GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING
Governor JB Pritzker‘s briefing focused on testing. For the first time, the State passed its daily testing goal of 10,000 applying 16,124 test. It is key to mapping presence of COVID-19 and will guide getting Illinois working again.
During Q&A, the Governor again re-stated that businesses will be required to turn consumers away who are not wearing a facial covering. He stated that this is no different than not being allowed go barefoot in a restaurant. The problem is, you can go barefoot in a restaurant. There is no law prohibiting people from going barefoot in any establishment. This approach is unfortunate, counter to IRMA’s repeated counsel, and puts retailers in an untenable position as it puts retailers and their employees at risk.
FACE COVERINGS SUPPLIERS
Beginning May 1st, everyone will be required to wear a facial covering when they cannot maintain social distancing and are in a public place. In order to assist retailers in the procurement of facial coverings, IRMA will pass along supplier information as received. Retailers can review and contact the supplier of their choice on IRMA’s website.
ILLINOIS COVID-19 IMPACT UPDATE
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, MD, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Healthannounced 2,724 new cases in Illinois, including 108 additional deaths. It must be noted that while 2,724 new cases is the largest number of new cases to-date, it comes in the wake of significantly expanded testing. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 39,658 cases, to date, including 1,795 deaths, in 96 of Illinois’ 102 counties. Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here