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COVID-19

IL COVID – 19 Update #65

By May 6, 2020May 7th, 2020No Comments

GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING

During today’s briefing, Governor JB Pritzker focused on outreach to the Hispanic population. 

During Q&A, the Governor stated that he wasn’t writing the rules that encompass his “Restore Illinois” plan which he unveiled yesterday. His answer was that doctors and epidemiologists and the virus were responsible for the plan. 

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEBINAR TOMORROW

Tomorrow, 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

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE LETTER

Business groups, led by IRMA, and unions, led by the AFL-CIO, have sent a joint letterto the Illinois congressional delegation seeking federal assistance for Illinois’s unemployment insurance trust fund. Under current projections, within three years Illinois will have a deficit between $8 billion and $14 billion. For perspective, the deepest deficit in history was $2.4 billion in 1983 and 2010. The only way to resolve such a deficit is to increase employers taxes, cut employee benefits, or a combination thereof. Any of those measures would result in crippling impacts on employers and employees alike. 

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 2,270 new cases in Illinois, including 136 additional deaths.  IDPH is reporting a total of 68,232 cases, to date, including 2,974deaths, in 97 of Illinois’s 102 counties. 

Over the last 24-hours, the state has conducted 14,974 tests for a total of 361,260 to-date. 

As of midnight last night, 4,832 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of those, 1,231 (25.5%) are in the ICU occupying 33.4% of the 3,685 staffed ICU beds. Of those, 780 (63.4%) are on ventilators or 22.1% of the 3,535 staff ventilators. 

Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here