I want to discuss the actions that i have taken towards protecting our more vulnerable populations, specifically focused on the black community who have suffered a vastly disproportionate effect of covid19. Years and decades after this pandemic, we will surely look back and examine all of the biological and medical questions about the virus. The data accumulating over the last few weeks has shined a bright light on what seemed like a uniquely american problem. Have told you what it would highlight as long as it drew a picture. Generations of systemic disadvantages health care of communities in color and black unities in particular are now amplified in this crisis. In the city of chicago, and greater st. Louis, across our state and nation. First, we need more ubiquitous test. We are working hard to expand our Testing Capacity and thinking hard about where and how these tests are available. I have end, my team and worked to set up a partnership in the city of chicago and with more qualified l centers on the south and west side. These designated Community Health centers for those who are low income or underinsured are. Center atian health Pcc Community wellness on the left side and Chicago Family Health center on the south side. Starting next week, the centers will take specimens for 400 People Per Day and send them for testing. Region, we arest launching a similar operation where the Southern Illinois Health Care Foundation we taking hundreds of specimens per day and sending them to Anderson Hospital in madison county. Doing, looking beyond their front doors, this represents the very best of illinois. I cannot thank them enough. No community is getting through this alone. The fastest way through is maximizing our resources across illinois and these hospitals are stepping up to make that happen for all of us. I am excited to announce that our new staterun suburban center will open early next week. We will be taking hundreds of specimens per day with test results coming back to patients must fast much faster. As for our two existing state drivethrough sites, we have secured an extension of federal work for faster test results. Crucial, we also need to talk about what happens when a person has symptoms or known exposure. How does that person protect themselves, their family members, their roommates . Across the state, we have Multigenerational Families living under one and families and roommates living in apartments that make selfisolation more difficult. Preparation, we required each of our local jurisdictions to come up with an alternate housing plan to help residents quarantined in a safe place. For weusly, again prepared 2000 hotel rooms outside of chicago to support suburban and downstate communities. When a Department Needs help cannd its local plans, we open the provision of these hotel rooms for additional capacity. We have rooms available in springfield, rockville, metro carbondale vernon, and other counties ready to be activated next week based on county needs. Support to providing the city of chicago and cook county in their own efforts. People who tested positive for the virus have lowlevel symptoms or lowlevel care. There are other rooms available for people exposed to a covid19 positive person and are therefore under investigation and may need to move out of their home to make sure they dont expose their families or roommates. This extends to our First Responder communities especially. Beal Health Departments will making decisions about their needs, utilizing capacity to bolster our covid response. Directing 6. 8 million to help mitigate Financial Stress during this crisis. I want to remind people that these hotel rooms are in addition to the capacity in southmetro south hospital and vibra hospital in spring view. I am pleased that the federal government has granted our request to use the va Hospital System to support covid19 patients. I also want to recognize the Illinois Primary Health Care Association and its vast network of Community Health care centers who are working so hard across the state to support and improve the health of our residents. From cities to rural towns, the centers already played a Critical Role through their support of many of our most vulnerable. In the midst of a pandemic, they are one of the first lines of defense against covid19 this week, 45 Community Health Centers Across illinois are receiving 51 million through the bipartisan federal care act to sustain their response to this virus. Updatewant to provide an on our rapid test distribution. Wednesday,ned on illinois received 15 rapid test machines. While we are still working to acquire the necessary materials, we are deploying these machines mannerlowing and are so that they are ready to go. Machines aree going to the qualified health earlier andntioned the remaining three east st. Louis and the surrounding region. Another three will go to the Illinois Department of health , the schapiroices developmental center, and the elgin Health Center. The final five will go to the Illinois Department of corrections facilities. Say that wewant to are making sure our plans reflect equity and access in testing and treatment. Of healthing the same care providers across the state it is essential that Health Care Institutions operate to fulfill their obligations to render health care in an ethical and nondiscriminatory manner. A crisis and providers may have to operate on their normal capacity and allocate limited health care resources. No one life is any more important than anothers. Guidance thated vulnerable and historically marginalized communities asked receive equitable care so that no person of color suffers a disproportionate outcome due to a legacy of discrimination. These thatments like we offer even greater expressions of humanity. With that, i would like to turn it over to the doctor or our medical update. Governor andou good afternoon, everyone. Commitmented by your to make sure all lives matter and everyone gets equal care. United we stand and divided we fall. I am inspired by all of you who are following the recommendation to make sure we do all we can to ensure the safety of our entire community. Report that 68 additional lives have been lost to covid19 and there are 465 new cases. That brings our total to 596 of 17,887 and a total cases. And inequalityy is a major concern to me and i have always encouraged our agency to use a healthequity lens in every aspect of the work we do. , we see alarmingly high rates of covid19 in the black population. This disparity is true both for cases and the data. Mortality rates among blacks are five times higher than white, and when you break it down by age groups, the disparities are even higher. For people in their 50s, the mortality rate is 10 times higher for blacks and their white counterparts. For people in the 60s, the rate is eight times higher than white cap reports. Counterparts. Comorbidities and Underlying Health conditions often contribute to more severe deaths from covid19 and we know that africanamericans generally do have higher rate of heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, and diabetes. Black adults are twice as likely as white adults to have higher rates of obesity as per the National Institute of health. Black Life Expectancy continues to be years shorter than the population as a whole there are many reasons for this. And lets not forget the centuries of structural and institutional racism. Which worsen the disparity included jobs that place people at higher risks of ,xposure, being underinsured lacking access to medical care, and as the governor mentioned, the fact that black populations potentially live in extended family settings with more people in the same setting. As the governor had mentioned, the state is working to address some of these challenges but people who may be at risk or have already been found to be positive. Created the covid19 equity team. By art director for the center of Minority Health and involves other state agencies that will serve as a once and informational hub how to accurately address health disparities. We will not stand idly by while one segment of the population bears an unfortunate, heightened burden of this disease. Team will identify issues and patterns impacting socially vulnerable communities while assessing and proposing specific, actionable recommendations. Increased,t be allowing for earlier, more effective isolation and segregation of the exposed individuals. Starting today, Health Equity team launched covid19 text messaging. You can opt in to receive Text Messages so you can have the most Accurate Information and protect yourself. Covid toxt the word 3125003836. Covid espanish, text to the same number. Must address the dramatic disparity we are seeing. We have got to tackle it head on and hope that these steps will start to do just that. I want to reassure the people of illinois that we are working for the health and safety of all. We wont hide from the hard truth but rather elevate the truth and then address it. We must all continue to stay at home and wash our hands. We must keep our six feet of distance so that we can turn the tide and end this pandemic as soon as possible. With that, i will summarize the comments in spanish. [speaking spanish] spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] spanish] ngozi and with that, i will turn it over to dr. Horace smith. Horace good afternoon, everyone. I am a physician at lori childrens the department of ecology transparent. 1978, been there since but also, i am a pastor of our churches in the south side of chicago. I am happy to be here because of the work of our governor mayor, and the Health Professionals in our communities, that today are announcing some tremendous strides forward in the fight against this pandemic. Subjects of disparity and health care are not new to us, but often they get pushed to the side. I remember when the announcements were made about the disparity in numbers in cases of covid19 and mortalities. People were astounded, but for many of us, we are not surprised. These are issues that have been in these committees for a long , it takesoften times something catastrophic for us to really pay attention. Need committees not only , but really i want to praise our governor mayor, and all those who understand that these are endemic, longstanding issues. We must deliberately and with all of us together face the unpleasantries of what is happening in our nation. Its a very unique situation. , andanamericans, latinos others who have been vulnerable for a long time are hit the hardest. In scripture, we are taught that we of the most those who have the least. This, wet not ignore must do what is being done today. We must make sure that surprise of health care are available. I would caution all of us to understand these disparities. Health care is a trust issue. If communities do not trust institutions, you can live next to a hospital, but you will wait until the last minute to go to the emergency room. If there is no trust, there will not be accessibility. So as we open the centers, im so glad we are. I would speak to my fellow neighbors and communities and tell them to please continue to observe handwashing, observe social distancing. Wheres your mask outside. But i also want to encourage you not to be afraid. The next step in the fight against covid ill be universal testing. If we have a community that is vulnerable, we should not be surprised by the vast numbers who are infected and to those who are dying. As a pastor and leader in the Health Care Community i am appalled to see such death on such a wide basis. But again, we must join together. We must practice these things which may mitigate our ability the effective. , youe are instant socially must not be distant in any other way. We must make sure that our seniors and others are cared for and what is being done today is a step forward. So please, as we address this today and go forward, lets make sure we also attacked the longterm institutional problems that are always a part of our community. Thank you, and im praying for. Ll of us together thank you. Might it my name is dr. Susan mckinney. For the purpose of illinois covid19 response, i am serving as the operations lead for the five alternate care sites. Capacity, i am responsible for overseeing the operations on each of the sites and coordinating with the city, state, and appropriate county officials. I want to reiterate that these alternate care sites at mccormick place, metro south, westlake, and vibra are intended to supplement, not replace our acute care hospitals. We know that if we approach Critical Mass in hospitals, these sites will be used as set down facilities to open up that space for the most critically ill. I want to thank the army corps of engineers and all of the hardworking teams who are working so diligently to bring these facilities online as quickly as possible. I would also like to thank Governor Pritzker for entrusting me with the opportunity to serve the state of illinois in this capacity. And aative chicagoan product of the south side, i am honored to serve in this capacity. Furthering my life work in Public Health and helping our communities understand how we determine bestal social issues plaguing our committees every day how we can combat social issues plaguing our communitys everyday. Christians know that jesus died for our sins so you can go to grandmas house and enjoyed a piece of cake. But this easter, we are asking you to stay home so you have the opportunity to celebrate with her at a later time. Each time you leave the house, you are putting the lives of her and others at risk. Please stay home. With that, i would like to introduce bishop simon gordon. Thank you. You, dr. Nk i am a pastor at tristone church in chicago on the south side. Thank and say our governor has done such a great job pending defending our state. He is to be applauded for fighting for us until this time. Second, i am grateful to the fact that he has not only heated the response in the community but has heard and is doing something about it. This call to action is going to make tremendous changes in how we are able to allow our community to get more testing and more accurate understandings of where we stand, as well as to put our community in a better place. So we need our community of faith to join with us. Im grateful for all the churches who decided to listen to the mandate and stop having church the way we had in the past. I am also grateful for so many who have changed the way we have done funerals, which is dramatic for a lot of people. To be in a posture without a private setting but all of things are so necessary at this particular time we can hinder the spread of this literal disease. Pantriesof us at food and doing the census and still having interaction to keep our communities safe, practicing all the things we need practice, we need to put ourselves on the line to make sure people know clearly where to go and keep following the mandates that make sense. I dont care if we have to do it through food bank or phones, its important we do. Our Community Leadership and landscapes are changing. We have heard of so many people who died from this pandemic here in our city. Sony Church Leaders and pastors who have passed in this pendant. I just want to close my comments by mentioning there are some that are well known, and some that are not quite. Yet they are Community Leaders and then make a difference i want to mention one family. Wife. Joseph and his we are doing their Funeral Services next week. Both of them died from covid19. Four surviving children and eight Church Family and community. Us, its our time to do our best to make sure we follow through. We have to work hard to make sure that we do this. Small and great, included in all of us is an opportunity to make a difference. We need to do that with the best of our efforts. Governorank you to our for stepping up to the cutting edge, hearing our voices, and making sure that whatever needs to happen happens so that we can see illinois be a victory state when it comes to this. To present back to you our governor. Gov. Pritzker thank you. To all of you who maybe dont know the three new people who stand behind me today, these are great public servants. I have known them for some time. They are great people who represent communities across chicago and are real leaders. I am honored to have all of you here today. Im happy to take questions from members of the media in the room and that online. Reporter following up on summer gatherings possibly being canceled. Is it inevitable you will have to cancel onsite schooling . And you mentioned the need for widespread testing. Is 10,000 the number you have in throwing out been throwing out . Theld the president invoke defense production act . Gov. Pritzker i have been saying the president should invoke the defense production act for everything we need. This is a war against covid19. If there is ever a time you need toorganize our industries address this with pde, testing these aremachines, all things we need to accomplish our goals, so that is my first answer. As to your earlier question, yesterday, i was trying to address the question as to whether people should be thinking about what to do with their festivals. I was merely suggesting people should complement contemplate what it. If. We need to follow what doctors tell us. We need to save as many lives as possible. Thats whats most important. Saying on at im. Iven day this is all about saving lives. Im going to follow your advice to your question, schools will be dictated again by where ,re we as we approach april 30 what progress has been made, and what doctors are saying about congregating people. Again, im going to wait and listen as we make progress here. And you heard me say yesterday, we are making progress. But i dont want to redact what next week or the week after will look like. Or what the downside will be if we do or if it means we are simply flattening the curve. Or flattening the curve for some time and then falling. Said the governor it was said today that the governors are more satisfied now. That their phones have not been ringing off the hook. Are you satisfied with where things are right now . Gov. Pritzker i wont be satisfied until we are past this pandemic, frankly. If you hear me complain now and again, if you hear me argue for more, its because we needed. And its because we are doing everything we can. Its not enough and therefore we need help from others. I will make that plea wherever i need to. I feel like we are making progress, that im going to be president ne with the for as long and as often as i need to be. Policer the Chicago Department announced they have lost their second member to covid19. First of all, your reaction to that. In part two of that, there are still First Responders on the frontline who still claim not enough is being done to keep them safe. Gov. Pritzker let me address the loss of another member of our Law Enforcement. This has happened across the state. Our First Responders are the ones protecting us. They and our health care workers. Every lossoflife is a lost all of us. But as everyone who leaves their home knows, they are exposing themselves to people who have covid19 and doing so to protect all of us. Those people are worthy of some special note. Those are heroes. Every loss is important to all of us. We are paying attention to every loss, but again, those heroes are special and should be taken note of. Reporter as for the ppe . Gov. Pritzker we are providing ppe to Law Enforcement across the state with state police who are coordinating the provision of ppe. Remember, the state is really backup and support. If a Police Department does not have when it need they simply need to reach out to Emergency Management and will make sure and we will make sure they get what they need. We are consul going out and acquiring and we have it today. If anyone says they dont have it the first thing they should do is go to the superiors at their own agency. If they are not getting it there they can call their local Health Department where we often deliver ppe around the state. We will make sure it is provided there department. Reporter this comes from telemundo here in chicago. Hospital ceos are worried about their staff leaving for other alternative medical facilities, saying they cannot compete with the wages. Theyre worried they will end up with a critical shortage of staff. Gov. Pritzker i want to make clear what is happening. Nationally, there is a shortage of health care workers. Everywhere,king including in michigan. There is a market for those people. The competition is coming from all over the country. Again, this is because there is no Organization Even of people here. But this is where we are. True that alternate care facilities in illinois are also in that market, but we are not hiring or making any effort to reach out to people in the chicago market within a certain radius of chicago we dont wants to take away from existing facilities. That does not mean that someone who is parttime and unassigned to any given hospital does not put themselves in the market for one of these other positions in another state or alternate care facility. Want to be careful not to poach anybody from an existing facility. Can you talk a little bit about a staff member who knowingly transferred and inmate with covid, even though he had ,een on lockdown with no cases and now, all but two of the 14 have reportedly tested positive. Gov. Pritzker im not sure im aware of that particular case. If you give me more details, i will make sure our staff is responsive we have done quite a lot with our congregant facilities and prisons to make sure we have ppe everywhere and are segregating populations of people who have covid19. Protectoing our best to the officers who work at the prisons and all of the staff. We take special care. Frankly, we have our meetings twice a day. How we areuss managing these, get facilities or managing to provide ppe and guidance to all of those facilities and how that is going. Its very difficult no question about it. When you have people who cannot be moved easily or in a Developmental Disabilities home or in a prison, these are all difficult circumstances. Our department of corrections is to make sure we are operating correctly i will look into the details. Reporter you have made it clear you dont necessarily agree with some of the peak projections. Can you share your own methods and models . Gov. Pritzker we have multiple models. Its hard to point out one thing. Ieryone likes to point at the hme model. Its a fine model, but the range of possibility between the lowend and highend, we are theing 30,000 beds between lowend and highend of that model. You have to look that several models and what their assumptions are. We have got some of the best experts in the world that we rely upon to look at. We are basically looking at several models and trying to estimate the right spot to aim for. Its not just about the peak we are potentially going through the next several weeks, but also the threat of a peak in the fall. Doctors will tell you that if you look back at the spanish flu and other pandemics, even other countries that opened up after they have peaked, we will see a resurgence of cases. So if you really begin to open things up, you will have a second wave. We want to make sure that we are fully prepared. God forbid we do. And welaces opened up make adjustments that are not proper. Improper ones, that is. We have to be prepared to adjust that. We have that in mind, and again, we look at multiple models to try and guesstimate. Thats the best you can do. One more . Ok. We will go online. A Community Center in jacksonville laid off staff. Are those medical staff needed in other hotspots and what is your plan to keep the centers open . Gov. Pritzker there might be the intention to hire them away from an existing center, but , we need themlks elsewhere. There are ways you can engage in that were reach out to the local Health Department or directly to the idp h to make sure we know about you. Thing, that a Health Center should not be closing. In, iis money coming think i Just Announced it moments ago. I would argue that hospitals and Health Centers are not getting enough from the federal relief packages. I am sorry that i Health Center anywhere in the state is closed. This is from downstate. The Vice President urged people to keep gatherings to fewer than 10 people is that something you would agree with or would you tell them to limit gatherings to their own household . Gov. Pritzker i would like people to stay at home. Things the safest, best you can do. Stay home. Skype, do so over zoom, or other methods. Many of the pastors here will acknowledge that many would like to get together for the holidays, this is just one. Oliday teachings from the bible will tell you that it is our obligation to save a life if we have the opportunity to. Lifeng home and saving a is saving a life. The New York Times obtained a Homeland Security prediction showing infections might spike in late summer. Are you familiar with these projections . Gov. Pritzker i just read a brief paragraph about it an hour or two ago. Obviously, i take that as important information. Again, this is about the science and the medicine. I have said before that you need testing, tracing, and treatment. Need toe the things we make enormous changes, and even with that i will say we all need to pray for those who have been developing treatment. Are hard at work and are trying everything they can to get a something soon as humanly possible. If you want to pray for somebody over the weekend, pray for them. Bloomberg asks the data appears to indicate the growth rate is slowing and illinois is bending the curve, but the number of new cases today is higher than yesterday. Gov. Pritzker who was it . At bloomberg. Gov. Pritzker got. Got it. I believe that the data appears to me that we are bending the curve as far as bending it down, that evidence is not quite there yet. In other words, so that has a downward slope. We are not quite there yet. Increasing x natural cases we are decreasing cases for a while and we put in home for stayathome order on the 21st. That is roughly 3. 5 weeks down there it down. We are starting to see that even if todays numbers are slightly every than yesterday, life is an enormous loss to all of us. When you look at the statistics anyway, what people see and in those numbers is a leveling going on. It may not be perfectly level, but we have bounced around. Day, i see these numbers. Maybe not first, but early. Admit toe them, i must you, i pray. You can see also that the number of cases being detected as you have increasing testing, you saw today that we were over 6000. We saw it nevertheless around a level number of cases develop. I am not a doctor or statistician, but i can read numbers and understand what levels look like. And again, a few days in a road is a good sign. This is from mike in springfield. Rural counties across the country have a confirmed case in at least one case of the death if one in 10 are reporting at least one death what can you do to make sure rural areas are getting the testing they deserve. Gov. Pritzker i hope some of you saw a New York Times article precisely about rural communities, that the increase in cases as a percentage of deathtion, increases in as a percentage of the inulation, is increasing urban environments. There was nobody in their county who died from it, i think there were people who thought, why do i need to stay at home . See people are beginning to because of very unfortunate results that it is very important for people to follow these orders. We need to make sure we have Testing Available for rural communities. You heard me talk about the fact illinois, westate are increasing testing. I talked about metro east, but we monitor Health Centers very closely and Health Centers in other communities downstate. They are receiving funding, they are receiving testing. They have swabs and the ability to send it to our state labs. We have the ability to collect those swabs and test them in relatively short order. That is why you must increase testing everywhere. Chicago, cook in county, or the black community. Its everywhere in the state thats going to be the key to us getting out of this crisis. Hospitalill westlake up and running to respond to covid19 patients . If they are not open the time illinois hits our peak, they only be open as long as the care act and pay for them . Can payfer them for them . Reporter its difficult to say, but i could tell you that april 24 is the day for completion of construction once construction is complete, we will need two days to train all of the staff and have facilities ready to accept patients. For vibra hospital, we have more of an extended timeline, targeting may 9 for construction completion. Gov. Pritzker and let me make sure that people who live in the city understand why that is. First of all, we closely monitor hospitals across the state. How many beds are filled, how in the icu beds are filled, how any ventilators are being used and so on. Fortunately in that area of the wete, at least right now and have not hit peak yet, and who knows when that will happen, it wont be exactly the same in every area of the state. And indeed, as i was saying earlier, we are seeing that the increase in cases and deaths is at a higher rate than other areas. I think the timing here is correct, and i will say there are some terrific hospitals in the springfield area that will be serving people until they might reach a point where there would be an overflow. Last thing, just so everybody remembers, we are all praying dont need any of these. We are building them out because we want to make sure there is nobody who does not have a hospital bed to go to. There is nobody without a ventilator or icu bed they may need. This is our last question from rebecca at capital news illinois. How has the pandemic changed how your family celebrated passover . Do you have any advice for families this weekend . Gov. Pritzker i was a part of two different celebrations on both nights of passover they were both over zoom. Im not advocating any particular method, but i havent them set up by somebody else. Webex is being advertised over here and skype, ive heard. There are lots of ways to do it. I will say it was almost fun. Really. Thatan connect with people might not otherwise be able to get to your home on a typical passover or typical easter, and this is an opportunity for you to experience this all the same together. I know it doesnt sound like it, but it is like being in the same room. Saw the old show Hollywood Squares, its a little bit like Hollywood Squares. On the see everybody same screen and tops them all thered its really quite good there. Its really quite good. My staff are laughing because they dont know what Hollywood Squares is. Thank you all very much. Happy easter, everybody. Good morning everyone. I
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