daily briefing Monday in Chicago, however, a Clay County judge was ruling against his authority to implement such an order. When told by reporters that the judge had ruled against his stay-at-home order, Pritzker blasted Republican Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, who filed the lawsuit challenging...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday the state’s COVID-19 peak could come in mid-May and he is examining the current stay-at-home order for potential changes. The governor made the comments during a Washington Post Live interview with reporter Robert Costa. Pritzker said people “have really been abiding by” the state’s second-in-the-nation stay-at-home order, which he said led to fewer deaths and hospitalizations than anticipated at this point. “And so the result of that has been the pushing out of what had been an...
SPRINGFIELD — The percentage of intensive care beds and ventilators in use in Illinois remained relatively flat since last week as state officials on Tuesday announced another encouraging sign that Illinois is “flattening the curve” in dealing with the novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19. However, that and the fact the number of virus-related deaths are doubling every 5.5 days now — as opposed to every 2.5 days at the beginning of April — does not mean there are immediate plans to lift a stay-at-home order that’s be...
SPRINGFIELD — Another 82 people have died from complications of novel coronavirus disease in Illinois and the state announced more than 1,529 new cases Wednesday as Gov. JB Pritzker said testing still lags behind public health officials’ goal. Both cases and deaths once again saw their largest single-day spikes, but Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said at the daily COVID-19 briefing in Chicago that the rate of increase in cases from day to day is beginning to decline. “You’re not seeing the exp...
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday he has “given up” on an adequate coronavirus response from the federal government and announced an expansion of emergency child care during his daily COVID-19 briefing Sunday in Chicago. At the same briefing, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Illinois Department of Public Health director, announced 899 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 along with 31 more deaths. That brings the total to 11,256 confirmed cases and 274 deaths from the virus in 71 of Illinois’ 102 counties. Boone, Calhoun and Gallati...
SPRINGFIELD – COVID-19 has now claimed 210 lives in Illinois as officials reported 53 more deaths and 1,209 new confirmed cases Friday during a news conference at a Chicago convention center that will house patients with the virus in the coming weeks. The McCormick Place convention center can now treat 500 non-intensive care COVID-19 patients in rooms measuring 10 square feet, with the plan of eventually growing it to a capacity of 3,000 by the end of April. The first phase also included 14 nursing stations and support r...
K-12 schools will remain closed and a stay-at-home order for Illinoisans will remain in place through April 30, as Gov. JB Pritzker announced during his daily COVID-19 briefing Tuesday that he plans on extending those orders on Wednesday. Pritzker’s office said businesses permitted to operate in his previous stay-at-home executive order issued March 20 — such as grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies and other businesses providing services deemed essential in the order — may remain open. “If we can end these orders earlier...
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 461 new cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths in the state Monday as an outbreak worsened at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill. IDPH said one of the deceased was an inmate at Stateville, and 12 other inmates from the facility are now hospitalized with several requiring ventilators. IDPH said 77 others imprisoned at the facility have symptoms and are in isolation, and 11 prison staff members are isolated as well. “The Illinois Department of Cor...
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker announced new measures benefiting the homeless and people on supplemental nutrition programs Friday and continued to pressure the federal government for further, centralized action in response to COVID-19. At the same daily briefing in Chicago, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced 488 new confirmed cases of the virus and eight more related deaths in Illinois. Pritzker said the state is also working on collecting numbers of hospitalizations caused by C...
SPRINGFIELD — The number of parties suing medical supply sterilization company Sterigenics on claims that its ethylene oxide gas emissions caused serious health problems grew to 73 last week, according to a law firm representing 18 of the plaintiffs. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, chronic exposure to ethylene oxide gas can cause increased cancer risks, reproductive effects and other major medical problems. Sterigenics used the chemical to sterilize medical supplies at its Willowbrook facility for more than 30 y...
SPRINGFIELD — Sterigenics, a medical supply sterilization company linked to increased cancer risk in the DuPage County area, said Monday it plans to “exit its ethylene oxide sterilization operations in Willowbrook.” Since February, Sterigenics was prohibited from using the gas by a seal order from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which effectively forced its closure. A consent agreement between the state, DuPage County and Sterigenics approved earlier this month gave the company clearance to install the neces...
SPRINGFIELD — A DuPage County judge approved a consent order Friday that will allow Sterigenics, a medical supply sterilization company linked to increased cancer rates in the Willowbrook area, to reopen if it meets stringent new requirements. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin issued a statement saying their consent order with Sterigenics gives their offices “the tools to act quickly to protect the community and hold Sterigenics accountable for any future violations of Il...
