October 5, 2020 – A recent report by the National Safety Council gave Illinois favorable marks on the state’s COVID-19 response. The report also described the state’s testing program as “lagging.”
The “State of Response: State Actions to Address the Pandemic” report names Illinois along with 11 other states as being “on track” to assess the safety measures that have been used during the pandemic. The report assessed five areas of Illinois’ efforts based on the SAFER effort, which was created by NSC to provide guidance to businesses through the pandemic. NSC evaluated states on how effectively they performed in testing contact tracing, employer guidelines, mental health, substance abuse and roadway safety. States were graded with designations of “on track, “lagging” or, “off track.”
Jane Terry, vice president of government affairs for the NSC, said the SAFER project is a crucial tool during the crisis.
“We got together workplaces, academia, government partners, and many others to try to get the best practices down for sharing,” said Terry.
Governor Pritzker has said a number of times that Illinois is one of the leaders in the Midwest and the nation for testing, but the report noted Illinois as “lagging” when testing is the focus. Eleven other states have received an “on track” rating from NSC.
