![](https://cdn.socast.io/6616/sites/389/2020/03/16151012/Corona.png)
By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – You’ve heard it before – don’t go to the emergency room.
There’s more, though. “Not everyone needs to be tested for COVID-19,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Based on the CDC guidance, your healthcare provider will evaluate your symptoms, ask about contact to a known case, or any recent travel to an affected geographic area, and evaluate whether you are at higher risk for serious illness.”
Ezike announced a dozen new coronavirus cases for a state total of 105 across fifteen counties.
With bars and restaurants holding “last night open” parties Monday … or “first night back” parties when they re-open, Gov. Pritzker issued a caution: “Weeks from now, months from now, when one of those partygoers becomes sick, perhaps dire – somebody perhaps that might die – (restaurateurs and bar owners) should know that they are responsible for that.”
And the Illinois Emergency Management Agency director, Gen. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, said you don’t need all that toilet paper – stop hoarding!
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]