IL lawmakers’ statement about COVID tests was inaccurate, BJC and Pritzker’s office say
A statement from two southern Illinois lawmakers about coronavirus testing numbers was inaccurate, according to a hospital spokeswoman and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.
State senators Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, and Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said in a news release Tuesday that “Illinois was not including data from some of the largest hospitals and healthcare facilities in the region,” including BJC HealthCare. The St. Louis-based company operates two hospitals and multiple health-care centers in the metro-east.
BJC spokeswoman Laura High says BJC has worked diligently “to comply with all reporting requests concerning COVID-19 testing of Illinois patients,” including those who live in Illinois but are tested at a Missouri BJC facility.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, BJC has reported both COVID-19 positive and negative results to all required agencies including (the Illinois Department of Public Health) and Illinois counties,” High said. “Our reports are based on people who provide Illinois residential addresses regardless of where they were tested.”
Schimpf said Wednesday he stands by his statement. Plummer was not immediately available for comment.
“The Pritzker administration is attempting to rewrite history to cover up their gross mismanagement of the COVID-19 data,” Schimpf said.
It’s important to count all negative and positive tests in the metro-east to generate the most accurate positivity rate possible, said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. IDPH calculates the rate by dividing the number of positives by the total number of tests and multiplying by 100.
They track the rate over a seven-day period to calculate an average, which they use to make regional decisions about whether to implement additional restrictions or lift them. The metro-east region has been under additional restrictions since Aug. 18, when it surpassed a state-set 8% positivity rate threshold that triggers extra rules on businesses.
Schimpf’s and Plummer’s statement stems from a conference call last week with Ezike. Schimpf said Ezike told a group of metro-east elected officials that the state had just started including BJC’s data.
The Waterloo senator pointed to comments by Ezike at a news conference Tuesday. She was responding to a question from a reporter who asked if an Illinoisan that received a negative test result from a St. Louis BJC facility would be counted in the metro-east’s numbers.
“We were made aware of the fact that Barnes Jewish (BJC), particularly, had lots of tests from Illinoisans, from the metro-east area, so we have worked with them. We worked with their hospital leadership, their laboratory leadership, to make sure that they are sending those lab results electronically so that they can be counted towards the total and give us our most accurate number,” Ezike said.
In a statement to the Capitol Fax news blog, a spokeswoman for Pritzker’s office said the lawmakers’ statements were inaccurate.
“There is absolutely no truth to these baffling claims,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh told Capitol Fax. “ ... There are no situations where the state takes just the positives from a testing entity and includes that in a region’s positivity rate.”
The Republican lawmakers also suggested the state public health department should not include positive cases from congregate living facilities in overall testing numbers because those individuals don’t “mingle in the general population being counted.”
People who work in those facilities, such as prisons or nursing homes, can spread the virus throughout the community, Abudayyeh said. She added that there are congregate living facilities throughout the state in regions that have managed to remain below the 8% positivity rate threshold.
“Instead of peddling conspiracy theories that undermine the health and safety of Illinoisans, lawmakers should be sharing the messages backed by medical experts that are proven to reduce positivity rates: wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance,” Abudayyeh said.
Schimpf called for a hearing to explain Ezike’s statements.
“I stand by what both the Pritzker administration and BJC told me last week,” Schimpf said. “We need to have a hearing so we can get definitive answers and get people on the record.”
Ezike said on Tuesday the state is dedicated to counting every test.
“We want to have every test counted on everyone in Illinois so that our numbers can be as accurate as possible,” Ezike said.
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
