Illinois’ COVID-19 disaster proclamation to end in May
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[February 01, 2023]
By HANNAH MEISEL
Capitol news Illinois
hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Exactly 38 months after the World Health Organization
declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Illinois will no longer be under a
disaster proclamation as of May 11, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday.
That’s the same day President Joe Biden will end the national public
health emergency, which just passed the three-year mark last week. The
White House announced the May 11 end date on Monday.
Pritzker had declared a public health emergency two days before the
WHO’s pandemic determination and has renewed his disaster proclamation
every 30 days since then.
The repeated proclamations gave the governor authority for COVID-related
actions such as closing schools, issuing stay-at-home orders and
mandating masks and vaccines. But they were a source of consternation
for Pritzker’s political opponents.
The governor had slowly rolled back his COVID-19 mandates over the past
year, including an action in October when he reversed the requirement
for vaccines, testing and masks in health care settings.
But Illinois is still one of seven states with some sort of
COVID-related emergency proclamation on its books.
These disaster declarations have allowed those states – including
Republican-run Texas – to continue benefiting from COVID-era bumps in
federal reimbursements for programs like Medicaid, additional benefits
for those on food stamps and the ability to quickly deploy emergency
workers to respond to areas in need, like hospitals with severely short
staffing.
“Our state’s disaster proclamation and executive orders enabled us to
use every resource at our disposal from building up testing capacity and
expanding our health care workforce to supporting our vaccine rollout
and mutual aid efforts,” Pritzker said in a statement.
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Gov. JB Pritzker (Capitol News Illinois
file photo by Jerry Nowicki)
Pritzker said 1.4 million children in Illinois received nutrition
support under the additional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
benefits. He also pointed to the expansion of telehealth during the
pandemic under his disaster proclamation, which has largely been adapted
into state law after it proved popular with doctors and patients alike.
“Let me be clear: COVID-19 has not disappeared,” Pritzker said in the
statement. “It is still a real and present danger to people with
compromised immune systems—and I urge all Illinoisans to get vaccinated
or get their booster shots if they have not done so already.”
Opponents to Pritzker’s repeated issuance of disaster proclamations
insisted the governor was limited to the 30 days laid out in state law,
but legal challenges to that effect ultimately failed after months of
litigation.
The governor’s disaster proclamation also allowed for the activation of
the State Emergency Operations Center, which brokered cooperation
between the leaders of different state agencies in response to COVID-19.
In a message to Congress on Monday, Biden wrote that waiting until May
to end the national public health emergency will avert "wide-ranging
chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system” than if it
faced the “abrupt end” sought by the Republican-controlled House.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400
newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It
is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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