Illinois State Representative Jeff Keicher expressed strong frustration Wednesday at the Pritzker administration’s handling of a COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home.
During a Veterans Affairs' Committee hearing, he chastised both the timing of the response and a lack of taking responsibility.
“So my question is, when is somebody going to stand up and own that we made a mistake, own what those mistakes were, and right the ship going forward?”
The outbreak was first reported in early November and it took 12 days before the Illinois Department of Public Health sent in a team to conduct an infection control assessment. The administrator of the veterans’ home was fired on December 7. On the 10th, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that National Guard medical personnel were being sent there to help with COVID-19 treatment and screening.