Chambana Sun

Despite COVID-19 protests on May 1, which drew national attention to the state of Illinois, some residents feel their wings of liberty remain clipped even under modified stay-at-home orders.

"The protest was a way for people to express themselves in a peaceful manner but there's still a lot of frustration,” said Rep. Dan Caulkins of District 101.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker eased statewide restrictions on the same day protesters took to the streets in Springfield and Chicago, allowing residents to leave home for health, supplies and services, outdoor activity, certain types of work and caregiving.

“It's a great start, but my personal preference would be to allow each individual county to make its own decisions about when and how they should open,” Caulkins told the Chambana Sun. “Hospitals, the health department and county governments all know what's going on in their areas and I think that would be the way for reopening to happen.”

Dine-in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues, gyms, public events, gatherings and convention centers remain closed, according to the May 1 order.

"I know how badly we all want our normal lives back,” the governor said in an online statement. “But this is the part where we have to dig in and understand that the sacrifices we've made as a state to avoid a worst-case scenario are working — and we need to keep going a little while longer to finish the job."

As previously reported in the SW Illinois News, the new order, which expires on May 31, is based on special emergency powers granted to the governor through the Emergency Management Act. The original 30-day disaster proclamation ended on April 9.

“We need to get our society open again because it's just not fair what's happening,” Caulkins said in an interview. “Downstate, we see the unfairness of us being treated just like they want to treat people in Cook County.”

The Illinois Department of Health currently reports 87,937 positive coronavirus tests statewide and 3,928 deaths while Cook County reports 24,116 cases and 1,123 fatalities. In Champaign, there are 324 positive cases and 6 deaths.

“We all needed time to get our hospitals prepared and that’s how this was sold, as a 30-day cushion, but as it turns out the estimates of the seriousness of the fatalities were way overblown and the models are completely out of whack,” Caulkins said.

Another complaint among some residents is that Pritzker has left the legislative branch out of his decision-making process after declaring a state of emergency.

“The governor declared a state of emergency," Caulkins said, "took charge of the state and is just running the state by himself essentially without the General Assembly."