A global pandemic requires a national response.
But that’s not what happened.
We took action here early, with Illinois’ hospital leaders, epidemiologists, modelers, public health officials and emergency management leaders quickly helping to put plans together.
In consultation w/ local officials, I shut down St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, then closed bars & restaurants, and then schools. We were the 2nd state to issue a stay-at-home order.
Illinois is home to the country’s 3rd largest metro area and to major international transit and tourism sectors – we had all the potential to become a major early hotspot like New York, and like Florida and Texas have now become.
Our curve peaked approximately six weeks later.
Even as our testing continues to grow to over 30,000 tests per day now, our COVID cases are down 71% from a high nine weeks ago.
Our case positivity rate was over 23%, and it’s now at 2.5%.
Let me be clear:
This is not a reality TV show.
These are real things that are happening in the United States of America in the year 2020.
But when the same emergency is crashing down on every state at once, that’s a national emergency, and it requires a national response.
A bipartisan coalition of governors thanks the House for taking swift action on state and local support in the HEROES Act.
Testing is not a one-off tactic: we need regular testing across our populations, and that means people need to know their insurance will cover their testing every time.
We instituted ours in Illinois on May 1st, one of the first in the nation, and it aligns with our most significant downward shifts in our infection rate.