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.
blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/29/ill…
Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.
blockclubchicago.org/2020/05/29/ill…
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health: "Happy Phase 3 of Restore Illinois. While some restrictions are lifting, we must still take personal responsibility to continue the reopening but safely. We must continue to keep our distance and wear face ...
"coverings."
Asymptomatic people can still have COVID-19 and spread it.
Asymptomatic people can still have COVID-19 and spread it.
Ezike: 1,622 new confirmed cases. Total is 117,455.
86 more deaths. Total is 5,270.
More than 850,000 tests have been run, with 21,796 in the last 24 hours.
As of midnight, 3,599 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. 980 in ICUs and 593 on ventilators.
86 more deaths. Total is 5,270.
More than 850,000 tests have been run, with 21,796 in the last 24 hours.
As of midnight, 3,599 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. 980 in ICUs and 593 on ventilators.
Ezike: "Our goal, of course, is to watch the hospitalization numbers go down, as well."
Contact tracing can help. It'll help them identify people who could have been infected by a confirmed COVID patient.
Contact tracing can help. It'll help them identify people who could have been infected by a confirmed COVID patient.
Ezike: "There is no question: Contact tracing plays a vital role in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19. But there will be scammers pretending to be contact tracers and potentially trying to take advantage of how this process work." NO contact tracer will ask you for money,...
"your social security number, your bank account number or credit card number. "That is, in fact, a scam."
Pritzker: "Illinois, today you have officially entered the next phase of our path forward. As of today, thousands of our small businesses in nearly every municipality around the state are opening their doors again safely."
Pritzker: "Today, I'll be signing a new executive order that reflects the changes under Phase 3 of Restore Illinois."
Pritzker: "This brings to an end Illinois' stay at home executive order." You can see success in the declining positivity rate, declining hospitalization, declining number of deaths and declining number of ICU beds being used.
Pritzker: "The new executive order, called the Community Recovery Order, reflects our new, more open reality." There's still a limit of 10 for groups and you still need to maintain social distance and wear face coverings.
Pritzker: "The state and national economy demand that we take action to protect people as best we can from the financial challenges that COVID-19 has brought on." That means ban on evictions is being extended, as is the moratorium on shutoffs.
Pritzker: "The significant personal pain that Illinoisans are feeling from this pandemic does not end with our stay at home order. Indeed, it's more important than ever to support our working families as we" begin to recover. "The journey is far from over. Let's be clear on ...
"this: The virus is still out there and it is still very dangerous. But here's what's different: In March we became the second state in the nation to put a stay at home order in effect in order to reduce the potential for exponential spread and unimaginable suffering and to ...
"prevent our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and be unable to comfort and treat COVID-19 patients and those with other emergencies. And over many weeks, we did just that. Not me and not Dr. Ezike; all of you. Millions of Illinoisans doing the right thing for their ...
"communities ... ."
We're averaging nearly 250 fewer COVID-19 patients in ICU each day than we were four weeks ago, a 20% decrease.
We're averaging nearly 40 fewer COVID-19-related deaths per day than we were two weeks ago, a 32% decrease.
"Illinois became the first state in ...
We're averaging nearly 250 fewer COVID-19 patients in ICU each day than we were four weeks ago, a 20% decrease.
We're averaging nearly 40 fewer COVID-19-related deaths per day than we were two weeks ago, a 32% decrease.
"Illinois became the first state in ...
"the nation to meet the White House guidelines to move to the next phase of reopening. ... The path to this point has been tremendously difficult, no doubt. We have lost over 5,000 of our fellow Illinoisans to this virus. It's a harrow number, and it's just over a few months. ...
"Many of our residents have lost someone they loved — a family member, a friend — to this virus. I have, too. If you're someone who doesn't know a single person who has died because of COVID-19 or been hospitalized because of COVID-19, that doesn't mean that pain isn't real ...
"for another mother, another child, another friend. I hope you will take a moment to grieve for their loss."
"Our No. 1 priority must be the healthy and safety of workers, families and all of our state's residents."
82 days ago, they held the first daily briefing. They've been...
"Our No. 1 priority must be the healthy and safety of workers, families and all of our state's residents."
82 days ago, they held the first daily briefing. They've been...
held almost every day since.
"As the state moves into Phase 3 of our Restore Illinois plan, our daily update will be replaced by briefings specifically dedicated to COVID-19 only on as-needed basis. That will start on Monday."
"As the state moves into Phase 3 of our Restore Illinois plan, our daily update will be replaced by briefings specifically dedicated to COVID-19 only on as-needed basis. That will start on Monday."
Pritzker: "From the very moment I announced my decision to run for governor three-plus years ago, I said this President was a racist, misogynist, homophobe, xenophobe. And I was right then and I'm right now. His tweets, his reaction, his failure to address the racism that ...
"exists in America, his stoking of the flames in sometimes subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways is completely unacceptable. IT's reprehensible, in fact. I'm outraged by what he does in response to these situations. This is — I cannot imagine the rage and the fear that must ...
"be felt by a Black American watching what happened to George Floyd. The threat that comes to every Black American under color of law that they see in a video like that — we're lucky that video was ever taken because that is happening around America probably every day. ...
"Unfortunately, time and time again, even when these videos come out, even when so many of us have the feeling of it's time for a major change and we work toward that change, somehow for Black America it never really comes. And that's unacceptable. To me, the progress that ...
"should have been made has failed. So, we have so much that we need to accomplish in this country, but especially we need to address the underlying racism that clearly exists, and I will be a bulwark of change and somebody who believes to my core that we must change. And I ...
"want to send my condolences to the family of George Floyd and also to every African American in this country."
Pritzker on churches: "From the very beginning, I have said that the most important thing that houses of worship can do and faith leaders can do is to keep their parishioners safe. That's why we put out guidelines even in Phase recommending to people that they have services ...
"that are either online or drive-up services or in groups of 10 or less because that's the safety guidelines that have been recommended by the experts. All along I have followed that science, those recommendations, and I would recommend that every faith leader do that. ... I ...
"would never do anything to go break up a service, to interfere with religion. What I have done is implored leaders to not gather parishioners ... ."
Pritzker: You can call a hotline at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity or look online for guidelines for things like day camps, organized activities, etc.
Pritzker: "Talk about hollowing-out — look what happened two years in a row with no budget in this state. That's what hollowed out our state ... ."
Pritzker: "... It's clear that people support the stay at home order, that people are deeply concerned to make sure their fellow Illinoisans are kept safe and healthy and that people support what we've done to keep people safe in Illinois."
Pritzker: "Certainly I will be signing, there's a number of pieces of legislation that came through and I will be signing them."
Pritzker: "Those numbers are an indicator of where we've been and where we intend to go."
Pritzker: "We're competing against everybody else in the nation for a limited amount of supplies and because we all need to ramp up testing in a massive way. I think we've been more successful than most other states at doing it ... ."
Pritzker: "But there's so much more to do. I would like to test much, much more ... ."
Pritzker on WHO: "What I'll tell ya is the World health Organization is one of several very important organizations that I think all of us have looked for guidance from. ... It seems as if President Trump is withdrawing us from the rest of the world, and I think we saw what ...
"happens to a nation when you withdraw, what happens in terms of chaos around the world when the United States is not leading. And unfortunately that's where President Trump has taken us ... ."
Pritzker: "I don't have a plan to travel outside the state right now, but I've never said people couldn't travel outside the state."
Pritzker: "Traveling is a safe thing to do, but making sure that when you go to a state that has fewer restrictions that you're not engaged in an activity that epidemiologists are telling us are relatively unsafe and put you at risk of catching COVID-19."
Pritzker: "We didn't need to use much of it, or at least a lot of it. But we were prepared and we will be prepared as we think about the problem of, 'Could there be a surge in the fall?' We want to make sure that we're keeping warm all of those alternate situations that we ...
"created. ... I think until COVID goes away we're gonna have to have some degree of alternate housing and alternate care facilities. Until you get a very, very good treatment or a vaccine, we don't want to get caught short, and so we're gonna do everything we can ... ."
Pritzker: "We're about covering about 30 percent of the contact tracing of people who are contacts, and we need to get above 60 percent. We're trying (?) to get there, and again it's a large endeavor. We have 97 local health departments that we're coordinating with. They're ...
"doing a terrific job, by the way; more than 80 of them are already very active in helping us build up this contact tracing capability."
Pritzker: "I am happy, too; I'm very happy that people have been so good to each other and stayed with this enormous challenge. We're all doing exactly what I would hope we would. And that doesn't really surprise me; the people of Illinois are some of the most generous, ...
"genuinely giving people; that doesn't surprise me. I can't finish an answer without saying we have to be careful. Things, as they open up, also mean that opportunities to catch COVID-19 open up. Wearing your face covering in public and other people wearing theirs is an ...
"enormously important thing to do going forward. All of the experts, the true experts, have recognize this and that's why we put in a face covering requirement when you're in public. ... Please wash your hands. Please be careful. Don't gather in large groups. All of those ...
"situations ... those are the situations in which we get an outbreak and those are the situations in which people go to the hospital and, ultimately, some of them die. ... If we can just follow the rules going forward as we're opening up, we can do this safely ... ."
Ezike: There are many studies going on with remdesivir. It hasn't necessarily been shown to be curative, but it has decreased the number of days people are hospitalized.
Ezike: "It has shown in the early studies to decrease the number of days of hospitalization, so that's what we can say we know about remdesivir. And other drugs are in the pipeline, as well."
Pritzker: "I will sign that bill. I think it's important, especially in this moment in our history, in the middle of this crisis that we expand health care."
Pritzker: "I told you what I think; I'm pretty blunt about this, he's a racist. I'm not sure what else I need to say that's more severe than that. Precisely everything I have fought against my entire life is represented by what he tweets and says and foments."
Pritzker: "We're trying very hard to pinpoint the communities that are most vulnerable, make sure there's testing there, but also make sure it's available to everyone in the state. First responders and health care workers and people who have compromised immune systems, there ...
"isn't an easy way to pinpoint a community that each of those people might live in. So we just need to have it everywhere."
Ezike: "I'm grateful for the support that most of Illinois has shared. I think it's so evident that leading means having an amazing team of people to work together with and collaborate with. And at this level, it's involved working with our various state agencies, working with...
"our local health departments, working with all community-based organizations. Leading just means collaborating on this stage with this COVID pandemic, it's meant collaborating on just the most intense levels across all bandwidth, up and down all levels. Really, the more ...
"that's done, the more successful we can be. I think Illinois has just been a shining example of what leadership means in terms of collaboration and working together and making sure everyone can have input to make sure we get the best result. I think we've done that as the ...
"first state to actually meet the White House metrics; I think that's a very laudable goal that we have to celebrate. It also involved the people of Illinois being able to trust their leadership and being wanting to follow the direction we were trying to lead in."
Pritzker: "I don't know exactly how to describe what it's taught me about myself. I will say it has really tested everyone in state government. It has tested everyone. Think about the workers that needed to come to work because what they do every day, providing services at our...
"veterans homes or for our developmentally disabled or helping people file their unemployment claims or the many people at the Department of Public Health who have worked 24 hours a day — we have some unbelievably dedicated public services. ... As someone who has not held ...
"elective office before becoming governor, I did have some great pride in people who work in government, but I don't think I had seen it this up close and this intense an environment ever before. I think the people of Illinois should be just so proud. ... I'm talking about ...
"Dr. Ezike, the people who are answering the phones, the people who are actually one-on-one serving people ... . They're second to none."
Pritzker: "We're no longer in a stay at home order, and there's a lot that has evolved, but much will remain. And we do want to make sure there's a bill that passed on telehealth, and I'm very glad it did ... ."
