GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING
During today’s briefing, Governor JB Pritzker unveiled a re-opening plan for Illinois dubbed “Restore Illinois”. He stated that science and data would be the guardrails for how to move forward.
Under the Governor’s plan, the state’s 11 emergency medical service regions are combined into four medical service regions.
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This will allow medical professionals to track hospitalization statistics that inform the data that determine phases (see below).
“Restore Illinois” is divided into five phases as follows:
Phase 1: This was the original stay-at-home executive order that was in effect April () – April 30th.
Phase 2: This phase is represented by the current executive order in effect May 1st – May 29th.
Phase 3: Manufacturing, retail, barbershops and salons can reopen but will be subject to capacity and other limits and precautions. Gatherings will be limited to no more than 10 people. Face coverings and social distancing measures will continue.
Phase 4: Restaurants and bars will be allowed to reopen. Child and schools can reopen under guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Face coverings and social distancing measures will continue.
Phase 5: This phase envisions a fully re-opened post-COVID-19 world. The only way this will happen is with vaccine, a widely-available and highly effective treatment, or elimination of new cases over a long period of time.
Here are the metrics that will be utilized by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to determine how to move to each phase:
Phase 2 to Phase 3:
- at or under a 20% positivity rate and increasing no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period; AND,
- No overall increase (i.e. stability or decrease) in hospital admissions for COVID-19-like illness for 28 days; AND,
- Available surge capacity of at least 14 percent of ICU and surgical beds, and ventilators.
- Testing must be available for all patients, health care workers, first responders, people with underlying conditions, and residents and staff in congregate living facilities.
- Being contact tracing and monitoring within 24-hours of diagnosis
Phase 3 to Phase 4:
- at or under a 20% positivity rate and increasing no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period; AND,
- No overall increase (i.e. stability or decrease) in hospital admissions for COVID-19-like illness for 28 days; AND,
- Available surge capacity of at least 14 percent of ICU and surgical beds, and ventilators.
- Testing must be available in region regardless of symptoms or risk factors.
- Begin contact tracing and monitoring within 24 hours of diagnosis for more than 90% of cases in region.
Phase 4 to Phase 5:
A widely available vaccine, effective and widely available treatment, or COVID-19 miraculously disappears from Illinois.
The earliest any region of the state could advance to Phase 3 is May 29th. Additional analysis is underway and IRMA will share that with you when available.
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEBINAR
This Thursday, May 7th at 10:00 a.m. (CST), IRMA will be hosting an hour-long webinar regarding unemployment insurance. This is an opportunity to get your questions answered!
Kristen Prinz with The Prinz Law Firm will give you an overview of the current state of unemployment insurance and the important nuances employers should know.
We encourage you to submit questions in advance to Tanya Triche Dawood at: ttrichedawood@irma.org
CUSTOMER CONFRONTATIONS
IRMA continues to receive reports of abusive confrontations with customers over customer failure to wear masks and the failure of local law enforcement to support their local retailers. These stories must be told. It is important that members share those reports with IRMA as they happen including when, where, and what. If possible, pictures or surveillance video would also be important. Please forward reports to Alec Laird.
FACE COVERINGS SUPPLIERS
In order to assist retailers in the procurement of facial coverings for employees, IRMA has created a place on it’s website. 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 2,122 new cases in Illinois, including 176 additional deaths – the most in any 24-hour period to-date. IDPH is reporting a total of 65,962 cases, to date, including 2,838 deaths, in 97 of Illinois’s 102 counties.
Over the last 24-hours, the state has conducted 13,139 tests for a total of 346,286 to-date.
As of midnight last night, 4,780 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of those, 1,266 (26.5%) are in the ICU occupying 34.6% of the 3, 659 staffed ICU beds. Of those, 780 (61.9%) are on ventilators or 22.5% of the 3,469 staff ventilators. Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here