coronavirus illinois

‘I'd Rather Be From Here Than There,' Pritzker On Indiana Reopening

Parts of Indiana enter stage two of Holcomb's reopening plan much to Pritzker's dismay

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday discouraged Illinois residents from crossing the border into Indiana as the neighboring state begins to reopen.

"To the extent that people are not social distancing and accessing certain offices in which, you know, Indiana may have decided that they want to open those things up - understand that there are risks associated with that," Pritzker said. "And I would discourage people from doing it."

Pritzker said while people "are free to do what they want" and can leave the state, he doesn't "control the state of Indiana, and they don't control Illinois."

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced the reopening of the state in two stages with aims to have Indiana "back on track by July 4."

"While we're hopeful that we have the momentum to move into this stage later in May, we will be cautious and make the best decisions for Hoosiers based on the situation at that very moment," Holcomb said.

Pritzker said that he is considering reopening the state region-by-region, but not by using a typical approach.

"I want to open as soon as anybody does, I just want to make sure we're doing it in a safe fashion," he said.

In Monday's coronavirus briefing, Pritzker said it's important to think of regions as "health care regions" based on the availability of intensive care unit beds in a given area.

Indiana officials reported 583 new cases of coronavirus Monday, with the statewide reaching 20,507.

For Illinois, officials reported 2,000 new coronavirus cases Monday, lifting the statewide total to 63,840.

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