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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 – Pritzker Calls on General Assembly to Reconvene; Illinois Supreme Court Rejects Governor’s Request for Direct Appeal; Update on COVID-19 Cases; Updated Figures on Regional Positivity Rates, Hospitalizations
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Pritzker Calls on General Assembly to Reconvene: Even though the Governor has the ability to call the legislature into Special Session, he used part of his daily press conference today to urge the General Assembly to reconvene so that the state can begin to put its financial and economic house back in order, even as the virus’ spread continues. Specifically, the Governor called on lawmakers to pass a comprehensive plan to support families, small businesses and small towns through grants and loans for businesses, starting and restarting tax credits for small business, and job recovery for industries and businesses left out of the Federal Payroll Protection Program (PPP).
Illinois Supreme Court Rejects Governor’s Request for Direct Appeal: As you recall, a number of lawsuits have been filed against Governor Pritzker’s use of emergency powers. One particular suit in Clay County has already been decided against the Governor’s “Stay at Home” order for which the Governor is seeking appeal to the 5th Appellate Court in Southern Illinois. In light of these cases, the Illinois Attorney General requested that the Illinois Supreme Court rule on this matter once and for all. As expected, the Illinois Supreme Court yesterday turned down the AG/government’s request for a direct appeal, saying the cases will have to go through the normal judicial process. CICI will keep you informed as to any further actions on these lawsuits.
Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is reporting a total of 3,601 deaths, an increase of 144 since yesterday. There are currently 83,021 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 4,014 cases from yesterday. In total, 471,691 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, an increase of 29,266. This is the state’s largest increase in the number of tests within a 24-hour period since the pandemic began. In addition, it’s the largest number of positive tests as well. The positivity rate for the last 24 hours of testing is at 13.7% for the entire state.
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
Updated Figures on Regional Positivity Rates, Hospitalizations: IDPH has set up a webpage dedicated to tracking positivity and hospitalization rates for the state’s four regions per Governor Pritzker’s phased-in plan. As of today, all regions are on track to move to the next phase of the governor’s plan on May 29, except the Northeast Region, which is lagging in getting its positivity rate below 20%.
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