By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – It didn’t sound like a compliment Tuesday, when the chair of the Senate Public Health Committee called Illinois’ coronavirus procedure “convoluted,” but that’s how State Sen. Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago) summed up what she heard from the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
Van Pelt was referring to the number of steps one must go through, including a doctor visit. Ezike said more streamlined testing will allow for a bypass of the doctor’s office.
Ezike says she wants more testing kits and more resources, and she will be in Washington Wednesday to ask for them. She did praise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the contact that agency has had with the state.
Not knowing where we’re going with this outbreak, it’s a little bit hard to predict, and not knowing the length or duration we will be in this efforts,” Ezike told reporters after the hearing. “Being able to bring additional staff on and making sure that we have the resources to house people, we know it’s going to be ongoing expenditures that will need to be replenished.”
Ezike estimates this has cost the state more than $20 million so far.
There are four confirmed cases of coronavirus in Illinois.
Dave Dahl can be reached at news@wjbc.com
