Southern Illinois legislators have been pushing for a regional re-opening of the state’s economy leading up to the end of the April 30th stay-at-home order put in place by Governor JB Pritzker due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Their claim is that because of the smaller population as well as how the landscape of I-70 and south provides natural social distancing, the cases are far fewer across the board.

Senator Paul Schimpf of Waterloo represents the 58th District of southwestern Illinois. He put a plan to paper this past week for a regional re-opening of the state.

Senator Schimpf’s plan is based on four phases of regional re-openings, all driven by local on-the-ground data such as hospital capacity, testing availability, infection rates, and risk-based assessments of activities.