GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING
During today’s briefing, Governor JB Pritzker focused on the state’s work to protect residents of long-term care facilities around the state.
He also lectured elected officials and others for wanting to re-open faster claiming they are ignoring science, putting lives at risk, and will cause more people to die. He also stated that businesses that open in violation of his Executive Order will face sanctions such as loss of liquor license, sanctions by local health departments, etc.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY RETURNING
The Illinois General Assembly will return to Springfield next Wednesday – Friday. The Senate will be meeting at the Capitol and the House at the Bank of Springfield Convention Center in Springfield. The focus will be on ‘must-pass’ legislation and they will attempt to get it all done in these three-days.
REGIONAL PROGRESS
This Daily Briefing will daily updated progress on meeting the thresholds to move from Phase 2 to Phase 3 under the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan. In order to move from Phase 2 to Phase 3, each of the four medical regions must have 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.
| REGION | HOSPITAL BEDS | ICU BEDS | VENTILATORS | POSITIVITY RATE |
| Northeast | 17.3% | 18.5% | 63.3% | 20.7% |
| North central | 41.2% | 41.0% | 60.0% | 7.7% |
| Central | 52.1% | 44.7% | 74.7% | 5.8% |
| South | 45.3% | 28.4% | 77.6% | 8.1% |
Readers can find all these stats here.
RETAIL CARES
Today, IRMA launched a campaign called Illinois Retail Cares. It is an effort to tell the story of the many efforts retailers have undertaken during the pandemic to meet the needs of healthcare workers, first responders, needy members of the community, etc. These are efforts above-and-beyond the herculean efforts retailers have undertaken to meet the demands of consumers. Each week new stories will be told. If you have a story to share, we would love to share it! Please email them to us today.
ILLINOIS COVID-19 IMPACT UPDATE
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, MD, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 1,677 new cases in Illinois, including 192 additional deaths (the largest in any 24-hour period to-date). IDPH is reporting a total of 84,698 cases, to date, including 3,792 deaths, in 99 of Illinois’s 102 counties.
Over the last 24-hours, the state has conducted 17,668 tests for a total of 489,359 to-date. .
As of midnight last night, 4,563 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19. Of those, 1,208 (26.47%) are in the ICU occupying 32.4% of the 3,728 staffed ICU beds. Of those, 714 (59.1%) are on ventilators or 14.23% of the 5,017 staff ventilators.
Additional information can be found here. COVID-19 stats by zip code can be found here .
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.