Gov. Pritzker hasn’t issued any orders putting pandemic related restrictions back in place after easing up on them. That’s despite specific warnings to places like LaSalle County last week and the county’s coronavirus numbers continuing to go up. Instead, education, labor, and business representatives joined Pritzker Friday to urge everyone to comply with rules for masks, social distancing, and cleaning.
Sam Toia is the president of the Illinois Restaurant Association. He says all businesses need to be on board with preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The governor announced that he signed a law increasing disability leave for fire fighters, ambulance personnel, and police officers during the pandemic. The law also increases penalties for people who attack retail workers for enforcing pandemic safety rules. And he described new Illinois Department of Public Health rules that give authorities more options between doing nothing and shutting a business down altogether for violations.
Pritzker says the first step will be to educate a business on compliance. The second will be a warning. Third would be a fine. But it’s not certain how long it will take until these new options are available. LaSalle County State’s Attorney Karen Donnelly says until the proposal goes through the legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, it’s not a set of enforceable rules.