By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Hope you are sitting down for this one.

“Earlier today, I reached out to the President of the United States,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at Monday’s coronavirus briefing. “He returned my call.”

Pritzker has regularly been using his daily news conferences to use the Trump administration as a punching bag for failing to get Illinois the supplies and equipment he’s requested; in fact, Pritzker Monday recited a list of what he’s asked the federal government for and contrasting that to the list of what he’s received.

But the governor said his Twitter foe of Sunday was responsive Monday. “He did say, what do you need, let me see if I can get that for you, and I told him what we had ordered from the federal government already, and he said, let me work on that.

“I hope that we will be able to receive those items in relatively short order.”

The briefing also included representatives of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (I-BIO) to talk about how they are helping.

IMA president / CEO Mark Denzler said the state’s manufacturers are producing faster, and others are re-purposing their plants to make supplies and equipment/ This includes sanitizers and parts for test kits, all of which will stay in Illinois.

I-BIO president / CEO John Conrad said his members are being asked to donate unused personal protective equipment (PPE), which has come to the forefront as something nobody seems to have enough of.

As for the latest numbers, Illinois coronavirus cases climbed to 1,285, including twelve deaths.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]