To:

Chemical Industry Council of Illinois (CICI) Members

From:

Mark Biel, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] or 217/522-5805 

Re:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update – Governor’s Extended “Stay at Home” Order Starts Tomorrow; Third Lawsuit Against Pritzker’s “Stay at Home” Orders; Updated USEPA, CDC Guidance on Cleaning and Disinfecting Spaces; Update on COVID-19 Cases


Governor’s Extended “Stay at Home” Order Starts Tomorrow:
As many of you already know, Governor Pritzker will extend the current “Stay at Home” order until May 30 but with the following modifications:

  • Manufacturers and Other Essential Businesses: Essential businesses and manufacturers, currently covered under the current “Stay at Home” order, will also now be required to provide face-coverings to all employees who are not able to maintain social distancing requirements. Manufacturers must take appropriate precautions which “may” include occupancy limits, staggering shifts, reducing line speeds, and operating only essential lines for manufacturers. Please note that these new requirements will be left up to each individual business to police on their own. For specifics applying to manufacturers, please see Section #1, Part 5 of the extended "Stay at Home" order.
  • Face Coverings/Masks: All individuals in the state two years of age and older and physically able to do so, will be required to wear a face-covering when six-foot social distancing proves difficult in public settings such as the workplace and in grocery stores.  It will be up to individual businesses as to the enforcement of this order.
  • State Parks, Golf, Outdoor Recreation: Under the guidance of the Department of Natural Resources, state parks will begin a phased-in re-opening. IDNR should have a list of reopened state parks up on their website after May 1. Golf will also be permitted, but only under strict safety guidelines and adherence to 6 ft social distancing guidelines. Boating and fishing in groups of no more than two people will also be permitted, but unclear at this time if that only applies to these re-opened state parks.  The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity have established these guidelines for golf
  • Non-Essential Retail Stores: Non-essential retail stores may re-open but only to fulfill online and phone orders through pick-up outside the store and delivery.
  • Other Businesses Allowed to Re-Open: Greenhouses, garden centers, nurseries, and animal grooming services may re-open but with employees and customers wearing a face covering and following social distancing requirements.

At this time, there isn’t an official Executive Order to be able to link to this Update but CICI believes that it will closely mirror this extended "Stay at Home" order. The new language for the order is underlined and in boldAt this time, there is also no official guidance from the IDPH that must be posted in the workplace regarding workplace safety during the COVID-19 emergency.

Third Lawsuit Against Pritzker’s “Stay at Home” Orders: A third lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court's Western Division in Rockford today on behalf of a church in Lena, IL alleging that the governor’s orders violate their First Amendment religious rights.  Similar to the other two suits filed in the last couple weeks, the federal suit asks for a TRO against the “Stay at Home” order, and then a permanent injunction.       

While Governor Pritzker has earlier blasted the other 2 lawsuits, saying there are cheap, publicity stunts and dangerous to the overall health of the state’s residents, his comments today about the church’s suit was more reserved and stopped short of saying that the state would appeal if it’s successful. He did plead with the church’s parishioners to stay at home instead of attending the church’s scheduled services this Sunday.

Updated USEPA, CDC Guidance on Cleaning and Disinfecting Spaces: Last night the USEPA and the CDC released updated guidance on cleaning and disinfecting public spaces, workplaces, businesses, schools and homes. The guidance also tracks with the Opening up America Again guidelines. The guidance offers a practical, three-step process for preparing spaces for reopening, including developing, implementing, and maintaining clean and disinfected surfaces, which is an important, two-step process central to any effort to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19.   

Update on COVID-19 Cases:The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 2,355 deaths, an increase of 141 deaths since yesterday. There are currently 52,918 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 2,563 from yesterday. In total, 269,867 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, which is an increase of 13,200 since yesterday. Unfortunately, the percentage of positive cases in the last 24 hours as compared to increased testing is at 19.4%, whereas it was only 15.5% yesterday.

Today, there are 4,953 people in Illinois hospitals with the virus. Of those, 1,289 patients were in the ICU and 785 patients were on ventilators.  These hospitalized patients represent 9.3% of all positive cases.

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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