Illinois going it alone

Pritzker: Illinois is 'going it alone' on tackling coronavirus

Maya Parthasarathy

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Politico•May 10, 2020

106 Comments

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose state has the fourth-most coronavirus cases in the country, said on Sunday he's confident Illinois can safely reopen without relying much on federal support.

"I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they have made promises, not delivered," the Democratic governor said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"We're going it alone, as the White House has left all the states to do," he said, explaining that Illinois is working to grow its testing rate to 64,000 tests a day. And while the number of people who test positive for Covid-19 is increasing, it's because Illinois has increased testing for the virus to 20,000 a day, he said.

The rate at which people are testing positive is actually stable or going down in Illinois, Pritzker added. But the state will continue to enforce rules for social distancing and wearing face coverings in public.

The state is currently in "phase two" of Pritzker's five-part reopening plan, which still includes a stay-at-home order with some nonessential businesses reopening for pickup and delivery.

Phase three, which would allow retail businesses, excluding restaurants and bars, to reopen, would come once Illinois meets the standards he's set out, Pritzker said, including requirements that infection rates, hospitalizations and demands for beds in intensive care units be stable or declining.

Illinois is working to imitate Massachusetts' contact tracing collaborative, and the state has hired a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee who was an expert at the agency’s outbreak intelligence service.

"We think that we can have a massive contact tracing up in the next few weeks," Pritzker said. "In order to reopen businesses, in order for people to feel confident, we have to make sure we're constantly growing those efforts."

The governor also hit back at an editorial in the Chicago Tribune that criticized his reopening efforts as overly cautious.

"If the Chicago Tribune thinks that everything is going to go back to completely normal without us having a very effective treatment or a vaccine, they're just dead wrong," he said.

Above is from:  https://news.yahoo.com/pritzker-illinois-going-alone-tackling-155447617.html