Gov. J.B. Pritzker defends tougher COVID restrictions in letter to Illinois chambers
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has responded to letters from Illinois chambers of commerce imploring him to lighten restrictions on small businesses hit hardest by the cornavirus pandemic.
“It’s my fervent desire to get people back to work and businesses running at peak capacity and growing,” Pritzker wrote in a reply to chamber leaders. “But our economy cannot fully recover until we reduce the positivity level across our state and our nation. Indeed, the virus is the major obstacle to a return to normalcy.”
Pritzker addressed his reply to Dawn Mushill, director of the Troy/Maryville/St. Jacob/Marine Chamber of Commerce, and Nancie Zobrist of the Highland Chamber of Commerce. Both are part of Illinois’ Region 4, which was hit with additional restrictions on Sept. 2 as its positivity rate for COVID-19 testing surged past the state-imposed 8% benchmark.
Most of the new mitigation measures focus on restaurants and bars, including a ban on indoor seating, capacity limits and earlier closing times among others. They will be reviewed again on Sept. 15.
In the meantime, the letters sent by the local business organizations expressed concerns for the coming fall and winter and the impact the colder weather will have on those establishments forced to conduct business outdoors. They say closing businesses will merely drive customers across the river to restaurants and bars in less-regulated Missouri without slowing the spread of COVID-19.
The chambers asked Pritzker to lighten the new restrictions and to expedite awarding relief funding through Business Recovery Grants by preemptively issuing blanket approvals.
Zobrist, who leads the Highland chamber, called the governor’s response to her letter “less than satisfactory” and said she already has written back to Pritzker for “additional clarifications.”
In his 1 ½-page response, Pritzker doubled down on a refrain he’s repeated since May, when the five-tiered Restore Illinois plan was first released, calling the virus “insidious” and “a creepy menace.”
“None of the mitigation strategies are intended to punish or harm anyone,” he wrote. “The mitigations imposed are those that the medical experts have determined are the most efficacious for keeping the people of … the Metro East safe and healthy, as we all work toward prosperity as soon as possible.
“For example, indoor service at bars and restaurants and other similar venues has been identified by scientists as very often the host to potentially risky behavior that includes loud talking, not wearing masks and drinking alcohol, which can make people less risk conscious. That increases the viral load which in turn increases the likelihood of spread as it is carried home asymptomatically by people and transmitted to more vulnerable friends and family.”
Zobrist takes particular exception to this argument because, she says, it reflects some of the inconsistent expectations that put small businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
“My concern here is that the casinos are still allowed to be open, still have people inside, and only required to follow the 25% capacity rule — and they have liquor licenses,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It would be logical to conclude that people in casinos also talk loud, don’t wear masks and drink alcohol, which can make people less risk conscious. Right?
“Well, event venues are limited to the lesser of 25 guests or 25% capacity. Our local Knights of Columbus, for example, has capacity for 1,000 people, but they can’t hold a bingo or a wedding reception with just 25 people. It’s that sticking point that really bothered me.”
Pritzer said lifting restrictions depends on the willingness of those who live in the metro east and other affected regions to observe the safety measures prescribed by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Illinois Department of Public Health.
“If mitigation strategies are followed and residents wear masks and keep 6 feet of physical distance when in public, and if local establishments and officials enforce the capacity limits and mask mandate, there will very likely be a reduction of community spread and of positivity rates,” his letter stated.
Zobrist says she is asking Pritzker in a follow-up letter to reconsider the policy of moving regions back a step to tighter phases of mitigation and to base restrictions on other, more telling metrics.
State-imposed restrictions on business also can be triggered when available hospital beds or Intensive Care Unit beds fall below a 20% availability threshold. As of Tuesday, those 3-day rolling averages stood at 30% and 41% respectively, factors Zobrist says should also be considered.
“So, yes we have more cases, but haven’t had an increase in hospitalizations and we have available ICU beds. Common sense should tell you that the cases are not severe,” she said. “If people are not sick enough to need hospitalization, then why are we putting other people’s livelihoods at risk?”
Mike Paone of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry, whose Region 7 members upstate are facing similar mitigation due to higher positivity rates, also was addressed by Pritzker’s response.
Wendy Pfeil, president of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, and Debbie Arell-Martinez, of the O’Fallon-Shiloh Chamber, each said Tuesday that Pritzker’s staff confirmed receipt of the letters they sent but they have yet to receive a reply from the governor himself.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.