SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The St. Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago is canceled, the Illinois General Assembly legislative session has been postponed, and 25 coronavirus cases have been reported in Illinois.
These were the three highlights Wednesday of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s now-daily COVID-19 briefing.
The announcement about St. Patrick’s Day came early Wednesday, shortly before the World Health Organization categorized the coronavirus as a pandemic.
“Late [Tuesday] night, the CDC released recommendations related to large gatherings and events consisting of 250 people or more,” he said.
“I thank the mayor [Lori Lightfoot] for making this tough call, the right call for the people of Chicago.”
The G.A.’s legislative session was delayed until March 24.
“We’ll continue to work together to evaluate the situation and take additional steps as needed,” he said.
Pritzker’s most significant announcement may have been six new Illinois coronavirus cases have been confirmed.
One of those cases, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said, was a Lake County male in his 50s.
The other five new cases were a man in his 80s, two men in their 70s, a woman in her 50s, and a man in his 40s, and all were in Cook County.
Pritzker talked about a new online resource to track up-to-date coronavirus cases. That’s located at dph.illinois.gov on a COVID-19 page.
It contains a running tab of positive tests, negative tests, and currently-pending tests.
