Local politicians set to announce reopening

By The Weekly Post

Against a backdrop of Illinois’single-highest total of new COVID-19 cases in a day and Gov. JB Pritzker threatening to withhold aid to counties that disobey his edicts, central Illinois politicians were set to announce a local reopening plan Wednesday in Peoria.

City of Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, Peoria County Board Chairman Andrew Rand, and Peoria City/ County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson were to give an overview of their proposed Heart of Illinois Sub-Region Reopening Plan at a virtual press conference on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The meeting was to be livestreamed on Peoria County’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/peoriacountygov and on Public Access Channel 22 and on Peoria County’s homepage www.peoriacounty.org.

The plan identifies a phased-reopening plan for a sub-region of the larger North-Central Health Region. This sub-region, identified as the Heart of Illinois, is comprised of the following counties: Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Fulton, Marshall, Stark, McLean, Livingston, Bureau, Putnam and LaSalle.

The phases utilize metrics set forth by the Peoria City/County Health Department. “This plan is thoughtful, thorough and easily adaptable by other sub-regions of the state,” said City of Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis. “It was guided by science, and we’re proud to have the endorsement of our local hospital leadership.

This plan will assist in the implementation of the Governor’s Restore Illinois Plan. Our medical metrics are very stable and have been for weeks. We are ready to carefully begin getting our region up and running. Area Mayors and Country Board members support this plan.

We hope the Governor will, too.” Rand said, “Central Illinois residents heeded the urgency of the Executive Order and related advisories to stem the spread of this lethal virus. We have also learned much together while enduring unprecedented disruptions to our daily lives.”

When asked to comment about re-opening businesses, Rand said, “To further validate the on-going sacrifices being made by our region we must begin to move our economy forward using evidencedbased practices in this Heart of Illinois plan as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile in Chicago, Pritzker said Tuesday he would consider withholding federal pass-through funds to counties ignoring his stay-at-home order and said it “would be best” for the General Assembly to meet before the end of May to take up key state business. Pritzker said those disobeying his orders are “outliers” who are “not following science and data,” but rather they are “listening to partisan rhetoric” and “following their own instincts, but no science.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 4,014 new cases Tuesday – by far the most in one day – but it coincided with 29,266 test results reported in the past 24 hours – also a record.

The 13.7 percent positivity rate was lower than the average of the past 10 days. There were also another 144 virus-related deaths. reported in the last 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 3,601.