Galesburg Mayor John Pritchard wrote Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday in a letter that asks for modifications in the five-phase plan to re-open Illinois.
Pritchard says without these changes more local businesses will permanently close and the “irreparable mental, physical, and economic damage” will be “far more costly than the effects of COVID-19.”
The Mayor asks for the 28-day phasing window to be reduced to a 14-day window.
This refers to the number of days that some requirements must be met to move to the next phase of reopening.
Currently, all regions of Illinois are in Phase 2, and can only move to Phase 3 after meeting requirements including not having an increase in hospital admissions for COVID-like illness for 28 days, and the timeline is similar to move to Phase 4.
Pritchard says the 28-day window is “too long” and “unnecessarily punishes communities” like Galesburg.
He calls on Pritzker to divide the state into the Emergency Medical Service regions, of which there are 12, instead of the 4 regions detailed in the reopening plan.
Mayor Pritchard says the current regions “lumps” Galesburg into other communities.
Pritchard says many of the benchmarks Pritzker uses in his plan are things Knox County officials have already been tracking.
“Positivity testing rates, we’re below that. No overall increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19. We’re pretty stable there,” Pritchard says.
Under the EMS Region plan, Galesburg would still be clustered with Peoria, Macomb, Bloomington, Rock Island, and LaSalle.
He also says the determinations to continue to the next phase should start with Pritzker’s stay-at-home order on Mar. 20, not the May 1 start point Pritzker used.
Galesburg would already be in Phase 3 if the March date was used.
The Mayor says that the date is arbitrary and “fails to recognize the sacrifices” taken by Galesburg residents to meet the original stay at home order.
