CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Interview with JB Pritzker

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Governor Pritzker, thanks so much for joining us.

This week, the state of Illinois topped 3,000 coronavirus deaths.

Take a look at this graph. It shows the number of new confirmed coronavirus cases in Illinois over time. Now, the White House guidelines say there should be a 14-day trend of downward movement in new cases before states begin the process of reopening.

Illinois has not had 14 days of downward movement. So, why are you confident that Illinois is ready to take steps to reopen?

GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): Well, let me begin by just pointing out that the reason that the COVID-positive numbers are going up is because we have been testing a great deal more than ever before.

In fact, we're the second most testing in the nation among the top 10 most populous states. So, that's why you're seeing just the raw numbers going up, because our raw numbers of tests have really exploded. We just finally passed 20,000 a day the other day. We want to keep

going. We have got to make sure that we test as many people as possible.

But the truth is that what we watch are the positivity rates, you know, the rate at which people are testing positive. So, is that rate stable or going down? And it is in Illinois.

We also watch the hospitalization rate, how many new people are entering the hospital, which is roughly flat around the state. And then we watch the number of hospital beds that are available. In the event that there's a surge, we have to maintain a certain number of available beds.

And, of course, we've already turned on elective surgeries in Illinois. So, you can always -- if there's a massive surge, you can turn off those elective surgeries.

Having said all of that, we're being very careful. We have a 28-day period that we're in now during the month of May in which we're watching all these numbers, monitoring them.

On May 1, I changed our stay-at-home order to make sure that we reopened our state parks and kept people socially distant, put a lot of rules in. We opened golf courses, but only for very small groups going through it, no carts. And everybody has to have their own clubs. Everybody has to wear a mask.

We put in a mask order that everybody across the state has to wear a face covering when they're in public.

So, we have done a lot to make sure that we're keeping these numbers moving in the right direction. And we will not reopen unless we meet all of the standards that I have set for doing so.

TAPPER: So, you were talking about testing 20,000 a day.

But, of course, as you know, you need to get that number higher in order for people in Illinois to have confidence that there is a real program of surveillance testing, of contact tracing.

What do you need, since the White House is obviously not going to lead a national effort to do surveillance testing and contact tracing the way that they do at the White House itself, what do you need in order to get to what Harvard says you need to get to, about 64,000 tests a day?

Are you ever going to get to 64,000 tests a day? And do you need President Trump to do something, or can -- do you have enough power yourself to get there?

PRITZKER: Well, look, you know that I have not been counting on the White House, because there have been too many situations in which they have made promises, not delivered.

Very recently, they promised a lot of swabs. They're supposed to arrive today, the first shipment of those. I'm looking forward to that.

But what we're doing is, we're going it alone, as the White House has left all the states to do. And we have done well spinning up testing. We will continue to grow our testing. We have the ability to do that on our own.

And we are -- we have had contact tracing across the state. We have county health departments that do that. We have our state health department which does that.

But what we're now going to put in place, and we're in process, is a -- we're imitating one of the great collaborative efforts that's happening in the United States, and that's what's happened in Massachusetts. It's the Massachusetts contact tracing collaborative. We can do that in Illinois.

[09:25:02]

We are, in fact. We have hired somebody who was at the CDC, you know, who is an expert at their outbreak intelligence service. And we think that we can have a massive contact tracing up in the next few weeks.

So, contact tracing, testing, you're right, in order to reopen businesses, in order for people to feel confident, we have to make sure that we're constantly growing those efforts.

TAPPER: So, there's some confusion about what your goal is in terms of reopening.

"The Chicago Tribune" editorial board published an editorial about your reopening plan. They write -- quote -- "He's being more than just cautious. He's moved the goalposts. Governor Pritzker's stated goal was to get the outbreak under control, not eradicate COVID-19 completely. We don't want his pursuit of the perfect outcome to unnecessarily delay the restarting of activities."

What's your reaction to that? And what is your end goal for Illinois to go back to some semblance of normal?

PRITZKER: Well, I think the editorial board of "The Chicago Tribune" didn't read the plan, because we are currently in phase two of my plan, still under a stay-at-home order.

Phase three, which would come if we meet these standards that I have set out, would -- is the next phase, but doesn't reopen everything. Restaurants and bars, unfortunately, would remain closed until we can see how we do in the next phase.

Phase four is just the phase before we would have a vaccine. Assuming we maybe never get a vaccine, we are going to have to deal with hopefully a treatment that will come along that will be very effective.

But, even without that, everyone's going to have to wear a mask. We're still going to have to socially distance. The truth is that coronavirus is still out there. It hasn't gone anywhere. And so we all are going to have to change the way we do things until we're able to eradicate it.

If "The Chicago Tribune" thinks that everything is going to go back to completely normal without us having a very effective treatment or a vaccine, they're just dead wrong.

TAPPER: There have been reported cases of children in Illinois being hospitalized because of a new inflammatory syndrome that doctors think is possibly linked to coronavirus.

In New York, three children have already died from this unknown disease. Are you tracking these cases in Illinois? What do you make of what you're seeing and hearing about these cases?

PRITZKER: We have seen examples of this.

It hasn't been yet categorized in Illinois. But we just put together a group within our department of public health to track these cases and, of course, to bring in folks who can help us answer the question, how do we protect children from this? What is causing this particular strain? Is it really coronavirus?

So, these are a lot of questions that are out there. I mean, I think we all thought that children perhaps were less susceptible to coronavirus. But now perhaps this is a mutation that we haven't seen before.

But whatever it is, it's my goal and, you know, our group's goal to make sure that we protect the children of Illinois.

TAPPER: All right, Governor J.B. Pritzker, thank you so much for your time today.

And good luck with the people of Illinois and keeping them safe. We appreciate your time.

PRITZKER: Thank you, Jake.

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