Thread by @BauerJournalism

Gov. JB Pritzker will have his daily coronavirus update at 2:30 p.m.

I'll live tweet. Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.

From Chicago: blockclubchicago.org/2020/10/22/chi…

You can watch here: multimedia.illinois.gov/press/press-li…

Pritzker: "Illinois is now averaging over 70,000 tests per day. And as of this morning's report, we now have more than 7 million ... since the beginning of the pandemic, a milestone reached just two weeks after we crossed the 6-million mark."

Pritzker: "This pandemic is the greatest challenge that many of us have experienced in our lifetimes."

Pritzker: "We want to restore as much normalcy to people's lives as possible, but that can only happen when we can slow down the community spread and keep it there. The way we do that is implement these measures, hopefully in the short term, to create a safer, more one ...

"landscape so long as we're living in this pandemic. That's how we keep our economy moving forward and get more of our kids in classrooms."

Pritzker: "... Here in Region 4, things have moved, once again, in a concerning direction."

Pritzker: "Nobody wants to go back to tightened and heightened mitigations. We have to make sure that our kids, our elderly residents, our immunocompromised family members, ourt frontline workers and health care staff aren't carrying an undue burden of risk. We have got to get...

"this under control."

Pritzker: "Over the last few weeks, Region 1 has continued to see a resurging positivity rate, now up to 11.9% as of this morning."

Pritzker: Region 1's positivity rate has risen 2 percentage points since Oct. 14. "So starting Sunday, northwestern Illinois will need additional mitigations such as tighter gathering caps of 10 individuals instead of 25 and new restaurant and bar table caps of six instead of ...

"10 when eating out. The existing mitigations that were already put in place in early October will remain, also."

Pritzker: "... At the end of the day, this is bigger than you. This is about all of us an the communities we call home. Wear your mask. Watch your distance. Wash your hands. And get your flu shot. We have to take care of each other."

Dr. Amaal Tokars, assistant director of IDPH: "We are, as the governor was saying, very concerned about the rise, and we use the word 'case,' but these are human beings who are sick. So we are seeing a rise in sickness amongst our brothers and sisters."

Tokars: We're also seeing a rise in hospitalizations and deaths.

Tokars: "Right now, some of the most important things that we can do ... is really this masking and the social distancing and, of course, the hand washing. Even for the flu, we know that this is going to help us very much, as well."

Tokars: "For those that are crossing borders [among states or nationally] where individuals may not be masking or may not be social distancing as much, even if it appears to be sanctioned in these areas, that doesn't make it any safer for us to do so. The virus has no ...

"knowledge of what people's perspective is. It just needs one more host and one more host and one more host. Do not be generous with this virus."

Tokars: 4,942 new cases; total of 360,159.
44 deaths; total of 9,387.
2,463 people hospitalized with COVID, including 525 in ICUs and 212 on ventilators.

Tokars: "There are many places that we go where many good things are happening. We see people with their masks on. We see people keeping their distance. And we see people being very, very careful. But there are other places ... where that seems to disintegrate a bit, that ...

"seems to fall apart ... . These are often some of the places that we gather. It is really important that when you enjoy one another's company that you do it very, very safely and you practice these things. Even small groups, we know, can transmit COVId if they are from ...

"unrelated households and the masking and social distancing are not taking place."

Doctor who's on now honors Dr. Edward Rose, a rheumatologist from the area who was killed by COVID-19.

stlouiscovidmemorial.com/dr-edward-p-ro…

Pritzker: The virus may never go away, even when we have a vaccine and treatments. "Like the flu, for example, it's not like it just goes away."

Pritzker: "We are being very serious and very focused on having the state police not only issue warnings but also issue citations if necessary. We are asking state's attorneys to simply follow through on those citations. Those are monetary citations. ... We will look to remove...

"people's liquor license and their gaming license if they will not follow the resurgence mitigations that get put into place. This is nothing something I've wanted to do before. I think you know I've been reluctant to do this before because it has a very serious implication ...

"for the future of the business. I want businesses to stay in business."

Pritzker: "It is very serious right now, folks, and if we need to close restaurants and bars or take away their liquor license, take away their gaming licenses, we will do that. Because we are now headed into a peak that is beyond, potentially, March and April."

Pritzker: "The communication breakdown is with the way people are spreading these lies." When you test positive, you get a call from a contact tracer. They ask where you were before/after testing. "All those locations are taken down. Among the top locations identified by ...

"people who are contact traced are bars and restaurants. And I think if you just think of your own life and places that you go during the course of 5 or 7 days, one of them is likely to be a bar or restaurant, for many people, anyway."

Press conference over.