GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING
During today’s briefing, Governor JB Pritzker focused on the economic impact of the pandemic as it relates to workers and their families. The Governor stated the Assembly must convene to pass a comprehensive plan to support families, ‘small businesses’, and towns. (NOTE: He has typically defined small businesses as those employing fewer than 50 employees).
Grants and loans for businesses as well as tax credits for job recovery with those left out of the federal Paycheck Protection Program being first in-line.
He announced $25 million in DCEO grants to local governments to jump-start infrastructure construction programs.
REGIONAL PROGRESS
This Daily Briefing will start providing the progress
on the regional metrics that must be met under the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan in order to move from Phase 2 to Phase 3.
Under the Governor’s plan, the state’s 11 medical regions were reconfigured from 11 to 4. In each region, there must be a surge capacity of at least 14% for hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators. The positivity rating must be under 20% for a 14-day period. Any number in red means that region has not met the capacity requirement for that category as of today.
PLEASE NOTE: this table does not include the SIGNIFICANT testing requirements the state must meet to move from Phase 2 to Phase 3. To-date, the Governor’s office has not provided any insight on how or when they will meet the required testing levels.
REGION | HOSPITAL BEDS | ICU BEDS | VENTILATORS | POSITIVITY RATE |
Northeast | 17.5% | 18.6% | 64.4% | 21.4% |
North central | 41.5% | 41.1% | 62.2% | 8.1% |
Central | 52.3% | 44.1% | 73.4% | 5.9% |
South | 45.6% | 28.0% | 75.4% | 8.8% |
Readers can find all these stats here.
TOMORROW – COVID-19 SURVIVAL WEBINAR
IRMA, in conjunction with the Council of State Retail Associations (CSRA), is hosting a complimentary webinar on Wednesday, May 13 at 11 am CST that will refocus your retail plan to not only survive COVID-19, but help you succeed!
The webinar will focus on positive messaging that can be incorporated into your current communication plans, and will cover how store operations must change, how to market yourself — including the do’s and don’ts of Facebook live — and how to get in the right mindset to not just survive, but to thrive as stores re-open.
Note: There is no cost to participate. This event is a special benefit being provided to IRMA members in conjunction with our partners at CSRA.
About the presenter
Bob Phibbs, known as the “Retail Doctor,” has worked with hundreds of large retail brands including Bernina, LEGO, and Yamaha, as well as the smallest mom and pops, and everything in between. Check out www.retaildoc.com for more information.
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 4,014 new cases in Illinois, including 144 additional deaths. IDPH is reporting a total of 83,021 cases, to date, including 3,601 deaths, in 98 of Illinois’s 102 counties.
Over the last 24-hours, the state has conducted 29,266 tests for a total of 471,691 to-date. NOTE: Over 20,000 were done in the last 24-hours. The rest were previous day.
As of midnight last night, 4,626 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of those, 1,215 (26.26%) are in the ICU occupying 32.5% of the 3,734 staffed ICU beds. Of those, 730 (58.5%) are on ventilators or 14.6% of the 4,987 staff ventilators.
Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here .