Last fall, 36 residents of the LaSalle Veterans' Home died after contracting COVID-19.
A report from the Illinois Department of Human Services faulted the leadership of the veterans’ home and pointed to the lack of a plan to deal with the pandemic, but Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) laid the blame elsewhere in an April 30 Facebook post.
"Once again our Governor is trying to control the narrative - this time with a scathing report by the IL Inspector General on the massive failings within our Dept of Veterans Affairs as it relates to the massive COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans' Home,” Wilcox wrote in the Facebook post. “The media had the report in time to write stories for this morning, but legislators did not receive it until this morning. I'm Minority Spokesperson for the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and I'm first reading about the report in the media rather than reading the actual report that should have been sent to us at least at the time the media was given pieces, if not the whole report.“
The first four cases were reported on Nov. 1, and the virus spread to more than 100 individuals, 60 residents and 43 employees, according to the report, which was released on April 30.
The failures started at the top, according to an ABC7 report, with former Veterans' Affairs Director Linda Chapa LaVia failing to uphold her responsibilities.
Chapa LaVia was hired, Pritzker said on April 30, because she led the investigation into the outbreak of Legionnaires Disease in the Quincy Veterans Home several years ago. She resigned from her position as director of Veteran’s Affairs in January.
Alerts Sign-up