GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING
Governor JB Pritzker‘s briefing focused on personal protection equipment (PPE). The state has now distributed 20 million PPE items throughout the state. The distributions include 10.1 million surgical masks, 1.8 million N95 masks, 173,000 gowns and coveralls, 7.7 million gloves, and 440,000 face shields. Monday, the state received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 300,000 N95 masks, 500,000 KN95 masks, and 1 million surgical gloves. The state has also requested an additional 900,000 gowns from FEMA.
Outstanding orders due to arrive in coming days and weeks including 17 million N95 masks, 21 million masks, 11 million gowns, 14 million gloves, and 7 million face shields and googles. These are meant to supplement stocks for healthcare workers and first responders. To stretch these supplies, the state recently acquired a new decontamination system located in Waukegan. This facility can decontaminate N95 masks with 24-hour turnaround. Each N95 mask can be decontaminated up to 20 times without filter degradation.
COOK COUNTY TAX DEADLINES EXTENDED
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has again pushed back the due dates for certain home rule taxes to June 1st for taxes that were due in March, April and/or May including:
- Motor Vehicle tax
- Use tax
- Alcohol tax
- Tobacco tax
- Gas tax
- Firearms/Ammo tax
Liquor licenses that expire on April 30th will be extended to July 31st and late fees will not be assessed.
There are a number of other due date extensions and fee waivers that may affect your business as well. Please see the announcement here.
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 Health announced 2,253 new cases in Illinois, including 92 additional deaths. IDPH is reporting a total of 50,355 cases, to date, including 2,215 deaths, in 96 of Illinois’ 102 counties.
Over the last 24-hours, the state has conducted 14,478 tests for a total of 256,667.
As of midnight last night, 5,036 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of those, 1,290 (25.6%) are in the ICU. Of those, 777 (60.2%) are on ventilators.
Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here