Pritzker, staff to quarantine after aide tests positive for coronavirus
Photo by Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker broadcast his daily coronavirus briefing from his Chicago mansion for the first time Monday, joining all of his top administration staff in working from home after an aide tested positive for COVID-19.
Pritzker has twice tested negative, with the last test administered Sunday. Pritzker said all of his senior administration members will follow Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines and work from home to curb potential transmission. He said the length of time would depend on how much contact each person had with the infected employee and how recent it was.
“We’re going to follow the doctor’s orders,” he said seated in front of a stately bookcase in his home office. “I feel fine and I have tested negative and so I don’t think, at least at the moment, that there’s any real danger.”
The staff member, who tested positive last week, showed no symptoms and attended meetings with and worked on the same floor as Pritzker at a Chicago building housing state offices. Roughly 20 members of Pritzker’s senior administration have worked there during the coronavirus pandemic. Pritzker said he won’t release the person’s name to protect their privacy.
Offices will undergo deep cleaning and employees “will return to the office when IDPH deems appropriate,” according to Pritzker’s office.
Illinois has been hit hard by the virus. Last week, was the worst week for deaths with nearly 800. The previous week was the second highest with nearly 700.
Since the start of the outbreak, 79,007 cases have been reported statewide, including 1,266 announced Monday. Statewide, 3,459 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, including 54 announced Monday.
Pritzker said that while hospitalizations have dipped slightly, it hasn’t been significant enough to further loosen his stay-at-home order, which runs through this month. Pritzker said models now show the state’s peak in mid-June instead of mid-May.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or modest symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe life-threatening illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Public health officials said Monday that Illinois received its first shipment of intravenous medication remdesivir, which was cleared for emergency use last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The medication will be distributed to 14 hospitals statewide.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced six new testing sites Monday, including in heavily black and Hispanic neighborhoods disproportionately hit by COVID-19. An organization founded by actor Sean Penn, Community Organized Relief Effort, will help run testing sites. The goal is 10,000 a day, Lightfoot said.
Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits have challenged Pritzker’s authority on the stay-at-home order that has forced restaurants, churches and bars to close their doors with few exceptions. Pritzker’s order, first put in place in March, was extended until the end of the month.
The Illinois Supreme Court decided Monday not to intervene after a southern Illinois judge ruled last month that Pritzker had exceeded his authority by extending his order beyond the initial 30 days. The judge’s temporary restraining order applied only to Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey who brought the suit, but opened the door to similar legal challenges. The Illinois attorney general had requested a direct appeal from the state’s highest court.
Bailey later asked the court to vacate the Clay County circuit judge’s order to file an amended complaint.
Reports of defiance to Pritzker’s order have cropped up around the state. Some businesses have been cited with fines.
Roughly 70 people attended a Chicago church Sunday. A bar in Quincy reopened Monday with shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, according to WGEM-TV. Madison County officials were working on a plan to allow businesses to reopen, according to The Alton Telegraph.
“By opening early, they’re putting people at risk,” Pritzker said Monday. “The potential here is that we’ll have an upsurge.”