Duckworth calls for additional stimulus package to help residents during COVID-19 pandemic

Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Tuesday she was supportive of a new federal COVID-19 stimulus package, which would be the fourth to help residents and businesses during the pandemic.

Duckworth said during a telephone town hall with constituents that she was in favor of a plan floated on Monday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for a fourth coronavirus package focused on health systems, front-line healthcare workers and substantial investments in infrastructure.

“Our work is not finished,” Duckworth said. “I will make sure the next phase of funding… gives even more protections to everyday Americans who are struggling right now.”

Duckworth was joined by Dr. Emily Landon, executive medical director of infection prevention and control at UChicago Medicine.

Landon spoke on steps residents can take to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, she said individuals need to take stay-at-home orders seriously and do everything they can to limit in-person contact with others.

“We have to stay home before we ever get sick,” Landon said. She said more than 80 patients at UChicago Medicine have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Landon also said it was unknown when tests would be widely available for any individual who wants one. She said a shortage of reagents and swabs has added to the challenge of ramping up the number of available tests.

She also said that the testing is not “as perfect” as existing tests for things like influenza. She said some individuals need to undergo several tests, and some asymptomatic people can test negative despite carrying the disease.

“A negative test in that patient is not going to tell you that they are good,” Landon said. “It just tells you that on that day, they do not have enough of it to test positive.”

She said testing is moving in the right direction, and they were hopeful that more testing will allow health officials to better understand the next steps in the response to the pandemic.

“We’re certainly going to get more tests, not fewer tests, and as we get more population-based testing, we will have a lot more information to help us understand what we need to know in order to get people back to work and out of this stay-at-home situation,” Landon said.

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