SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — With two coronavirus cases having just been diagnosed in Illinois over the weekend, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike held a news conference Monday to address the developments.
A husband and wife in Cook County were the third and fourth Illinoisans, respectively, to be diagnosed with it.
Pritzker said while public risk remained low, those who did contract the virus would be able to get the proper care.
“The Illinois Department of Insurance will be issuing a letter to insurance companies to let them know we are on alert for any price gouging or unfair coverage practices, and reminding them of their obligations under the law in terms of coverage of insured and underinsured patients,” he said.
On the topic of insurance, Pritzker added it’s important for patients to ask questions about coverage.
“We’re increasing staffing at our Office of Consumer Health Insurance toll-free line to ensure Illinoisans know their rights, whether fully-insured, uninsured, or underinsured,” he said.
Pritzker said with Illinois’s status as one of only a handful of states that can test for COVID-19, there would be an imminent expansion of testing labs beyond Cook County.
Those labs will be placed in Springfield and Carbondale, he said.
Additionally, select hospitals were expected to participate in voluntary testing, or sentinel surveillance.
“We’re taking samples from the community, from people who present to an emergency department and have flulike illnesses but test negative for the flu, they can be tested for coronavirus,” Ezike explained.
“It’s with that kind of surveillance we’ll be able to see if we have circulating viruses in our community.”
Ezike said they’d be starting off with pilot hospitals in the northern part of the state, but would be expanding to Southern and Central Illinois.
An OSF Healthcare spokesperson said the hospital was not participating in the program as of Monday.
