Governor Pritzker begins his press conference today announcing a fifth person from Illinois has died from the Coronavirus.
Pritzker follows up with offering a "window into his decision making," explaining that he spoke with medical experts, mathematicians. "My bedrock has been to rely upon real, actual science around infection rates and potential mortality," @GovPritzker says.
Pritzker announces a stay-at-home order for the state of Illinois. He says the decision weighs on him, but the decision was a choice between saving people's lives or saving their livelihoods. Stay-at-home order begins at 5pm Saturday through April 7th.
"Agriculture and the press, veterinarians and plumbers, laundromats and banks, roads, bridges and transit. The fundamental building blocks that keep our society safe and steady will not be closing down," Pritzker says.
Just now: @GovPritzker: "All non-essential businesses must stop operating."
"I wish I could stand up here and tell you when your schools will safely reopen. But that is not an answer that I have at this time. We're postponing our tentative reopening date statewide until April 8 and will continue to update you with new information as we have it," he says.
Pritzker reiterates the words of his Chief of Staff from yesterday: "We don't have the resources, the capacity or the desire to police every individuals behavior," he says. Adds that he's instructed "law enforcement to monitor for violations and take action when necessary..."
"This decision is necessary," Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot says. "The Coronavirus will not go away by happenstance."
The Governor's Office has created a conference call line for reporters to dial in remotely. We're able to send in our questions in writing. We've been told a press aide will read them verbatim to the Governor for him to answer in real time.
"This is not a lockdown or martial law," Lightfoot says. "There is absolutely no need to change your normal purchasing patterns." "Do not hoard supplies," she cautions.
Folks, you're gonna have to eat all that food at some point.
Folks, you're gonna have to eat all that food at some point.
Chicago parks and libraries to shut down at the Mayor's order, effective tomorrow, Saturday, March 21st.
"I have been relying on experts both here in Illinois and across the nation," Pritzker reiterates. "The research that they've done, the work that they've done, has guided me in many of the decisions that I have made," he says.
Dr. Emily Lee, lead epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine, calls Coronavirus "unforgiving" because it tricks you into thinking you've only got a mild cough. It spreads before you even know you've got it. Says this event is the first time she's left her home in days.
"The numbers you see today are the people who got sick a week ago," Lee says.
Her words of caution are chilling and direct. We're all working from behind on this, and that leads to a sense of inevitable doom as the numbers keep rising while we take drastic measures.
Her words of caution are chilling and direct. We're all working from behind on this, and that leads to a sense of inevitable doom as the numbers keep rising while we take drastic measures.
"It will take more than a week to start seeing the rates of increase slow down," Lee says. "It'll take even longer to see the rate come down and see it slowing and infections going down. Please don't give up," she says.
Sorry, clarification: her name is Dr. Emily Landon. Case of mistaken transcription.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, says, "the state is working with the Department of Health and Human Services to set up drive-thru testing sites in some of the hardest hit areas of the state."
"At no previous time have we seen how interconnected we all are, and how everyone's decision -- or indecision -- can affect others," Dr. Ezike says.
Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth issue joint statement: “Governor Pritzker’s shelter-in-place order is critical to slowing the spread of COVID-19. This pandemic will continue to disrupt our daily lives, but it is more important than ever for all Illinoisans to follow..."
"...official health and safety guidance, practice social distancing, and do everything in their power to avoid infecting themselves and others in their community. Our actions today will save lives tomorrow.” - Sens. Durbin & Duckworth
Pritzker says as a last resort of enforcement, people caught violating the order to stay at home could face misdemeanor charges for reckless conduct.
"There is an effort, I hate to tell you, by the Chinese government and the Russian government to feed into the paranoia," @GovPritzker says.
"There have been a lot of rumors circulating around that are completely inaccurate rumors that there's martial law that's going to be imposed, that we've called out the guard or the military somehow to impose its will upon the state of Illinois. Those are all false," he says.
The Governor says delivery services workers should continue to report to work. He considers them an essential part of the system. He didn't answer a question about domestic travel into and out of Illinois.
If you make things, you should still go to work.
Circling back to Pritzker's "last resort" or charging people caught violating the stay at home order with reckless conduct: "Reckless conduct that endangers or causes bodily harm is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison."
"This is I think one of the hardest periods of time that anybody who works in state government has gone through," Pritzker says. "You should all be proud."
