While Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that she expects Illinois' statewide stay-at-home order to be extended into May, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he doesn't have a date in mind yet, and it's too early to tell.
The order, which went into effect March 21, was initially set to last through April 7, but was extended until April 30 as the number of coronavirus cases continued to increase in both Illinois and the United States.
When asked about the possible extension at his daily coronavirus press briefing, Pritzker said he wants to lift the order "as soon as possible," but must pay attention to the way the coronavirus case curve is moving.
"Every day I wake up, I come into the office and among other things, I wait for the numbers, and a lot of what I hear from Dr. Ezike guides me," Pritzker said.
While the order was imposed statewide, Mayor Lightfoot said, implementation has to be done at a local level, adding she remains concerned that multiple states, such as Iowa, have yet to issue similar orders.
"I just think that we are never going to be able to move forward as a country unless there's some human uniformity around the stay-at-home orders...a baseline that should be there and that, of course, should come from the federal government, but in the void, we can't wait," she said.
While Gov. Pritzker said Monday he expects President Trump to give advice on stay-at-home orders, the decision is "up to the governor."
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Lightfoot added that she believes Gov. Pritzker "rightfully stepped" up by issuing the stay-at-home order, becoming the second state to implement such a measure.
"And we've been doing our part to make sure that that honor, that order, has real resonance here in the city of Chicago," Lightfoot said.
As of Monday afternoon, a total of 22,025 coronavirus cases and 74 deaths had been reported in Illinois.
