Pritzker, Ezike on progress: Don't get cocky
Coronavirus spread slowed by stay-at-home order but it must be maintained; guv backs aid for gig workers, work-share program
Gov. Pritzker emphasized at his daily briefing Thursday that any progress in stemming the spread of COVID-19 was due in part to his stay-at-home order and that it must be maintained. (Illinois Information Service)
By Ted Cox
The governor and the state’s top public health official said Thursday that social distancing and isolation are working to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but must be maintained to ensure continued progress.
“As Dr. Ezike and I told you yesterday, our rate of rise is looking less and less exponential,” Gov. Pritzker said at his daily COVID-19 briefing at the Thompson Center in Chicago. “That indicates to us that we are in fact bending the curve. There is even some evidence that we may be moving toward a flatter curve, but we need to keep watching the data on a daily basis. Keep in mind our case numbers and the death toll are still growing, and thus our fight must continue, and the data will show that those numbers are growing more slowly, and that’s a very good thing.”
Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported 1,344 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the state total to 16,422, while 66 deaths brought the statewide toll to 528, but she nonetheless found reasons for optimism in the way the number of new cases and deaths have remained relatively consistent this week.
“We are all making sacrifices, and I ask you to stay the course,” she said. “We are headed in the right direction because of all the tremendous efforts by all of you. All of these actions are making a difference, and we must continue to work together.”
“I am worried about people throwing caution to the wind and seeing a nice day outside and thinking that they’e not in danger,” Pritzker said. “You’ve heard Dr. Ezike talking about how some young people think that they’re invincible, that this virus won’t affect them. So everybody needs to know that if we are improving — and it’s still up in the air — but if we are improving here in the state it is because people are staying at home. That is something to keep in mind.
“We need you to stay at home,” he added. “We need this curve to bend, and then we can begin to talk about how we can begin to open things a little bit more. … The curve is still (on an) upward trajectory, and so just because we’re bending the curve doesn’t mean it’s bending down yet. So people need to understand that it is unlikely that we will be able to lift this stay-at-home (order) before April 30.”
He also cautioned that it would not be an instantaneous return to normalcy, in order to guard against a new surge, and that people should be prepared for major summer events like Lollapalooza in Chicago to be canceled.
“We are not going to be able to truly begin to move on until we have much greater testing, contact tracing, and treatment. Test, trace, and treat. That’s even before you have a vaccine, but you have to have all those available,” Pritzker said.
“I think everybody needs to think seriously about canceling large summer events,” he added. “From my perspective today, I do not see how we are going to have large gatherings of people, again, until we have a vaccine, which is months and months away. I would not risk having large groups of people getting together anywhere. And I think that’s hard for everybody to hear, but that’s just a fact.”
As Illinois recorded 200,000 new unemployment claims last week as part of a U.S. Department of Labor report issued Thursday finding 6.6 million new jobless claims nationwide, Pritzker spoke of the economic fallout from the pandemic as well as potential relief from a work-share program — a story One Illinois covered on Tuesday — as well as benefits for so-called gig workers funded by Congress but not yet implemented by the states.
“This virus’s economic impact has uprooted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in our state and tens of millions across the nation,” Pritzker said.
Work-share would enable businesses to trim hours for employees, but retain them on staff so they would keep their health insurance. The program would then pay the workers unemployment benefits on a prorated basis for the lost hours. Illinois enacted such a program in 2014 under Gov. Pat Quinn, but it was never really implemented by Gov. Rauner.
Calling it “an excellent program,” Pritzker pointed out that Rauner “didn’t act on it. We are looking at how we might open a program like that, a work-share program. … Whatever we can get to support workers, to expand the workforce or make available opportunities for people who are laid off, we are going to pursue.”
Sources say that, even though the work-force program is there on the books, the logistics of implementing it might be the cause for delay, and Pritzker appeared to confirm that in talking about making unemployment available to idled gig workers like ride-share drivers and freelancers.
Pritzker acknowledged that Congress had funded unemployment for those idled workers, but added, “Almost no state has this available to them, because you’ve got to build a system for that. That’s not just something you can add on to your existing system.” He said the state had already hired firms and workers to complete that process, “and it’ll be up in the coming weeks.”
The governor said there are no plans to delay the step increase in the state minimum wage — the first major piece of legislation he signed, just over a year ago — set to go from the $9.25 an hour adopted with the new year to $10 an hour July 1 on the way to reaching $15 in 2025. “The current conditions actually indicate to you more than ever before why we need to raise the minimum wage across the state,” Pritzker said. “Look, we’re all concerned to make sure that we bring this economy back to where it could be, should be, after we’re able to get past the peak and past the danger that this poses for many people. But that is, frankly, unrelated to the rise in the minimum wage, which is a very small raise.”