The announcement was made moments ago.
Governor JB Pritzker has officially extended the Illinois stay-at-home order for another 30 days. The order will now remain in place until May 30.
The governor began by discussing the methodology of his modeling that has informed his decision-making. The models, gathered from the use of “the most comprehensive data from the state of Illinois” were projections that were subject to change.
Following, he re-emphasized the effectiveness of the stay-at-home order which has prevented overcrowding of healthcare facilities and saved lives.
“If we lifted the stay-at-home order tomorrow, we would see our deaths per day shoot into the thousands into the end of may that would last well into the end of summer.” the governor said in today’s press briefing.
“The numbers present us with only one choice. Next week I intend to sign an extension of our stay-at-home order with some modifications through Saturday, May 30.”
Pritzker had indicated a modification to the previously scheduled date of April 30, after revealing earlier this week that Illinois would not see its peak cases from late-April until mid-May.
Despite this, he was hesitant to make any official decision regarding the extension to the stay-at-home order.
However, a day after Illinois experienced its highest single-day peak of COVID cases, with 2,049 newly reported cases and 98 deaths, the governor officially announced the extension.
“This is the part when we have to dig in”, Pritzker said. “and we have to understand that the sacrifices that we’ve made as a state to avoid a worst-case-scenario are working and we need to keep going a little while longer to finish the job.”
Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, had predicted this extension saying that:
“April 30 is no longer, I think, a viable date. I would expect an extension of the stay-at-home order and the other orders that were put in place as a result of the response to COVID-19 to go through sometime in May. It certainly could go into June.”
In a measure of public safety, many major events scheduled for the summer have been cancelled in Chicago. Pritzker previously warned that all summer festivals could be cancelled without a working vaccine in place.
At this present moment, there are 35,108 confirmed COVID cases in Illinois, with 14,406 cases identified in Chicago.
The governor has repeatedly emphasized the effectiveness of staying at home and social distancing.
[Featured image via today’s press briefing]