By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Three dozen COVID-19 deaths, and the lawmakers who represent the La Salle-Peru area say Gov. JB Pritzker’s still not paying enough attention to the veterans’ home there.

The Quincy legionnaires’ disease outbreak, killing about a dozen, was under the last governor, Bruce Rauner, but State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) says Pritzker doesn’t seem to have learned very much.

“If we were able to go onsite immediately and recognize that mitigation protocol was not being followed, we could have slowed this outbreak,” said Rezin in an online news conference Monday. “The governor likes to point in other directions, but one thing that they cannot argue is that their slow-walking of this issue caused the virus to spread and caused many deaths within this facility.”

Democrats liked to blame Republican Rauner for the Quincy Legionnaires’ disease crisis, but Rezin says Pritzker’s team didn’t follow the auditor general’s recommendations post-Qiuncy, waiting twelve days to go to La Salle.

Pritzker has said he did not want to exacerbate the situation by having himself or the state public health director visit the home.

State Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) found more to complain about.

“CDC practices were being ignored,” he said. The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ “chief of staff touts many emails, phone calls, and video conferences with state health officials early in the outbreak, yet he confirmed state public health officials never asked whether the proper hand sanitizer was being used, face masks, or other PPP didn’t meet the CDC standards.”

Rezin and Welter want legislation to compel the administration to implement the auditor general’s recommendations.

The state veterans’ affaires director has since resigned.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]