Leaders in two counties with highest COVID-19 death rates say Pritzker’s restrictions go too far

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 27, 2020 | Neal Earkey

[PBRCat]

Downstate Jasper County has seen only three residents die of COVID-19, and Monroe County only ten.

But the two southern Illinois counties have the highest per capita death rates from coronavirus of all the state’s 102 counties, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.

“That means you’re more likely to die of COVID-19 if you live in either of those two counties than if you live in Chicago or in Cook County,” the governor said.

Rural Jasper County, in southern Illinois, with a population of 9,611, has 42 reported cases and three deaths from the coronavirus, according to Illinois Public Health Department figures. Monroe County, located in the Metro East area, and with a population of 34,637, has had 64 reported cases and 10 deaths from the virus.

Local officials in both counties said Pritzker’s stay-at-home measures have hurt their local economies, forcing many small businesses to close. Government leaders in Jasper and Monroe counties point to outbreaks at nursing homes in their respective areas, saying the majority of deaths come from one source.

State Rep. Darren Bailey, who represents Jasper County and persuaded a Clay County judge to rule in his favor in a lawsuit against Pritzker, said he was “disgusted” by the governor’s comments.

“One size does not fit all, and since this governor has started, that’s exactly what we’ve seen in Illinois — one size fits all,” the Republican from Xenia said.

Darrel Hickox, a member of the Jasper County Board, disputed the numbers from state public health officials, contending that “nobody” in Jasper County has died from the coronavirus.

He said that members of the media who report on the pandemic are “socialists, liberals and communists.”

[PBRCat]

Pritzker plays with the COVID-19 numbers to defend his abysmal record of managing the crisis by executive orders which violated the Constitution.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

Death rates:

Jasper County 0.03% (3 in 10,000)
Monroe County 0.02% (2 iin 10,000)

Lock it down!!!!

/s

Insanity.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

Oops BOTH are 0.03% (3 in 10,000).

[Wuli]

While the per capita death rates may, or may not, be high in those two counties, my bets are that nearly all of those who died were already in lock down in nursing homes or other elder care facilities, and someone brought the virus into them.

What that has to do with all the otherwise healthy folks in those two rural counties is mostly nil.

We needed a “pandemic emergency” response that moved temporary hospital level critical care staff, and ICU level equipment, into nursing homes and other eldercare facilities. And that in addition to temporarily locking visitors out, and testing all nursing home staff, weekly. Nursing home staff also needed daily blood oxygen tests to see if they already maybe had the virus without noticeable symptoms yet.

[rwa265]

From the article:

Newton Care Center nursing home accounts for 36 of 42 reported cases and two of the three deaths from the coronavirus in Jasper County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. In Monroe County, Garden Place Independent & Assisted Living accounts for 29 of the county’s 64 reported cases and eight of the county’s 10 deaths from the virus.

I looked at the numbers for the other counties in the 119th district, including Effingham, which is only partially in the district.

Effingham———5 cases 1 death
Richland-——— 3
Lawrence-———3
Clay County—— 2
Wayne County-—2
Wabash County—1
White County——1
Edwards County- 0
Total—————17 cases 1 death