Town of Cicero sues Pritzker, others over COVID-19 outbreak at nursing home

CICERO, Ill. - The town of Cicero is taking legal action over a nursing home outbreak of COVID-19. It is trying to force the state to do more to intervene.

More than 160 residents of the home have gotten sick and nine have died. Forty-one staff members have also become infected.

Quitana Johnson, who is a former City View employee, was one of the staff members who got sick.

"Shut the **** down. They need to be shut down," she said.

Johnson was a housekeeper and says she knew the staff member that died from the virus. Nine residents died as well, and she says she's not stepping one foot back in the building.

"They did not do protocol. They started doing it when people started catching the [virus]," Johnson said.

The town of Cicero has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home owners, Governor JB Pritzker, and the Illinois Department of Public Health, saying they knew about the issues but failed to act.

"Our inspector issued 10 citations after seeing how they dealt with patients. One employee called in sick with coronavirus. He was told he had to come into work,” said Cicero spokesman Ray Hanania.

The lawsuit has several demands. One is to send residents to the newly reopened Westlake Hospital or McCormick Place field hospital where they can receive treatment.

The Illinois Department of Public Health director says the state’s legal team will handle the case, but that McCormick Place is not an option.

In Cook County, the suburb of Cicero has the highest number of coronavirus cases, with 1,119. Ninety new cases were reported Friday and 24 deaths.

The population of Cicero is mostly Hispanic or Latino. The group has seen a spike in cases.

“We've opened up testing in predominantly Latino communities to identify people that need to be treated or need to self-isolate,” Pritzker said.