Pritzker issues statewide stay-at-home order through April 7 as Illinois coronavirus tally jumps to 585

For weeks, he asked and pleaded.

Now Gov. J.B. Pritzker is ordering all residents to stay at home beginning Saturday, in the most serious effort yet to combat the spread of the coronavirus in Illinois.

Pritzker issued the stay-at-home order alongside Mayor Lori Lightfoot Friday afternoon, while announcing the latest death in Illinois due to COVID-19, a Cook County woman in her 70s.

She brings Illinois’ toll to five. The first four deaths in Illinois attributed to the pandemic were confirmed earlier this week.

The state also announced 163 additional coronavirus cases, which raises the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in the state to 585. That number could hit 3,400 within a week, according to Pritzker’s office.

Cases have been confirmed in 25 of the state’s 102 counties, affecting patients ranging in age from 3 to 99.

“My bedrock has been to rely on science: real, actual science,” Pritzker said. “To avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives, we must enact an immediate stay-at-home order for all in Illinois.”

The order lasts until April 7. That also extends to Illinois schools, which had been shut down till the end of the month but now will be closed at least until April 8. Lightfoot previously extended the closure of Chicago Public Schools through April 21.

“All nonessential businesses must stop operating. If you can work from home and aren’t already doing so, now is the time you must,” Pritzker said.

“Essential services” like grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations will stay open, as Pritzker has said, but most other places that don’t sell food or medicine are expected to be shut down.

Roads and highways are expected to remain open, as are public transportation systems.

“I want to be clear: this is not a lockdown, or martial law,” Lightfoot said. “Do not take this direction as a reason to run to the stores, buy everything in sight and hoard vital supplies.”

Many of those stores that have seen long lines and empty shelves this week agreed to set aside specific shopping hours for older residents who are more vulnerable to the virus.

“Yes, you can go outside for a walk, but practice social distancing. Remember: this is the new normal, for now,” Lightfoot said, calling it “a make-or-break moment for our city and state.” Chicago Park District buildings and libraries will close for the duration of the order beginning 5 p.m. Saturday.

“For the most part, people will have the ability to go out and recreate,” Pritzker said. “What we are trying to discourage is people recreating and getting together. … We want social distancing. … You can still go outside and enjoy the outdoors.”

Read Gov. Pritzker’s full order:

Metra cuts service

Metra has announced plans to sharply curtail service in response to the precipitous drop in ridership even before the governor’s order. But the CTA is planning no service cuts even though ridership Wednesday was down 75 percent on rail and 59 percent on CTA buses.

“Public transit is an essential service, and it’s important to keep it moving for those who need to travel for necessary reasons, including health care providers, emergency personnel and others who rely on transit,” CTA spokesman Brian Steele wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.

“CTA will continue to monitor ridership levels and aim to provide the highest level of service possible. Note that, with the need to social distance, existing service levels are providing safe distances for customers and operators.”

Illinois is the third state to order residents to stay home in response to the global pandemic, following orders issued Thursday night by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Friday morning by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Officials in west suburban Oak Park announced a shelter-in-place order two days earlier.

Pritzker’s order solidifies the “social distancing” strategy his administration has pushed for weeks as the only way to stem the pandemic.

“Because the incubation period is 14 days, anything we do now to disrupt the exposure would take at least two weeks to show any effect,” Pritzker press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said.

Cops, not a militia, will urge people to go home

In terms of enforcement, Lightfoot and Pritzker agreed the order amounts to “asking people to do what they know they ought to,” but said police will be vigilant.

“If [officers] see somebody who maybe is violating this order, they would talk to them and ask them not to,” Pritzker said. “Last resort, really, there is the reckless conduct misdemeanor that someone could be charged with. But we anticipate people will follow this order.”

People spotted potentially violating the order by Chicago police will “get an admonition to go home, and for most people, that’ll be enough,” Lightfoot said.

Pritzker also shot down rumors of state militia members being called to enforce martial law.

“Those are all false, and I want people to take a deep breath. … There is also, I hate to tell you, an effort by the Chinese government and the Russian government to feed into that paranoia about what’s going on.

“I hate having to beat back rumors every day. I want to give you the truth,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker recently activated 60 National Guard members, but they’re tasked with assisting with medical services.

Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern said Friday afternoon that scheduled days off for the department’s rank-and-file officers, as well as district supervisors and some specialty teams, were canceled through the weekend.

Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

Retail patrols welcomed

Those officers will be deployed to the city’s retail areas and major thoroughfares, Ahern said. Normal departmental staffing will resume Monday.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44^th) was pleased to learn officers will be assigned to retail corridors. Tunney sent an email this week to Lake View businesses advising them to batten down the hatches and take valuables out of their windows.

“We had three or four robberies a couple nights ago in Lake View. I think it was interior ATMs and/or liquor and tobacco,” said Tunney, owner of Ann Sather’s Restaurants.

Tunney noted Chicago’s retail corridors were “pretty empty already” — even before Pritzker’s stay-at-home order. Police officers assigned to retail corridors will simply make certain that “businesses, while they’re empty, are safe.”

Ald. Michael Scott Jr. (24^th) questioned how the governor’s order would be enforced in a city of 2.7 million people where Chicago Police officers are already overwhelmed.

“We don’t have the manpower to enforce it without using the National Guard. But, once you bring in the National Guard, then people kind of feel like they’re in a police state and you can’t move around,” Scott said.

“That would send a very negative connotation—especially in communities like the one that I serve where people feel that they’re over-policed already. That would bring a very negative overtone to the situation.”

Without using the National Guard, which he strongly discouraged, Scott said the impact of the governor’s order is likely to be more suggestive than mandatory.

“I would like to think that any strong statement from the governor like a shelter-in-place would promote folks to start doing things that they haven’t been doing over the course of this virus. I would hope it would jar peoples’ reality that they need to stay at home and only go out when necessary,” Scott said.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36^th), Lightfoot’s City Council floor leader, called the governor’s order “very liberal” because it will allow people to leave their homes to go to grocery stores, pharmacies and doctor’s appointments.

He doesn’t believe enforcement will be a major problem.

“People realize this is something that needs to be done to bend the curve. They’re going to pay attention to it. There are going to be some people who don’t. But the super-majority of folks are gonna do it because they’ve seen that it’s worked in other places,” Villegas said.

“Ninety-five percent are gonna follow the order. That small amount [who don’t] — we’ll have to deal with that . . . with local law enforcement. I don’t think there’s any need for the National Guard or anything like that. Local law enforcement will be able to deal with this.”

Be reasonable, lawyers say

Pritzker’s order last week shutting down large gatherings and bars and restaurants provided an early test for enforcement powers of local governments, said Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, a partner at the municipal law firm Ancel Glink. Local officials since have flooded the firm with calls for information on how to conduct meetings or enforce Pritzker’s proclamation, and Krafthefer said that her advice was to use their authority with discretion.

”We’re telling them to be reasonable. We don’t want them stopping everybody on the street, and asking them ‘Are you really going to pick up a prescription? Are you really going to a grocery store?’” Krafthefer said, adding that advice would hold for a potentially more sweeping shelter-in-place order. Local enforcement measures will likely be less important than people simply using their own common sense.

”You’re not going to see a lot of people getting arrested, I don’t think,” she said. “People at this point are going to take the public health issues seriously. There may be some individuals who are going to want to push the envelope, but not many.”

Shoppers hit stores as order announced

On Friday, after news of the order spread, lines appeared to get a bit longer at some Chicago-area grocery stores, but they appeared orderly, while other grocery stores saw no increased activity.

The parking lot of the Mariano’s at 33rd Street and Ashland Avenue in Chicago was already buzzing when news of Pritzker’s order broke.

Dozens of people — many wearing protective masks, with one man sporting a full-fledged gas mask — could be seen filing in and out of the supermarket during a traditionally slow time to shop.

Frank and Julia Broder live nearby and were stocking up on water, produce, frozen pizzas and ingredients for chili when news of the imminent order came to light.

“You just felt the energy when [news of the order] came through,” Julia Broder said. “There’s still no paper products in there, the cans are pretty much all gone.”

“It’s starting to get a little tense,” Frank Broder added. “People had a greater sense of urgency, for sure.”

‘I just need food’

At the Pete’s Fresh Market at Madison Street and Western Avenue, cars circled a full lot hunting for a parking spot while shoppers filed in wearing masks and gloves.

Guy Walker, 36, said he, his wife and two kids have food at home and are only shopping for the necessities. But he understands why others are rushing out to the stores despite officials’ pleas otherwise.

”People are doing what they think they need to do,” Walker said. “People have no experience dealing with a pandemic. Nobody wants to be without necessities.”

Another shopper, Samantha Moore, said she was following the governor’s directions not to buy out the store and hoard food and supplies.

But packing a full cart of bags into her car trunk, Moore said she was doing her usual shopping and helping out her sister, who asked her to grab groceries when she found out Moore was headed out.

”My shopping isn’t really in response to that, I just need food,” Moore said.

In Oak Park, shoppers kept the proper social distance as they waited outside a Trader Joe’s to be let in. An employee greeting people outside was offering free spritzes of hand sanitizer and explained they were trying to limit it to 30 customers at a time.

Sam Charles/Sun-Times

To allow Chicago stores to replenish empty shelves, the city has relaxed restrictions on overnight deliveries, allowed loading dock activity around the clock and lifted weight limits on trucks.

“We’re allowing semi-trucks to stage wherever they want. If they’re full with supplies and they’re waiting for an available loading dock, they can park wherever they need to park. And we’re allowing 24/7 deliveries at all stores and pharmacies,” said downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2^nd).

“If you have a reasonable level of confidence that, when you go to the store, they’ll have what you need, then there’s no longer a reason to go crazy and buy a fork-lift full of toilet paper.”

Orders don’t raise legal issues: experts

As to practically enforcing the governor’s order, constitutional law professor Steve Schwinn said that states and cities where officials have already put similar orders in place have seen few issues crop up. Supreme Court rulings have given local authorities broad powers to enforce public health measures, said Schwinn, who teaches at UIC-John Marshall Law School, though local officials typically have avoided heavy-handed enforcement.

”The practical problem is, do police officers really want to be in the business, and does the city want to put them in the position of, ticketing people or arresting those who are violating a public health order?” he said. ”It cuts against our civil rights culture to do that… but legally, they would have every right to do so.”

Public health orders grounded in good science, and not paranoia or racism, have been upheld by the courts, said University of Chicago Law School professor Aziz Huq. And states have far broader powers to enact public health measures than even the federal government, so actions from Pritzker and municipal leaders are crucial.

”Even if the federal government were to be granted some new authority to deal with an epidemic, it would fall to the local officials to enforce those powers, and the Supreme Court has been clear that the federal government cannot commandeer state and local governments to enforce federal law.”

Nader Issa/Sun-Times

Contributing: Nader Issa