Illinois goes on coronavirus lockdown days after holding ‘fine & safe’ Democratic primaries

Having insisted on holding Democratic presidential primaries just days earlier, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has now placed the state on a "shelter-in-place" regime over the Covid-19 pandemic, following California and New York.

The measure will go into effect on Saturday evening, March 21. All non-essential businesses – excluding hospitals, doctors’ offices and grocery stores – are to be closed indefinitely, Pritzker announced after consulting with experts.

To avoid the loss of tens of thousands of lives we must order an immediate shelter-in-place.

Pritzker admitted the state does not have “the resources, the capacity, or the desire to police every individual’s behavior,” so the enforcement of the order will come down to “Illinoisans [being] good members of their communities and good citizens,” he told the Chicago Tribune.

The statewide measure follows the order of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to close down the city, declaring that “now is not the time for half measures” but also that this is “not a lockdown, or martial law.” 

Just three days prior, however, the state refused to cancel, postpone or enable mail-in voting in the Democrat presidential primary. 

“I feel good about the decision to have the election go on tomorrow,” Pritzker had said on Monday afternoon.

We do believe it’s safe. We’ve certainly consulted experts, and we think that the election will go on just fine.

With many poll workers not showing up due to fears of contagion and numerous polling places closed, the voting involved large crowds clustering together for many hours – conditions ideal for spreading the coronavirus.

The primary was overwhelmingly carried by establishment favorite Joe Biden (924,771 votes, 59 percent), whereupon Pritzker and the experts appear to have suddenly changed their minds.

As of Friday, Illinois had 585 registered Covid-19 cases, with five fatalities.

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