SYCAMORE – Dozens of people gathered outside the DeKalb County courthouse on Friday for a Reopen Illinois rally to protest Gov. JB Pritzker’s extended stay-at-home order and guidelines surrounding when businesses can re-open safely.
Jackie Bruske, a mother of four children under age 7 runs a home organization business out of her house, and said she was at the rally because she believes people should be free to make their own choices about going out or wearing masks, as well as other precautions expert have recommended in battling the move coronavirus.
“Unfortunately our governor is basically a dictator and has decided he will decide for all of us, instead of our general assembly, what we are allowed to choose or not,” Bruske said.
Estimates of the crowd ranged from 50 to 150, while one unofficial count taken during a speech counted 78 people.
Pritzker on Tuesday announced his Restore Illinois plan, a five-phase approach with public health department guidance on the process of re-opening businesses, schools and other services gradually based on criteria surrounding COVID-19 testing capacity and hospital availability.
DeKalb County falls into the North Central Region under Pritzker’s plan, which divides the state into four regions based on hospital capacity and medical equipment availability.
In order to move into the next phase and begin reopen measures, DeKalb County (part of the North Central region outlined by the governor’s plan) would need to report daily positive tests of 20% or less of the number of tests being conducted. The county would also would need to go 28 days without an overall increase in COVID-19 hospital admissions, and have at least 14% of all hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators available for surge capacity.
Under Pritzker’s stay-at-home orders, only businesses deemed ‘essential’ are allowed to operate under guidelines based on social distancing measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the viral respiratory disease, which has thus far killed over 3,000 Illinois residents and 70,000 Americans.
Those rallying Friday called for businesses to reopen, issuing strong opposition to Pritzker’s executive orders.
This is an ongoing story which will be updated.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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