Pritzker Only Wants Budget, COVID-19 Needs Addressed by Lawmakers: At his daily press briefing today, Governor Pritzker remarked that, given the limited time that lawmakers will spend in Springfield, he only wants the legislature to pass a budget and emergency bills pertaining to this outbreak.  He further remarked that he doesn’t want the General Assembly acting on any measures to remove the graduated income tax proposal from November’s ballot or any proposals regarding his regional plans for reopening up the state or the use of his emergency powers.

The House and Senate have already issued a Joint Proclamation indicating they will only consider bills related to the budget, COVID-19, economic recovery, infrastructure projects and its funding, hospital assessment programs, laws scheduled to be repealed by June 1, 2021, and the 2020 General Election (mail-in voting).

The immediate concern for CICI and the business community in “emergency” legislation pertaining to COVID-19 include attempts to expand workers’ compensation protections, raise unemployment insurance taxes, and other business mandates including PPE requirements or damages related to lack of PPE.

CICI will keep you up to date through the Legisletter on actions taken by the General Assembly this week.

State Encourages “Essential Workers” to get Tested: As you may recall from Friday’s press conference, Governor Pritzker announced that even more testing sites have come online all across the state.  The state’s public health officials are also urging individuals employed and working at “Essential Businesses”, with or without symptoms, to seek testing.  This would include employees at a number of CICI member facilities.  Please refer to this IDPH press release for more information. 

These are the current testing sites with hours, testing parameters and contact information.  Again, this is not a comprehensive list of testing sites. Locations are continuously being added as information is provided.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 4,234 deaths, an average increase of 58 deaths per day over the weekend. There are currently 96,485 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 2,038 cases per day since Friday. In total, 603,241 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, an average daily increase of 21,546 over the weekend.

The positivity rate over a weekend of testing is at 9.4% for the entire state. The state’s current seven-day rolling average is at 14%.

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.   

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.  

The following CICI Associate Members have created first-rate Webpages providing relevant and important information for CICI members on the COVID-19 crisis. These are great resources that provide everything from informational updates to scheduled webinars.    

McGuireWoods

HeplerBroom

K & L Gates

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Jenner & Block

Quarles & Brady

Greensfelder Hemker & Gale

Ice Miller

Freeborn & Peters LLP

Seyfarth Shaw

Hunter Masalski COVID-19

Thompson Coburn

Conn Maciel Carey

Thompson Hine COVID-19 Task Force

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