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To:
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Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) Members
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From:
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Mark Biel, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] or 217/522-5805
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Re:
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Afternoon Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – 3,491 Confirmed Cases, 47 Deaths; Companies Responding to Outbreak; CICI Member Services
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This afternoon, the Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting 47 deaths, including an infant, out of 3,491 now-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 465 new cases since yesterday. In total, 25,429 people have been tested for the virus, an increase of 3,887 new tests since yesterday.
You can see where these cases are occurring at the State of Illinois COVID-19 website which also contains more information on this outbreak. In addition, Western Illinois University has an put together this Map of COVID-19 Cases in Illinois & Surrounding States to give you a better picture of where COVID-19 cases are at in relation to areas surrounding Illinois.
Companies Responding to Outbreak: Numerous companies, including a number of CICI members, are integrally involved in the monumental effort to combat this outbreak. This morning, a memo from CICI was sent out to all regular and affiliate members concerning a new prototype respirator developed by the engineering folks at the University of Illinois. So far, the prototype works as effectively as commercial respirators.
For more information, please visit http://rapidvent.grainger.illinois.edu. The challenge now is moving to the next step of manufacturing parts for these respirators. If you or your customers manufacture parts – particularly plastic parts, we need their assistance. If you or your customers can help, please go to https://www.imec.org/supply-chain-preparedness/ to register as a supplier.
In addition, Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that 3M is using “surge capacity” to increase the production of the vitally-needed N95 masks to fight this pandemic, aiming to make more than a billion N95 masks by the end of the year.
Also, yesterday Medline resumed sterilization services at its Waukegan facility following the installation of new, state-of-the-art emissions control equipment, which was certified by the IEPA as required under state law enacted last year.
Further, the FDA yesterday approved of Abbott Labs new coronavirus test, which delivers positive results within five minutes and negative results within 13 minutes. The company says it will eventually be able to make 50,000 tests available per day.
Lastly, the Chicago Tribune ran this news story highlighting the contributions of Illinois companies working to address this crisis, in which a few CICI members were mentioned.
CICI Associate Member Services: As you can imagine, the COVID-19 crisis can have numerous legal implications for businesses on everything from environmental regulations to employment & labor law to banking and finance.
In response to this, the following CICI Associate Members have created Webpages providing relevant and important information for their clients on the COVID-19 crisis. These are great resources that provide everything from informational updates to scheduled webinars.
Thompson Coburn
Thompson Hine COVID-19 Task Force
Seyfarth Shaw
McGuireWoods
HeplerBroom
K & L Gates
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Decontamination Services: If you need to decontaminate and disinfect a site with regards to COVID-19, here is a list of the following CICI members offering such services:
ERC Midwest: https://ercmidwest.com/
Heritage Environmental Services: https://www.heritage-enviro.com/coronavirus/
SET Environmental: https://www.setenv.com/news-updates/03-2020/bloodborne-pathogen-response-covid-19
Roux - Roux Decontamination, Roux Loss Claims
GZA - GZA GeoEnvironmental
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