CHICAGO _ Gov. J.B. Pritzker is now saying the new coronavirus won't peak in Illinois until mid-May, while Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday predicted the state's stay-at-home order could go into June.
The virus's peak had been expected in mid- to late April, but Pritzker said that's no longer the case in part because people have been adhering to his stay-at-home order.
"So it's been pushed out now, according to the models, to maybe mid-May, but at a lower level, and so we're moving, inching toward that date," Pritzker said during an online interview on The Washington Post Live.
Pritzker's statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect until April 30, but he's said in recent days he's considering modifications. Last week, a regional coalition of states was announced to coordinate the reopening of their economies.
Lightfoot was asked during a teleconference call with reporters whether a June 30 deadline for an ordinance giving her extended powers signals anything about when the city expects stay-at-home orders and restrictions to be lifted.
The mayor said no, just that it's a date where the city may have a better view of the future. But, she said, the state's current April 30 end to the stay-at-home order is not viable anymore. Lightfoot reiterated her previous prediction that the order could go into May, then added that it could go into June.
The June timeline Lightfoot offered meshes with guidance the White House released last week for states to consider when planning to reopen their economies. The guidance recommends states experience a 14-day period of a downward trajectory before moving to the second phase that begins to ease restrictions.
In his interview with the Washington Post, Pritzker again said he is looking at regional differences across Illinois' 102 counties as he weighs adjustments to the state's stay-at-home order.
"We put in stay-at-home orders that were really across-the-board very effective, and now we've looked at what the infection rate has been _ different in Cook County than it is in our collar counties, and different in our Cook and collar counties than it is in other counties across the state," Pritzker said. "And now I think we can make some adjustments based upon hospitalization rates, based upon ICU bed availability, based upon infection rates."
Pritzker, who repeatedly has been critical of President Donald Trump and his administration's response to the new coronavirus, was asked about Trump's tweets of "Liberate Michigan" and the like that have seemed to support protests against stay-at-home orders.
He said Trump is making "a political maneuver in the middle of a national emergency, and he should stop it."
Pritzker said in Illinois, Democrats and Republicans "share the common goal of opening our economy and getting people back to school and back to normal as fast as we can, but with the overriding concern for people, safety and health.
"That doesn't seem to be the message coming out of the president when he tweets out 'Liberate Michigan' or 'Liberate Minnesota' or 'Liberate Virginia.' He's fomenting protest, and I hate to say, that is fomenting some violence and I'm very concerned about what that might mean for the country if he keeps doing things like that. We should be bringing people together, not dividing people now."
There has been a wave of protests of state stay-at-home orders over the past week outside statehouses, including one in Springfield on Sunday. Pritzker downplayed that demonstration, noting it was smaller than in other states such as Michigan where large crowds gathered.
Roughly 50 people gathered around the Abraham Lincoln statue in front of the statehouse, chanting "Open Illinois" and "Recall Pritzker," and holding signs that read "Freedom is Essential" and waving Trump 2020 flags, while a group of counterprotesters were assembled across the street.
"The protests that occurred in Springfield, I think there were about 20 protesters that showed up, there were about 10 counterprotesters that showed up," Pritzker said Tuesday.
Trump during his daily briefing Monday took aim at Pritzker over COVID-19 testing, and said the governor "did not understand his capacity."
Pritzker responded to that on Tuesday, saying Trump "doesn't seem to understand the difference between testing capacity and getting testing results," noting a "worldwide shortage" of some of the materials needed to run the tests.
"Testing capacity, what he's referring to is _ hey, you've got enough machines in each of your states to run tests that will give you hundreds of thousands of results. Well, he may be right. And he is right in Illinois. But what he's not right about is we don't have the supplies to run those tests."
While multiple states have reported incidents of the federal government seizing shipments of personal protective equipment, Pritzker said Tuesday that Illinois' efforts to obtain PPE abroad have not been interrupted. The state chartered two private flights that have already returned from China with protective gear, which is now held in the state stockpile, Pritzker said.
The state inspects imported equipment in its warehouses before distributing it to front-line workers, the governor said.
"You can't go through every single mask, but you take samples from each of the, you know, shipments that have come over _ to make sure that we got what we paid for, and also that it's effective and can be used where we need it," Pritzker said.
