ILLINOIS REPORTS RECORD NUMBER OF COVID-19 TESTS, NEW INFECTIONS
Pritzker announces $25M in public works grants to help kick-start local economies
Another 144 people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois, as health officials on Tuesday announced the latest daily record-high numbers of new infections and tests administered.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office confirmed 4,014 new coronavirus cases among 29,266 test results received by the state a day earlier.
“There is a proportionality there, that as you test more, you’re going to get more positives from within those additional tests,” Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said.
The state’s death toll stands at 3,601, while 83,021 people have tested positive for the coronavirus overall, among the nearly 472,000 tests administered since the pandemic began.
Illinois’ positivity rate was 18% from May 2 to May 9. That metric is being scrutinized since Pritzker included it as one of several numbers needed below 20% as part of his regional reopening plan.
Public works revived
Pritzker said the state will provide $25 million in grants so local governments can accelerate public works projects that revive local economies.
The program is called FastTrack Public Infrastructure Grants and draws on money in the state’s $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital improvements plan.
Grants will range from $500,000 to $5 million and be awarded on a rolling basis. Projects must be ready to go within 90 days of getting funding approval.
“This will keep public infrastructure projects in the pipeline and support the return of skilled labor to job sites for the busy summer season,” Pritzker said.
Michael Negron, assistant director at the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said lower-income areas will get priority, but the scoring system for applications will ensure no region of the state gets overlooked.
Stay-at-home scofflaws
But for local leaders and businesses pushing back against his extended stay-at-home order, Pritzker said he “would consider” withholding federal aid or taking other actions like revoking liquor licenses from those who disobey the directive, as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has threatened to do in that state.
“I would just suggest that there are a number of enforcement mechanisms that are available to us. And I don’t want to utilize those. I have asked people to do the right thing, and I want to point out that the vast majority of people in Illinois have been doing the right thing, and I’m so very proud of that,” Pritzker said, calling opponents of the stayat-home order “outliers.”
“These people do not follow science or data. They’re just listening to partisan rhetoric perhaps and following their own instincts, but not science.”
Dart pushes back
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is appealing a federal judge’s order mandating the steps his office needs to take to socially distance detainees and further curb the spread of the coronavirus at Cook County Jail.
In a court filing, Dart said the class-action lawsuit seeking the release or transfer of elderly and medically compromised detainees has negatively affected jail operations.
Dart said attorneys for the detainees were abusing the court system to seek the release of their clients at all costs, which was causing disruptions at the jail by giving “false hope, stoking further anxiety, frustration and unrest.”
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly has ordered the sheriff’s office to hold detainees in single cells, provide access to personal sanitation and protective equipment and additional COVID-19 testing.
Alexa Van Brunt, an attorney for the detainees, said she was confident the order would be affirmed.
“We also find it unfortunate that the sheriff is spending limited resources on fighting the injunction, rather than taking care to comply with the order, which is designed to protect detainees’ lives,” Van Brunt said.
More than 530 detainees and nearly 400 jail staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Seven detainees and three sheriff’s office employees have also died from complications related to coronavirus since late March.
El Milagro stays closed
El Milagro’s Chicago plant will remain closed indefinitely for renovations.
After an employee’s coronavirus death pushed the tortilla giant to close in late April for sanitization — sending customers flocking to stores to stock up — the company said it planned to reopen in two weeks.
“We voluntarily closed our plant to allow everyone at least a two-week quarantine and prevent spread of the [coronavirus]. While it was closed, we elected to do some deferred construction, so we will reopen when that is completed,” the company said in a statement, not specifying when it might be ready.