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 – Positivity Rates Now Under 20% for Entire State; CICI Member Companies Helping Underserved Local Communities; Dow makes “Return to Work” Playbook Available; Update on COVID-19 Cases; Hospitalization Rates Continue to Improve

Positivity Rates Now Under 20% for Entire State: IDPH is reporting today that all of the 4 regions in Governor Pritzker’s phase-in plan for reopening the state are meeting their matrixes, especially for positivity rates. Lately, the Northeast region (Cook, collar counties, and other close-by counties) was the only one over the 20% threshold. Today, the Northeast region is now under 20%.   

If these test results hold steady or further continue to decline, under the Governor’s Re-Opening plan, the state can move to Phase 3 after May 29.  IDPH has set up a webpage dedicated to tracking positivity and hospitalization rates for the state’s four regions.

CICI Member Companies Helping Underserved Local Communities: The Construction Fairness Alliance Group, which has a number of CICI members, have been helping provide food, masks, hand sanitizer and milk to individuals in underserved communities.  Last week, Senator Napoleon Harris (D-Dolton) and Representative Will Davis (D-Chicago) partnered with the group to provide these items to over 700 families in Harvey and the surrounding south suburbs.  Next week, along with Representative Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero), the group plans to conduct a similar drive through “one stop COVID response drive on Tuesday, May 19 from 10 am to 1 pm in the parking lot of the Cicero Community Park, located at 34th and Laramie Street in Cicero. The local organization helping is Family Focus, and the town of Cicero will also bring items to hand out to residents. 

The group needs face masks or monetary contributions to purchase them. The last event gave away 5,000 masks at the cost of $6,000. If any CICI members would be willing to purchase the masks, donate masks for this event or contribute to assist with the purchase of masks please let us know. If you or anyone who may be interested in helping can also email Alicia Martin at [email protected] or call directly at 217-370-2828. 

Dow makes “Return to Work” Playbook Available: CICI member company Dow has developed safety processes for returning to work.  The Playbook is comprehensive of the processes and procedures the company has implemented around the world to protect employees and communities. 

The plan contains information on:

  • Pandemic response plan and trigger criteria, including internal and external criteria to facilitate a regional approach
  • Checklist and processes to evaluate site readiness for return to work
  • Safety procedures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19
  • Individual health – focused on inclusion and employee well being
  • Additional resources, including a helpful checklist for assessing the individual components of the plan

Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 3,928 deaths, an increase of 138 since yesterday. There are currently 87,937 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 3,239 cases from yesterday. In total, 512,037 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, an increase of 22,678 since Wednesday. The positivity rate for the last 24 hours of testing is at 14.2% for the entire state, which is higher than yesterday, but still below the 20% threshold needed to be sustained.     

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.   

Hospitalization Rates Continue to Improve: Today it was also reported that of the 87,937 positive cases in Illinois, there are 4,473 cases requiring some sort of hospital care. Of those cases, 1,132 patients were in the ICU and 689 patients were on ventilators.  These hospitalized patients represent only 5% of all positive cases, which is a reduction of more than 2 percent since last Thursday.

1400 E. Touhy Ave, Suite 110
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Tel: (847) 544-5995
Fax: (847) 544-5999