Thread by @BauerJournalism

Gov. JB Pritzker has his daily coronavirus briefing at 2:30 p.m. I'll live tweet it. Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.

Our latest story: blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/13/cor…

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, speaking. "As we continue to fight this pandemic, it has become clear that there are no clear black or white answers. Everything is in shades of gray."

Ezike: Health departments "are not the enemy." The virus is. "Please understand the pressure these dedicated workers are under."
Today, 1,677 new cases of COVID-19. Total of 84,698.
Death total at 3,792. 192 more deaths — most in a day so far.

Ezike: "Testing is one of the keys to reopening the state safely so that we avoid a potential second wave."

Ezike: 489,000+ tested performed; 17,668 reported in the last 24 hours.
"With the increase of testing around Illinois, for sure there are an increase in positive COVID-19 cases detected. That is expected."

Ezike: "The positivity rate statewide thus far is 17 percent." That tracks May 3-10.

"As of last night, 4,563 people were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19 illness." 1,208 were in ICU and 714 were on ventilators.

Ezike: "These are real people, and there are families and loved ones who are suffering with each of them whether in their illness" or through their death.

Ezike: "Please help us decrease the spread of this virus and please help us save lives." Wear a mask and stay home.

Pritzker on longterm care facilities: "As you know, we have been focused on these facilities" since early in the crisis.

Pritzker: Staff at facilities "have had some of the longest-standing access to testing in Illinois. IDPH has prioritized testing at longterm care facilities, home to our vulnerable populations, where a COVID infection is more likely to lead to high-severity cases, especially ...

"among communities of color."

Pritzker: Quest and IDPH are working to scale up deliveries and do a 48-hour turnaround for testing results.

Pritzker: The state has delivered PPE to all 102 counties.

Pritzker: "Our state stockpile always provides a backup for them and is not the primary supplier for private businesses, such as nursing homes."

Pritzker: "In this crisis, the state is doing everything in its power to protect them. So to assure that all facilities have their own stockpiles, IEMA and IDPH have coordinated a somewhat-unprecedented effort to directly deliver PPE to more than 1,200 nursing homes and other ...

"longterm care facilities across the state. These shipments began on April 30 and have reached more than 85% of these facilities, with the final deliveries expected in the coming days.
"Each shipment contains PPE for managing 200 residents, and facilities with more than 200 ...

"beds will receive two shipments." They include KN95 and N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, face shields, hand sanitizer and shoe covers.
The state is also allowing them to use a free decontamination system so they can reuse some PPE.

Pritzker: Masks can be decontaminated up to 20 times without experiencing any reduction in performance.
"The vast, vast majority of Illinois' longterm care facilities are private entities. But our four veterans homes are state-operated."

Pritzker: The four VA facilities had to start screening visitors and employees starting March 5. "By March 10, that directive was elevated to stop all vendors from entering the facility, put an end to all off-campus resident activities beyond critical medical appointments, ...

"restrict all family visits except for end-of-light events, end all construction projects at facilities and modified dining protocols ... . These restrictions have evolved contemporaneously with IDPH and CDC guidance, including the masking of all employees at facilities and ...

"the expansion of employee screenings through three times per shift." They take temps at the beginning, middle and end of each shift.
All have been tested for COVID-19.

Results of testing at Illinois VA facilities:
One of 153 residents at LaSalle was found to be positive in May. No new cases.
Five positives among 51 at Anna.
30 of 220 residents and 19 employees out of 307 positive at Mantino between April-May.

No known positive residents/staff at Quincy.

A Mantino VA resident who had been in hospice for several months for other conditions recently tested positive and has died.

Pritzker: The staff at VA homes are operating with "extreme vigilance."

STORY HERE: blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/13/ill…

Pritzker: "COVID-19 has turned our world upside down and stolen our sense of normalcy and stability. I want this to end just as much as you do. If I could take away the pain and the loss you're feeling right now, I would do it in a heartbeat. But this virus is still among us. ...

"This pandemic is not over. And to pretend otherwise in a misguided attempt to reclaim what we've lost will only make this last longer. For leaders, there are no easy decisions in a pandemic. Every choice, every choice, has consequences. And I know leaders across the state ...

"are struggling with these choices, and I have sympathy for them int hat struggle. 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 to hear, that they put more people's lives ...

"at risk. ... You weren't elected to do what's easy. You were elected to do what's right. To the small minority of businesses that choose to ignore the medical doctors and the data and to ignore your legal obligations to the residents of your communities, there will be ...

"consequences. Businesses and [individuals] will be held accountable. ... Counties that try to reopen in defiance may not be reimbursed by FEMA for damages" they incur by ignoring the law. Police "can and will take action.
"But there is no consequence the state could impose ...

"that is greater than the harm you will do to your own communities. 192 Illinoisans lost their lives to this virus in the past 24 hours. 192. How is that not real to you? More people will get sick and admitted to the hospital and die if we don't stay the course and follow the ...

"guidance the experts have provided. ... Step up and lead. Now more than ever, your communities need you. Don't let them down."

Pritzker on his controversial comments about baseball yesterday: "I absolutely support that right [for baseball players to bargain]. I should have made that more clear."

Context:

https://twitter.com/BauerJournalism/status/1260308437642219521

Pritzker: Businesses that ignore the law will be held accountable by licensing bodies and the state. "There are enforcement mechanisms here that we will be using against them, and I would again implore the leaders of these communities not to give in to the minority of ...

"residents who are clamoring to ignore the science and the data but instead to follow the rules, follow the law and, most importantly, to keep the residents of your community safe."

Pritzker: "I, of course, talk to business owners everywhere in the state and have been doing so especially over the last two months" as state built supports. "I love to travel the state, love to go into communities." But at this point, he can't safely shake hands with/hug people.

Pritzker: "I would suggest tot he business owners who are thinking about reopening against the rules, breaking the law, that they come to Chicago and go to a hospital in Chicago. Or go to a hospital near them that has COVID-19 patients and talk to" nurses and doctors and ask ...

what it means to them that people follow the stay at home rules. "Frankly, most people are doing the right thing. And most people understand why we have a stay at home rule. It is a minority of folks who are breaking the rules and putting people in danger."

Pritzker: "First of all, if you look very closely at the data, things are not declining. The numbers that you want to have declining are not. There is a flatness, a flattening of the curve, but not a decline. So what we want to do is watch as we reopen — remember, there were ...

"many changes that were made in the stay at home order May 1, so once you make those changes what you want to do is watch and see whether there is an increase in the caseload, int he positivity rate, in the hospitalizations and so on. The same thing will happen once we enter ...

"Phase 3." That's 16 days away. "We're gonna wait and watch because people don't get sick immediately. What happens is they get sick, they get exposed, and then they get sick over time and then they end up in a hospital, some number of them, and then in an ICU bed and so on. ...

"And that happens over the course of several weeks. So it's very important that we watch and carefully monitor what's happening in each region."
But he's "very glad" three of the state's four regions are on track for Phase 3.

Pritzker: It looks like the Northeast Region, which has Chicago, could hit the mark and progress to Phase 3 now.

Pritzker: "When people get sick and when they die, that, that, too, has an economic cost. And aside from the terrible cost to families and communities, there's also an economic cost to our state when that's happening. take that into account when you're suggesting we follow a ...

"different path."

Pritzker spoke to positive staff member today and that person is feeling fine.

Pritzker: "I realize that it is difficult when you can't file, if there's some problem with your filing online and it requires perhaps an arbitration or it requires some other intervention that it does mean you'll have to have a personal discussion with somebody. We're working...

"very hard, we just spun up this outside call center to add on top of the internal IDES ... . We're getting to them as fast as possible, again, with an unprecedented" number of filings, "it is difficult."

Pritzker: "The White House just the other day suggested what all the states do effectively what Illinois has been doing for some time now."

Pritzker: "Our testing capability is spinning up all over the state; nursing homes are among the highest priority."

Pritzker: "We do have the legal right to issue those executive orders, especially here in the context of a disaster declaration. And, as you know, that's something that enables the governor of the state to take actions to protect the health and safety of people across the ...

"state, and that's what I've been doing."

Pritzker: "It's a ridiculous call on the part of Willie Wilson. The idea of encouraging pastors to bring what amounts to a large population of elderly African Americans to church to get together, not only in defiance of the executive order but also putting them at significant ...

"risk. Think about it — we're talking about senior citizens who, as we know, are a vulnerable population. And add on top of that African American senior citizens ... and they are especially vulnerable, as well. Those double sets of co-morbidities, putting those groups of ...

"people together in large groups, is an enormous mistake and I would suggest that Willie Wilson do his homework, that he look at what the science and data says that will do to people obviously I care deeply about and I assume he does, too."

Ezike: "I can make sure that the data team and the IT team look into that and make sure those are updated for you."

In April, Ezike said even people with a clear alternate cause of death were listed as COVID deaths. Yesterday, she said those deaths are being removed.
Her response: "We are calculating, obviously, the numbers. We get reported deaths to us and so, again, ... because we are ...

"getting the information and turning it over the same day we're getting it, it doesn't give us enough time to go through and make sure" there aren't some that are wrong and should be attributed to another cause of death, people who got counted twice, etc. "Again, not being ...

"able to have enough time in an effort to get the information out to the public so quickly, some of that review cannot happen. And so when it happens on the backend — and we do try to remove things that are clearly not intended to be listed among the COVID deaths — and so we ...

"are trying to remove ... . We are trying to remove those numbers to make sure these are accurate."

Ezike: "We have assembled a team, along with our IDPH staff, who are going to convene ... . Again, with this inflammatory disease that's associated sometimes with shock, it's a spectrum of disorders. In some cases you'll have the individual have coronary artery involvement; ...

"sometimes they don't. That's why there's a team of specialists convening so they can come up with some agreed-upon criteria" that IDPH will then use.

Ezike: "We don't want to put off important preventative care, and that's for adults, as well. People should seek care if there's any concern about their children ... ."

Pritzker: If an employer is negligent and putting people at risk, complaints can be filed with the Department of Labor, the Attorney General's Office and private actions people can take.

Ezike: "The issue is we have more testing. I think we've always known that if we saw a day, in the early days when we had very limited capacity and to do maybe 100 or 200, that if you did those many tests you would get a certain number of positives. But we knew that for that ...

"one positive, that wasn't the only positive in the state. For every positive we knew that there were many other people who did not get tested" who had symptoms.

Ezike: "... It's a great thing we're increasing our capacity for testing." The percent of positivity isn't going up. "The concern that, 'Oh my goodness, maybe things are getting worse in terms of the higher number of cases,' the higher numbers of cases are because we're ...

"testing more people."

Pritzker: "I'm glad the Legislature is going to return to Springfield, and I certainly look forward to seeing people in Springfield as a result of their return. ... Very important to me that we pass a COVID relief package for the families of the state, for the small towns of ...

"Illinois and for the small businesses. Much of the work that was done at the federal level missed out on supporting many people .... The PPP program, for example, many small businesses were never able to access." They want to make sure small businesses "we want to make sure ...

"that they survive and thrive. A COVID relief package [is] very important to do. How will we pay for it? ... We have real challenges with the loss of revenue because of COVID-19. We need to rely upon the federal government and its support for all the states in order for us to ...

"provide the services people need, in order for us to pay for the education kids need and for us to support" families in the wake of the crisis.

Pritzker: "I haven't evaluated the application that the Pier put in. We have very important functions of the city, of the county, of the state. These facilities, institutions that need to be supported — Navy Pier, McCormick Place, others — it's very important, I think, that ...

"they are supported ... . As an institution, I think it's important to preserve those parts of Chicago that will be very important for us to come out of the crisis we're in now and to come out of the financial doldrums we're in now. People will want to go back to Navy Pier and...

"we need to make sure the Pier is strong."

Pritzker: "It's important that we have a plan here for balancing the budget. We have challenges that really require the federal government to be involve din terms of areas that I think are vital for us going forward, you know how important it has been to me to lift up, to ...

" improve our Department of Children and Family Services. To see that cut in any significant way would be really damaging, frankly. I think that's one area where I can identify I really don't want to see us do any damage to the progress we've already made and keep us moving ...

"in a forward direction. ... We need to invest in our public health infrastructure, and now more than ever. ... There could be another pandemic that comes along, another health care crisis, public health crisis. We need to invest in the fundamentals of our public health ...

"system, including our county health system. There's a lot we're gonna have to work on in this budget but vital, vital, to this is getting support from the federal government. There's no chance we won't have to suffer severe, damaging cuts ... if we don't get any support. ...

"That's what's gonna happen to our state. We're gonna see just an enormous hole where we've made so much progress."

Ezike on cases at processing plants: "They're helping with mass testing of staff, there is cleaning being done. "We also want to make sure staff knows ... that they have rights and they have to practice social distancing, and we want people to be able to speak up if they think...

"in these different work settings that the appropriate social distancing is not being performed. I think we have been involved in many of these, as well as the local health department we've brought in federal assistance ... . We're hoping that as we go forth we will just be ...

"able to be more seamless in how we roll out the protocols and that other companies in the same situation will be able to take not only the preventative strategies ... but will be able to move quickly to keep people as safe as possible and to do the required steps to ensure ...

"operations can continue and workers can be kept safe."

Pritzker: "What's important to us is that people get tested." A drive-thru site in Bloomington was underperforming.

Pritzker: "The other drive-thru facilities have done much, much more. ... So we want to promote and encourage people to get tested. We reached out, spoke with some of the leaders in Bloomington and were assured they would encourage people to use the drive-thru testing in ...

"Bloomington, and so we've extended the drive-thru in Bloomington through next week."

Pritzker: "When it's determined that there are rules that will keep everybody safe. That's the most important thing. Obviously in our restore Illinois we didn't list every single industry, including harness racing or horse racing. But we are making sure that each industry has ...

"a set of guidelines, and we've encouraged industry leaders ... what the proper rules should be in each industry. How far apart do people need to be? Can they safely distance on t
he backstretch, for example? And when they're wind up in a race, how far apart do they really ...

"need to be? ... All those things need to be considered. Obviously, as we've talked about with other major league sports, there will not be, at least at the beginning, fans in the stands. But it is possible, I think, to see, or at least I can imagine, there will be some ...

"approval at some point for all of horse racing. But, again, I'm gonna leave that for the experts, particularly the doctors, to make sure everybody can do it safely."

Press conference over. Story: blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/13/fac…