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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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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – IEPA Compliance Expectations Memo; Update on Worker’s Compensation Emergency Rule; Midwest Governors’ Collaboration on Reopening Economy; Update on COVID-19 Cases & Testing
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IEPA Compliance Expectations Memo: As mentioned here in this Update a few weeks ago, the IEPA now has on their website the following Compliance Expectations as guidance during the COVID-19 crisis. Essentially, if current health and safety restrictions also result in the inability to comply with environmental requirements, the agency will exercise enforcement discretion when appropriate. This approach is only applicable to situations brought on by, and directly related to, responses to COVID-19 that will not create or result in harm or risk to human health or the environment. This IEPA document is also on posted on CICI’s COVID-19 page.
The IEPA also has these dedicated COVID-19 webpages on their site for other guidance and information pertaining to a number of areas of the agency’s programs.
Update on Worker’s Compensation Emergency Rule: CICI mentioned this emergency rule change in this week’s Legisletter and Update. This emergency rule created an “automatic presumption” that any essential worker diagnosed with COVID-19 contracted the illness while at the workplace, even if the employee was working remotely or currently not on the job. Thus, the employee would be eligible for coverage under Workers’ Compensation.
The Illinois Workers Compensation Commission conducted an emergency meeting by phone yesterday and then adopted this emergency rule, presumably to replace the one adopted Monday. Virtually all employees of CICI members are covered under the new emergency rule.
As stated before, CICI is deeply disappointed in the actions of the Worker’s Compensation Commission. Members of the business community are planning to seek a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop this emergency rule from taking effect. Absent a successful TRO, this emergency rule will be in place for 150 days. CICI will notify members of any further developments.
Midwest Governors’ Collaboration on Reopening Economy: Today, governors from Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Kentucky have announced a partnership where they will work in close coordination on ways to reopen the economy in the future. Each state will create its own plan but will be working with experts and taking a fact-based, data-driven approach to ensure that people are protected from any further spread of COVID-19.
This doesn’t mean these state’s economies will reopen all at once, or that every state will take the same steps at the same time. The governors will, however, be closely examining at least these four factors when determining the best way to reopen their economy:
• Sustained control of the rate of new infections and hospitalizations
• Enhanced ability to test and trace
• Sufficient health care capacity to handle resurgence.
• And best practices for social distancing in the workplace
Update on Cases & Testing:The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 1,072 deaths, an increase of 124 deaths since yesterday, which is the greatest number of fatalities over a 24-hour period to date. There are currently 25,733 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, which is an increase of 1,138 from yesterday.
It was reported at Governor Pritzker’s daily press conference that the state is finally starting to ramp up its testing capacity and capabilities, having overcome recent testing supply challenges. In addition, the Governor indicated that the eligibility requirements will be expanded to allow more people to be tested. This is welcome news as increased testing will provide a more precise mathematical model to evaluate how well current control efforts are working.
In total, 122,589 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, which is an increase of 5,660 from yesterday. Of those people tested, 20.9% of the results are positive for COVID-19. This percentage is actually a decrease of 0.1% from yesterday, which of late has seen a daily 0.2% increase.
You can check where these cases are occurring at the State of Illinois COVID-19 website which also contains more information on this outbreak. Also, IDPH has a case breakdown of the number of positive cases in Chicago and each county relative to the number of fatalities. The IDPH website also now includes a breakdown of the cases under each zip code in the state. In addition, Western Illinois University has an put together this Map of COVID-19 Cases in Illinois & Surrounding States which gives you picture of where COVID-19 cases are occurring in relation to areas surrounding Illinois.
Worldometer also has a site with pertinent statistics on a state by state breakdown and comparison. Also, the City of Chicago has a good categorization of the cases within the city.
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