By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike tried to lend some perspective to the La Salle veterans’ home coronavirus outbreak when she testified before state senators investigating the state’s response.

36 residents died.

“This wasn’t an isolated event where the La Salle home was experiencing a significant outbreak, no other severe outbreaks were happening, and we sat and said, ‘Hmm, I’m going to wait until the very last moment to see if you need help,’” Ezike told members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “This is in the context of more than 600 acute infectious outbreaks at the very same time.”

With an infection control staff of three, by the way.

Discussing an inspector general’s report characterizing then-Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs director Linda Chapa LaVia as AWOL, Deputy Gov. Sol Flores said that’s not how Chapa LaVia acted the first year she, Ezike, and Chapa LaVia were on the job together in 2019. After Flores said Chapa LaVia was fully engaged, State Sen. Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park), the committee chairman, said, “Pretty good ruse.”

Chapa LaVia’s replacement, acting IDVA director Terry Prince, said his staff should see the veterans’ homes as places where they would want to live; otherwise, why are you there?

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].