Macon Reporter

After Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered mitigation measures for Region 6, state Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) said he was cut off by Pritzker during a conference call and wasn't allowed to ask questions.  

“Today I was cut off by the Governor’s office on our conference call and not allowed to even ask a question about their decision on Region 6 mitigation," Rose said in a press release. "So let me point out that in seven months, the Governor’s office has absolutely failed to bring widespread testing availability to downstate Illinois."

He said that rapidly testing and quarantining for COVID-19 can save lives. 

"As the University of Illinois proved, if you can rapidly test, interdict, and quarantine infected individuals, you can absolutely save lives," he said in the press release. "But the fact is that testing just isn’t widely available to most of Region 6. And even for those lucky enough not to have to drive an hour each way to get tested, waiting 5-7 days for results doesn’t do much good either. It’d be nice if he’d spend more time getting us the testing resources we need to knock this back, and less time having press conferences blaming others."