Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced today a new donation program to accept unused personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders and medical staff.

 

The program will be overseen by the County’s Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security (EMRS). Logistics for the initiative will be managed by the County’s Department of Transportation and Highways (DoTH). Donated equipment will be distributed to municipalities, first responders and healthcare workers based on priority and need.

 

“We want to ensure that those in our community who are on the front lines of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic have the protection they need to safely do their work,” President Preckwinkle said. “During this nationwide shortage of PPE, we are facilitating the collection and distribution of this urgently needed equipment.”

 

The County is asking closed hospitality, entertainment, educational and manufacturing facilities as well as other businesses that have PPE inventory currently not in use, to donate those items so EMRS and DoTH can distribute them to facilities who most need them now.

 

Cook County is accepting eye protection such as face shields and goggles, nitrile (non-latex) gloves, surgical face masks, non-contact (infrared) thermometers, disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer and infection control kits. The County will also accept Tyvek or Tychem coveralls, shoes and boot coverings and gowns including surgical, isolation and personal protection.

 

All PPE should be in the manufacturer's original packaging and unopened. Cook County is unable to accept products not in their original packaging or homemade items. Anyone who would like to donate PPE or has any questions, should email [email protected].

It is our duty as leaders in government to do what we can to lessen the burden. In Cook County, we are leading the nation in taking immediate steps to protect our most vulnerable families. At the Housing Authority of Cook County, the second largest provider of affordable housing in Illinois, we have committed to working with any resident that is unable to pay rent due to financial hardship during this time… Not a single eviction notice based on inability to make rent will be served under our watch. Thanks to the efforts of other county offices, our court systems have also moved to close most civil courts for the time being, and have officially implemented a moratorium on evictions countywide.

Originally published 03/31/20 on news.wttw.com | Image: WTTW News

 

At Cook County Jail, 134 detainees and 20 sheriff’s officers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of Monday night, according to a Cook County Jail spokesperson. Nine detainees have tested negative for COVID-19. The situation prompted Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to call the jail “a petri dish.” ‘We’ll continue to have cases at the jail, and it will continue to be the biggest health problem in the county,’ Preckwinkle said during a press conference Tuesday morning.

Toni Preckwinkle was more prepared than most for the upheaval unleashed by the coronavirus thanks in part to her habit of scouring the shelves of her neighborhood bookstore.

 

Early this winter, perusing the stacks at Powell’s Books in Hyde Park, the Cook County Board president happened upon “Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History.”

 

She bought the book on the deadly Spanish influenza pandemic to be ready even though she had little idea of the “nightmare” ahead.

 

“We started hearing about the pandemic in China, of course, in December,” Preckwinkle said. “So it was on the remainder shelf at Powell’s, and I said, ‘Well, this is coming, so I should read this book.’ ”

 

She soon started sounding the alarm. She’d bring the sobering book to work and call for meetings even as some of her staff was “snickering” about the boss’s concern, according to chief spokesman Nick Shields. No one’s laughing now.