Contributed artist's rendering
Contributed artist's rendering
McHenry County leaders want Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reconsider his decision of including the county in the Northeast Region of his plan to reopen Illinois amid COVID-19.
Restore Illinois divides the state into just four regions, with each region being able to move independently through a five-phase reopening plan based on certain criteria such as positivity rate, hospital admissions, and available testing.
Twenty-five McHenry County mayors, led by Board Chairman Jack Franks, believe the county shouldn’t be part of the Northeast Region because they have dramatically fewer positive cases of the coronavirus compared to the region’s other counties.
As of June 24, Illinois reported 138,540 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 6,770 deaths. McHenry County has had just 1,937 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
“Our numbers are much different,” Franks said told WGN-TV. “I can tell you where I live in Marengo, I’m 62 miles away from the city of Chicago and it’s a totally different world.”
Pritzker said at a recent coronavirus briefing that the map was created incorporating the fact that people live in one area and commute to other areas.
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