Carbondale Reporter

Following an new executive order by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to close down businesses in a Republican-dominant region, three Illinois House Republicans censured the move as partisan and based on poor science.

In a joint statement, state representatives Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro), Dave Severin (R-Benton), and Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) criticized the increased state-imposed mitigation in Region 5 based solely on COVID-19 positivity rates, which were at 8% or higher for three days.

“We believe the positivity rate metric is not a reliable indicator of the need for mitigation as it is dependent on the number of tests conducted in the region,” said the representatives in their statement released on Windhorst’s Facebook page.

Gov. JB Pritzker | File Photo

They maintained hospitalization rate, availability of intensive care unit beds and regular hospital beds are a more accurate metric to determine measures.

“We recognize the Governor’s decision to place Region 5 back into COVID mitigation will impact all of the constituents that we each serve, which makes it important that we use the best metrics available before imposing additional restrictions on our citizens,” said the legislators. 

“We recognize and understand the seriousness of COVID-19,” they said in the statement.

In addition, the representatives took issue with the inclusion in the deciding metrics of outbreak numbers at Choate Mental Health and Illinois Department of Corrections entities, which are separate from society and part of the governor’s particular responsibility.

“Nowhere in the Governor’s comments did he take personal responsibility for the lack of control of the spread of the coronavirus at State-run facilities,” they said in the statement.

The representatives declared it “unacceptable” that the governor singled out their region.

“Also, we take serious offense that Governor Pritzker has chosen to treat the citizens of Southern Illinois that live in Region 5 differently than the people of the Metro East,” said the legislators. 

“Governor Pritzker, at the urging of his Democrat compatriots in the General Assembly, gave the Metro East region two weeks to prepare for mitigation. In Southern Illinois’ Region 5, where only Republicans are elected as State Representatives and State Senators, our businesses have been given just 48 hours to shut down in-person dining and bar service,” they said in the statement.

Bryant, Severin and Windhorst urged their constituents to follow established personal mitigation techniques like social distancing with the encouragement that containment would lead to restrictions being lifted.

“The pandemic’s effects continue to be far-reaching, but we must fight to save Southern Illinois’ small businesses and our economy at large,” they said.

The representatives called for more legislature involvement in the process of managing the pandemic.