Gov. J.B. Pritzker tests positive for COVID-19

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose efforts to combat COVID-19 have dominated his first term, has tested positive for the virus and is experiencing mild symptoms, his office announced Tuesday.

The positive test came during a routine COVID-19 screening and Pritzker has been prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid, his office said. He received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March 2021 and has received two recommended booster doses.

The governor last week made trips to the White House, Maine and Florida. On Monday, Pritzker’s office said he was in quarantine as a precaution after coming into close contact with individuals who’ve tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, the office said he will continue working from home in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pritzker, who has had to quarantine several times over the last two years but has never previously tested positive for the virus, made his response to COVID-19 a cornerstone of his campaign when he announced his reelection bid during a lull in the pandemic last summer. His November rival, Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey of downstate Xenia, made his name challenging Pritzker’s executive orders on masking and school and business shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

The positive test comes as a highly transmissible coronavirus subvariant is driving new infections. It also comes as Pritzker has been raising his national profile in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the deadly mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade, fueling speculation about his presidential aspirations.

Last week, Pritzker attended a White House event to mark the passage of bipartisan gun safety legislation, then spent the latter part of the week in Maine for a meeting of the National Governors Association before traveling to Florida to deliver a speech Saturday at a fundraiser for the state Democratic Party. In June, he visited New Hampshire, another key presidential primary state.

During the speech to Democrats in Tampa on Saturday, Pritzker drew a stark contrast between his approach to COVID-19 and that of former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, each a potential contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

“While Trump clumsily proposed that doctors explore injecting bleach into patients to cure COVID, DeSantis instead just pretended COVID was a minor disease by cooking the books on Florida’s COVID data and refusing to order COVID vaccines for children under 5,” Pritzker said, according to his prepared remarks.

In comparison, Pritzker noted that he ended his first daily coronavirus media briefing by warning Illinois residents, “This is going to affect your daily life.”

“When Trump decided it would be better for his reelection if he politicized the pandemic, we had to refute his attacks on science, endure threats against our homes and our families and an unending Republican stream of misinformation meant to weaken our resolve,” Pritzker said.

But Pritzker has pulled back many of his mandates over the last year, and some questioned the governor’s decision last week to end a coronavirus vaccination requirement for college students and staff and to reduce testing requirements for unvaccinated health care workers in areas where the virus isn’t rapidly spreading.

Those moves were made despite concerns about the rise of a new omicron subvariant that is the most transmissible version of the virus yet, even among people with immune protection from vaccines or recent infection.

The number of patients in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19 has risen steadily in July, reaching 1,412 as of Monday night, up from 1,102 on July 1, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Hospitalizations with COVID-19 reached an all-time high of 7,380 on Jan. 12, the height of the omicron surge, before dropping to a low for this year of 434 on April 2.

As of Friday, 50 of the state’s 102 counties, including most of those in the Chicago region, had high community levels of COVID-19, up from 28 counties the previous week.

“The big concern is that as we are seeing numbers go up and more contagious variants, we are seeing risk mitigation protocols go away,” Dr. Shikha Jain, CEO and co-founder of the grassroots health care worker organization Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, said in an email to the Tribune last week. “This is a recipe for disaster as numbers continue to rise, more contagious variants emerge and more data is coming out showing that long COVID and long-term complications are more likely with repeated infections.”

Jain, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology, oncology and cell therapy at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago, pointed to the lack of emphasis on wearing masks in indoor public spaces during this phase of the pandemic.

“We are not leading using science or public health recommendations based on what we know works, (and) it feels across the nation that people have decided the pandemic is over, from lawmakers to the community,” Jain said.

The Pritzker administration maintains that it is continuing to align its strategies with recommendations from federal health officials.

In a Twitter post, Pritzker said he’ll “be on the mend much quicker” thanks to the vaccines and the antiviral medication he’s been prescribed, and he thanked those who’d wished him well.

Among the well-wishers was Bailey, who said in a Twitter post that he and wife, Cindy, “pray for a speedy recovery.”

Bailey, who as a state representative in 2020 was ejected from the makeshift House chamber for refusing to wear a mask, has repeatedly refused to say whether he’s been vaccinated against the coronavirus or contracted COVID-19. His campaign again declined to answer questions Tuesday, instead issuing a statement reiterating Bailey’s prayers for Pritzker’s recovery.

Bailey’s Twitter post Tuesday came less than an hour after one criticizing the governor’s economic policies and COVID-19 protocols.

“Out-of-touch Pritzker doesn’t even pump the gas in his car. It’s no wonder he can’t fuel our economy and keep jobs in Illinois. It’s time to remove regulatory burdens, cut taxes, reduce government and jump-start our economy that Pritzker’s policies & lockdowns destroyed,” Bailey’s tweet stated.

Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed from Springfield.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com