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 – Chicago Outlines its Re-Opening Plans to Begin Next Week; U.S. Supreme Court Gives Pritzker Until Tonight to Respond to Religious Organizations Lawsuits; Update on COVID-19 Cases

Chicago Outlines its Re-Opening Plans to Begin Next Week: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot today announced Chicago’s plans for business and activity re-opening, known as Cautiously Re-Open, that will begin June 3. On this particular date, offices, hotels, personal services like salons and barbershops, non-lakefront golf courses, and restaurants and coffee shops with outdoor dining will be able to open with reduced capacity.

Additional guidelines for manufacturing, construction, transportation & warehousing can be found here:

Manufacturing Guidelines

Construction Guidelines

Transportation & Warehousing Guidelines

The city’s Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection will host a webinar on the standards tomorrow. Those interested in accessing the city’s personal protective equipment market can register here.

City services, including libraries and park facilities located west of Lake Shore Drive, however, will begin to re-open on June 8.

U.S. Supreme Court Gives Pritzker Until Tonight to Respond to Religious Organizations Lawsuits:  As you know, a number of lawsuits have been filed in the state of Illinois challenging Governor Pritzker’s “Stay at Home” Order.  Recently, 2 churches, one in Illinois and one in California, have filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging the closure of houses of worship.  Justice Brett Kavanaugh (Illinois) and Justice Elena Kagan (California) are overseeing the cases and asked the opposing state officials to respond by 8:00 pm this evening.  It’s been reported that both Kagan and Kavanaugh alone can decide these cases, or refer them to the full court.

The lawsuits challenging these orders cite precedent in a 1947 Supreme Court case that determined neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church nor force nor influence a person to go to or remain away from a church against their will.

These churches are arguing their rights were being infringed upon under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and called for the case to be taken up before May 31. CICI will keep the membership abreast of these actions and will report back with any further developments and what, if any, court decisions may mean for these “Stay at Home” orders.

Perhaps as a result of this request from the U.S. Supreme Court, Governor Pritzker announced at his daily press briefing that the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is formulating separate guidelines for how houses of worship should conduct services.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: This afternoon, IDPH is reporting a total of 5,186 deaths, an increase of 104 since yesterday. IDPH is also claiming that 44% of these casualties are from long-term care facilities.   

There are currently 115,833 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 1,527 from yesterday. In total, 829,966 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, an increase of 25,993 since yesterday.

The statewide positivity rate for the last 24 hours is at 5.8% and our statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is at 8.3%.  These positivity rates continue to inch downward every day.  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. 

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