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* Governor Pritzker held an event on the South Side today…
During a visit to a mobile testing site at Coles Elementary School, Governor JB Pritzker announced the expansion of the state’s mobile testing operation with twelve COVID-19 mobile testing teams operating throughout Illinois. These twelve teams will offer mobile testing to residents in hard-hit communities and visit facilities like homeless services centers and nursing homes. The mobile testing sites offer drive-through and walk-up tests free of charge to any Illinois resident who wants to be tested. In addition to the site operating at Coles Elementary, the remaining testing sites are located in Rock Island, Cicero, Brighton Park, Springfield, and East St. Louis.
“We now have 12 mobile teams that can be moved anywhere on any given day to mitigate and suppress emerging outbreaks, including places like meatpacking plants, nursing homes, migrant worker housing and other communities less able to access traditional testing clinics. That puts us on the cutting edge nationally in flexible testing to meet the demands of a more open economy – and I’m thrilled that Illinois is leading the way,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “And to be clear, these mobile teams are in addition to our 11 free, state-run drive through and walk up testing sites across the state. Illinois has built one of the largest testing programs in the nation, and that’s partly the reason we have made so much progress fighting COVID-19 statewide. Performing nearly 30,000 tests per day allows us to monitor the progress of our mitigation strategies, target our testing toward vulnerable populations, and reduce the spread of this virus.”
* After a brief speech flanked by elected officials, the governor said he’d take questions from reporters…
Again, I appreciate very much all of you joining us here today. I’m happy to take any questions that any members of the media may have. And of course the elected officials behind me are also used to taking your questions, I’m sure they would be happy to answer any.
[Long pause]
Or, we don’t need to. [Laughter.]
Thank you very much. [Applause]
No questions? That’s pretty rare, especially since he made news today with his testimony to a congressional committee.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 2:52 pm
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Amy not working today?
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 3:02 pm
The 85 degree temperature may have contributed to that.
Comment by NIU Grad Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 3:06 pm
Odd. Has there been any outline/timing from the Governor in regards to more capacity or less restrictions if Illinois’ metrics remain low or continue to trend low?
I would think more phases would be created at some point soon. maybe those phases are created with metrics for rising regional or national case counts/hospitalizations/positive rates etc as well as having more stringent for Illinois quadrants.
If cases/hospitalizations remain where they are or continue to trend down voices are going to grow louder by the end of the month and into next month.
Comment by 1st Ward Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 3:27 pm
How are we going to avoid becoming Florida and or how to we drive new cases down to the double digits (they are at almost 1000 today and have been flat/rising for two weeks)? How hard is this reporters?
Comment by Sonny Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 3:31 pm
I wouldn’t be too hung up on the number of cases. The positivity rate from testing and by extension hospitalizations are the far more useful measure. The guidance from the CDC and WHO suggests that we need to conduct enough tests to get positive results under 5% to show that we’re succeeding in controlling the spread. We’re at about 1/2 that rate. I would continue to closely watch how that changes over time. Keep in mind that we’re running roughly 3-5X more tests than other states. We will show higher cases in the raw data as a result.
Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 3:52 pm
Would not have happened in Springfield.
Comment by Dave Dahl Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 4:01 pm
I would have liked to know his plan for curbing violence in Chicago. Been crickets from the Gov’s office on this.
Comment by Birds on the Bat Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 4:24 pm
How proud their editors and producers must be
Comment by High Socks Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 4:41 pm
What? Amy Jacobson wasn’t there to ask deep and probing questions?
Comment by Huh? Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 5:11 pm
“Hot ’nuff for ya?”
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 6:06 pm
- Amy not working today? -
Unfortunately she had to find another pool.
Comment by Excitable Boy Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 6:51 pm
==Would not have happened in Springfield.==
He has yet to take his once monthly trip South of I-80.
Comment by Token Conservative Wednesday, Jul 8, 20 @ 8:12 pm