Governor Claims Local Officials Stopping COVID Mitigations from Working
Governor JB Pritzker defended his decision to parade through Chicago in celebration of Joe Biden’s electoral victory Saturday after being exposed to a person who tested positive for COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic infection rates continue to grow in Illinois, and around nearly the entire country, signaling public health officials are on the defensive against the disease that has killed more than 10,000 Illinoisans and growing near a quarter million nationwide.
Public health officials warned this would happen as the weather cooled and people headed indoors, but Governor JB Pritzker singled out one group Monday he thinks could help flatten the latest curve: local officials.
“We really need local officials to take this more seriously, to take more responsibility on their own shoulders,” Pritzker said during his pandemic briefing Monday in Downtown Chicago. “I know that locally they think that’s immediately good politics but it’s good politics for a very small, very loud minority. The vast majority of people want us to take strong action.”
Considering nearly everything is political in 2020, maybe it shouldn’t be a big surprise wearing a mask or following COVID-19 mitigation guidelines can be an expression of someone’s politics.
Protecting or risking one’s own health all too often can be viewed through a political lens. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Monday COVID-19 cases have nearly quadrupled in the last five weeks while the statewide positivity rate has nearly doubled. Hospitalizations and deaths per day are up 150 percent during the same period.
The daunting numbers might be a wake-up call for some people who’ve let their guard down as the pandemic has dragged on month after month, but Pritzker is trying to get people across Illinois, and across the political spectrum, to buy into his restrictions.
“Mitigations are only effective if they’re followed,” Pritzker said. “Too many local officials across the state are ignoring their local public health departments and doing nearly nothing to assist their residents in following even the most basic COVID-19 guidelines. Some elected leaders are allowing this continued rise in positivity to balloon out of control while taking no action. These mayors and city councils and county boards and state’s attorneys need to take some responsibility to keep their constituents safe. I promise them that responsibility pales in comparison to what could come when the hospitals in your area are filling up and there aren’t enough nurses or doctors to save their constituents’ lives.”
Reporters at the briefing challenged Pritzker whether he was practicing what he’s preaching.
Last week he announced he’d be self-isolating after being exposed to someone who had COVID-19 during a meeting last Monday with restaurant leaders.
“Ironic right? The same folks that are asking me to remove mitigations from restaurants actually brought COVID-19 to my office,” the Governor said.
The Governor pushed back on accusations he didn’t follow public health guidelines when he paraded the streets Saturday celebrating Joe Biden’s electoral win. He had Illinois Department of Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike explain CDC guidelines which showed he technically followed the rules when he was back to normal activities by the weekend.
“If you are identified as an individual who was an exposed contact of someone who tested positive, running out and getting a test does not end the quarantine,” Ezike said. “You cannot test out of quarantine. (It’s) still 14 days for quarantine after your exposure. It can take up to 14 days to develop symptoms of the disease if in fact you caught it.”
That may be the guideline for someone exposed, but since Pritzker was near that person more than 48 hours before he showed symptoms, Ezike said CDC guidelines didn’t consider him to be officially exposed. The governor was tested as a precaution and the results were negative.
Pritzker has openly clashed with President Trump over the outgoing president’s handling of the pandemic. The Governor said he’s hopeful he’ll be getting more help from Washington with President-Elect Joe Biden.
“I’m so very pleased to see as one of the President-Elect’s first acts, the announcement of a COVID-19 task force with experts committed to the sorely needed national action on this issue,” Pritzker said. “Make no mistake, the weeks and months ahead in our fight against COVID-19 will remain phenomenally difficult, but specifically here in Illinois we will persevere, and we will continue to work with the federal government, soon with at least one fewer major impediment.”