Executive Order on Tier 3 Mitigations for Manufacturers, Office Personnel: After Tuesday’s Update announcing Governor Pritzker’s additional mitigation measures, which caused some confusion for the manufacturing community, the governor has since issued this Executive Order (EO).  Some of the provisions in the EO are different from what was presented earlier this week.  Most importantly, the Employee Health and Safety (EHS)-approved risk-assessment for “critical visitors” have been withdrawn.  This EO is in effect as of today and will be in effect for at least 30 days and perhaps longer if hospitalization and positivity rates do not dramatically improve.

Requirements for manufacturers.  Manufacturers must ensure all employees practice social distancing and must take appropriate additional public health precautions, in accordance with DCEO guidance, which include:

• provide additional COVID-19 training for employees, even if previous training was provided;
• coordinate with IDPH to implement testing protocols and contact tracing;
• provide face coverings to all employees who are not able to maintain a minimum six-foot social distance at all times;
• ensure that all spaces where employees may gather, including locker rooms and lunchrooms, allow for social distancing;
• allow only manufacturing staff and key personnel in facilities, with non-production employees working remotely whenever possible;
• modify and downsize operations (staggering shifts, reducing line speeds, operating only essential lines, while shutting down non-essential lines) to the extent necessary to allow for social distancing and to provide a safe workplace in response to the COVID-19 emergency;
• review policies to ensure that workers are not encouraged or incentivized to report to work while sick or potentially contagious (this may include suspending attendance-based incentive pay and implementing temporary sick leave policies); and
• develop and implement safety protocols for employee travel vans to ensure appropriate spacing, require face coverings, temperature checks, air circulation, and vehicle sanitation.

Requirements for office buildings.  Employers in office buildings must ensure all employees practice social distancing and must take appropriate additional public health precautions, in accordance with DCEO guidance, which may include:

• provide face coverings to all employees;
• cap occupancy at 50 percent of office capacity, and consider implementing stricter capacity limits where the physical space does not clearly allow for social distancing;
• allow telework where possible; and
• develop and prominently post plans and signage to ensure social distancing in shared spaces such as waiting rooms, service counters, and cafeterias.

Illinois Vaccination Plans: If and when a viable COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, the state has issued its Draft Planning Guide detailing procedures for its administration.  When the vaccine is first available, the state is envisioning that supplies will be limited.  Vaccine administration strategies will be broken up into phases, with the first phase being administered to health care workers, staff and residents in long-term care and assisted living facilities, and then emergency first responders.  The next phase will include critical infrastructure workers and persons at higher risks of severe COVID-19 illness, including persons 65 years of age and older.  Critical infrastructure workers would cover many CICI member company’s employees. The next phases will include other critical populations as defined by the CDC, and then general populations.  

Updated Specific State Information on COVID-19 Orders: States across the country are continuing to add additional mitigation measures in efforts to combat the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.  Attached to this Update is the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) comprehensive COVID-19 Tracker chart detailing some these state specific orders and mitigation measures as well as executive orders and legislation relating to business liability.  This chart is now being updated twice a week now.

The most recent version of the COVID-19 Tracker also now includes a “State Vaccine Plans” tab (at the bottom) where you can find the vaccination plans every state submitted to the CDC.  After this tracker was compiled last night, Pennsylvania implemented a new travel order similar to New York, which requires testing no more than 72 hours prior to entering the state or a mandatory 14-day quarantine.  Pennsylvania also updated their face covering mandate.

Update on COVID-19 Cases: IDPH is reporting 634,395 positive tests of COVID-19 in Illinois, an average increase of 12,182 new positive tests per day since reported here 3 days ago on November 17.  In total, 9,588,698 tests have now been conducted in Illinois for the virus, an average increase of 111,013 tests per day since November 17. 

The state’s average positivity rate over all 11 regions is at 11.5% for the last week, and 10.9% over the last 3 days.  You can see where the various regions are at in terms of their positivity rates, hospitalizations and other metrics at this link. 

Unfortunately, IDPH is reporting a total of 11,304 deaths, an average increase of 143 per day since November 17.  As for hospitalizations, as of last night, 6,111 were in the hospital. Of those, 1,196 were in the ICU and 604 patients were on ventilators.

You can also check where these cases are occurring at the State of Illinois COVID-19 website which also contains more information on this outbreak.

Also, IDPH has a case breakdown of the number of positive cases in Chicago and each county relative to the number of fatalities.  The IDPH website also now includes a breakdown of the cases under each zip code in the state.

For information on other states and countries, John Hopkins University has developed this website that provides invaluable resources at a one-stop location detailing testing and tracing trends, timelines of COVID-19 policies, and interactive maps.

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