Some people called on Linda Chapa LaVia to resign as the director of the Illinois Dept. of Veterans Affairs because of the coronavirus outbreak at the LaSalle veterans home. She did after a House Civil Judiciary Committee hearing this morning. Someone on the committee asked if the pressure’s getting to her. Chapa LaVia didn’t give any indication in her reply that it was. She said some people are fully supporting her.
The coronavirus outbreak has claimed 36 veterans’ lives at the LaSalle home. Chapa LaVia says Illinois veterans homes avoided COVID-19 for a long time and scrambled to deal with it when it got in.
LaVia said given the infection rates in the community around the veterans home, it was just a matter of time before someone on the staff brought the coronavirus into the veterans home despite efforts to keep it out. She says the staff treat the residents like family and still cry over the deaths.
St. Rep. David Welter still wants to know why it took so long for the Illinois Department of Public Health to send someone to the home.