Governor Pritzker Unveils Parameters for Regionally Phased-In Reopening Plan: Governor Pritzker used the majority of today’s daily press briefing to discuss and take questions on new plans called Restore Illinois allowing areas of the state to begin a gradual reopening of the economy and activities.  The plan calls for 5 different phases and splits the state into four health regions, each with the ability to independently move through their phased approaches. 

According to this plan, the entire state is already in Phase 2. May 1^st marked the beginning of Phase 2 when the extended “Stay at Home” order was established. May 1^st was also the beginning of a 28-day measurement period which must first be established, meaning that the earliest a region can move to Phase 3 is May 29. If you recall, the extended “Stay at Home” order runs until May 30 unless extended once again.         

Also, each region must be at or under a 20% test positivity rate and increasing by no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period.  The state as a whole is already under this 20% threshold at 16.1% but perhaps not in each individual region. A region must also have either no overall increase or have maintained overall stability in hospital admissions for cases in the last 28 days.  A region must maintain the availability of a surge threshold of 14% availability of ICU beds of medical and surgery beds and ventilators.

The governor did indicate that for the state to fully move to Phase 5, with all the sectors of the economy running with completely normal operations, is with a vaccine, a widely available and highly effective treatment, or with the elimination of any new cases over a sustained period of time. 

Pritzker Asks IL Supreme Court to Decide Emergency Powers: As you know, some lawsuits have surfaced across the state questioning Governor Pritzker’s use of his emergency powers, namely in his “Stay at Home” orders.  Some of these cases have been decided and are on appeal. As this piece meal approach can take some time, the governor has as asked the Illinois Supreme Court, through this Motion for Direct Appeal, to settle the issue once and for all.  CICI will keep the membership up to date as developments on this motion and other lawsuits warrant.

State and Local Restrictions Across the Country: The Association of American Railroads (AAR) have put together the attached spreadsheet containing state and local executive actions on COVID-19 containment and mitigation for the entire United States.

The document lists the numerous orders or actions taken by governors, county officials, and mayors to implement stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, travel quarantines, business closures, curfews, and other forms of restrictions on activities.  Also, this information includes the state and local directives pertaining to progressive lessening of restrictions and resumption of business activity in a growing number of states. Significant new content is highlighted in yellow.

We would like to thank our friends in the railroad industry for providing this important information to us.  

Update on COVID-19 Cases: The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting a total of 2,838 deaths, an increase of 176 deaths from yesterday.  Unfortunately, this is the largest number of reported fatalities in a single 24-hour period.  There are currently 65,962 positive cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, an increase of 2,122 since yesterday. In total, 346,286 people have now been tested in Illinois for the virus, which is an increase of 13,139.  The percentage of positive cases since yesterday as compared to increased testing is at 16.1%.

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 Decrease: Today it was reported that of the 65,962 positive cases in Illinois, there are 4,780 cases requiring some sort of hospital care. Of those, 1,266 patients were in the ICU and 780 patients were on ventilators.  These hospitalized patients represent only 7.2% of all positive cases, which is a reduction of more than 2 percent just since last Thursday.

Recovery Rates Stay the Same: Today, IDPH mentioned that of the surveyed individuals with COVID-19 from more than 4 weeks ago, 74% have made a full recovery. This is the same percentage as the previous a week ago. 

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