Rep. Terri Bryant is joining Republicans who are objecting to the governor’s Bridge to Phase 5 plan. | Submitted Photo
Rep. Terri Bryant is joining Republicans who are objecting to the governor’s Bridge to Phase 5 plan. | Submitted Photo
Gov. J.B. Pritzker added steps toward reopening the state through the Bridge to Phase 5 plan that he recently reviled.
The Bridge Phase starts it will begin once 70% of those over 65 in Illinois are vaccinated. If the key benchmarks are met, the phase will result in greater capacities for events, an increase from 50 to 250 for indoor events and 100 to 500 for outdoor events.
Pritzker's move received criticism due to a lack of involvement from the legislature of Illinois.
"Unfortunately, we still don't know the data behind this plan and, yet again, the governor refuses to engage the Legislature in the process," Rep. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) said in a March Facebook.
Bryant also criticized Pritzker for what she claimed is a lack of transparency on vaccinations.
"So much of the governor's bridge plan depends on vaccinations that first it would be kind of interesting to know why since that is his metric, he's been less than transparent about how the vaccines will be allocated," she said.
These concerns were echoed by Illinois state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur).
"We should not be enduring these draconian lockdowns, these edicts from the governor, these extended executive orders," Caulkins said in a video posted to his Facebook account. "This is a problem with Democrats. Democrats think that the government is the answer, one size fits all. Obviously, it's not true. We need to open up our economy."
The bridge phase will end if progress is made during a 28 day "monitoring period."
The state still recommends that citizens of Illinois continue to social distance and wear masks in public. Health and fitness centers, offices, personal care facilities, retail and counter service establishments, amusement parks, film productions, museums, spectator events, zoos and performing arts events will all be increased to 60% capacity during the bridge phase.
Illinois will move out of the bridge phase and back into phase 4 if ICU bed availability drops below 20% or if COVID-19 hospitalizations or the coronavirus mortality rate increase during the monitoring period.
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