Pritzker on Defense on LaSalle Veterans' Home Report
Governor JB Pritzker Thursday deflected blame for the state’s failure to respond to a COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, which killed 36 residents of the facility in late 2020.
Governor JB Pritzker appeared to deflect blame following a report last week criticizing his administration’s reaction to the fatal 2020 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home.
Speaking moments after a 154-page report from the Auditor General was released Thursday, Pritzker said the outbreak that killed 36 people came in from a community that was lax with COVID.
“Everyone agreed. COVID came into LaSalle because it was spreading rampantly in the surrounding community,” Pritzker said. “At the time, IDPH was not visiting nursing homes in person because the threat of unintentionally spreading COVID was significantly greater than the potential benefit of a visit.”
Pritzker has often cited the local cases for the increase at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, but statistics showed infection rates at the Manteno Veterans’ Home or the Quincy Veterans’ Home were higher than LaSalle at the time of the outbreak. Both homes had significantly fewer deaths than LaSalle.
Pritzker was pressed on if he takes responsibility for the state’s response to the outbreak and the deaths that ensued.
“Look, I’m the Governor of the state of Illinois. So, I understand that these agencies are my responsibility, my appointments to lead those agencies are my responsibility,” he said. “The policies and procedures are done by the agencies themselves. The management of the individuals who work at a particular Veterans’ Home are handled by people at those homes.“
Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) said in a statement Thursday he was disapointed in the response from the administration.
“I’m frustrated and disappointed there wasn’t better coordination between state agencies to recognize and address the increasingly serious infection rate at La Salle as it was happening,” Yednock said in a statement. “As the audit found, staff should have been tested more regularly, and the Illinois Department of Public Health should have moved more quickly to visit the home.”
Republicans have called for legislative hearings and have criticized Pritzker’s response to the outbreak.