‘A Make-Or-Break Moment For IL, Chicago’: Gov. Urges Compliance
ILLINOIS — With new cases and positivity rates on the rise in a majority of Illinois’ coronavirus management regions, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday warned residents that the next few weeks are “a make-or-break moment for Illinois and the City of Chicago.”
Along with Baltimore and Boston, Chicago could become one of the biggest hotspots for the coronavirus as the summer turns to fall, according to a forecast by PolicyLab, which has provided projections for the White House Coronavirus Task Force. PolicyLab released its most recent projections exclusively to The Daily Beast.
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PolicyLab’s forecast shows residents in Chicago and its suburbs are not practicing social distancing enough. Trips to nonessential businesses in the Chicago area have only dropped by about 33 percent, though public health officials have said those trips should be down by about 50 percent to ensure proper social distancing and limit close contact.
People traveling to and through Chicago for the Labor Day holiday weekend could also fuel an increase in new cases, as could Chicago’s notoriously harsh winters in just a few months, according to the projections.
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“Cook County is going to get colder quickly,” PolicyLab Director David Rubin told The Daily Beast. “They’re clearly growing again. They’re not doing enough distancing, and their numbers are creeping up. If they don’t get their case counts down, they have plenty of room to grow again.”
Responding to a question about PolicyLab’s forecast highlighting Chicago’s potential to soon become a new hotspot, Pritzker said he has traveled throughout the state over the past few weeks to urge local officials to take the lead in limiting and containing new outbreaks.
“You’ve seen me (and) heard me say for the last several weeks that this is a make-or-break moment for Illinois and for the City of Chicago,” Pritzker said.
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Pritzker called on residents to show “personal responsibility” by wearing masks and keeping their distance from others to stave off a sustained spike in new coronavirus cases this summer. The governor also urged businesses to “take responsibility” inside their facilities to enforce the state’s mask mandate.
Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday upheld a fine of up to $2,500 for businesses and other organizations that fail to enforce the mandate or limit the size of gatherings.
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The new penalties explicitly do not apply to individuals, including patrons, workers or business owners. Only businesses, facilities, organizations and services open to the public or employees can be fined, and only after public health authorities first issue a written notice and, later, another written order to disperse.
The 12 state legislators on the bipartisan Joint Committee of Administrative Rules also gave local public health departments the authority to close schools and day cares to contain coronavirus outbreaks. Local health officials can also conduct contact tracing and other coronavirus-related investigations into private businesses, under the new rules.
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This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch
