General Assembly on Track to Adjourn Tomorrow: The General Assembly has been in session since yesterday, taking up the budget and other “emergency” legislation in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which also includes economic recovery, infrastructure projects and its funding, hospital assessment programs, laws scheduled to be repealed by June 1, 2021, and mail-in voting for the 2020 General Election.

As reported here previously, CICI’s main concern with these proposals are attempts to expand workers’ compensation protections, raise unemployment insurance taxes, and other onerous business mandates.  At the time of this writing there appears to be an agreement between the state’s employer community and organized labor on covering some “essential” workers under workers’ compensation. An agreement has also been reached on the costs of unemployment insurance, with some benefit expansions largely to be funded by the federal government.    

Identical legislation, SB 471 and HB 2455, in both chambers has been put forward which would still maintain the business community’s rebuttable presumption for worker’s compensation pertaining to exposure to COVID-19. These bills would apply to “essential” workers in the Governor’s “Stay at Home” order, as long as individuals employed by essential businesses and operations are required by their employment to encounter members of the general public or to work in employment locations of more than 15 employees. This provision applies only for COVID-19 cases from March 9 – December 31, 2020.

While most manufacturers and distributors don’t encounter the general public in their employment locations, some manufacturers, distributors & warehouses will be covered if “essential” employees work in employment locations with more than 15 employees. For those employees working from home, even if they are deemed essential, their place of residence is not a place of employment.

What is currently not contained in these two bills are previous efforts to provide for paid sick leave or punitive damages related to lack of PPE for employees.

When the legislature wraps up their business and adjourns for the summer, CICI will issue a Legisletter with more detail on the WC, UI and other changes. Please stay tuned.

OSHA Updates its Guidance for Employers Reopening:  As many employers around the United States planned to reopen, OSHA issued an Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which includes instructions and guidance for OSHA Area Offices on how to address COVID-19-related complaints, referrals and severe illness reports at employers.

Also, on May 19, OSHA issued Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of COVID-19. On May 26, OSHA’s previous guidance on these topics will be rescinded and the new Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan and Enforcement Guidance will go into and remain in effect until further notice.  This guidance is intended to be time-limited to the current COVID-19 public health crisis. Please frequently check OSHA’s webpage at www.osha.gov/coronavirus for updates.

Criminal Fraud Alert Related to Economic Impact Payments:  Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the United States Secret Service (USSS) issued the attached alert urging all Americans to be on the lookout for criminal fraud related to CARES Act economic impact payments.  Specifically, this joint alert warns of fraud using coronavirus lures to steal personal and financial information, as well as the economic impact payments themselves—and of adversaries seeking to disrupt payment efforts.  These federal agencies are sharing this collaborative warning because the U.S. Government continues to encounter instances of criminals using stimulus-themed emails and text messages to trick individuals into providing personally identifiable information and bank account details.  This joint alert and other resources related to COVID-19 malicious cyber activity can be found on www.cisa.gov/coronavirus.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 4,607 deaths, an increase of 87 since yesterday. There are currently 102,686 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 2,268 cases from yesterday. In total, 672,020 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, an increase of 29,307 since yesterday.

Today’s statewide positivity rate is at 7.7% and our statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is at 14%.  Again, IDPH’s webpage tracks positivity and hospitalization rates for the state’s four regions.

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.

Trump Administration Outlines Federal Help to Illinois:  The White House has put together the attached partial overview of federal assistance provided to the state of Illinois to combat COVID-19.  The information is also bolstered by hundreds of additional actions by the federal government to assist the state.

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