Coronavirus cases in Illinois now over 23,000

Posted on April 14, 2020
Gov. JB Pritzker during the daily update on COVID-19. (WJBC file photo)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – When Gov. JB Pritzker held his big news conference Tuesday, he even bragged a little.

Coronavirus cases in Illinois are doubling every eight days, and death totals are doubling every 5 1/2 days. That compares to the cases doubling every other day about four weeks ago … and the deaths doubling every 2 ½ days at the start of the month.

“We won’t get to zero cases overnight,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “The fact that our doubling rate continues to increase in every metric is a clear demonstration that there is a deceleration in virus transmission.

“We are, in fact, bending the curve.”

Illinois totals are now 23-thousand 247 cases and 868 deaths.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…