Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Govs. Mike DeWine (R-OH) and J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) both said they are considering closing down bars and restaurants to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Host Chuck Todd asked, “Are you thinking about shutting down bars and restaurants?”
DeWine said, “We’re certainly looking at that. We started off last week closing the schools. We reduced the number of people gathered together to 100. You know, we restricted access to our nursing homes, to our prisons. So we’re taking tough steps.”
He added, “I have been consulting from Dr. Amy Acton who is doing a great job as my health director, but to national experts, they say look, every day counts so much. You cannot wait. You’ve got to move very, very quickly. And look, these are tough decisions. We’re inconveniencing people, making lives change, but we have to save lives.”
Pritzker said, “What I’m telling you is we have been on the trajectory now and planning for each of these steps, because it’s not easy. You can imagine each one of these decisions has consequences to them that are not just about the pandemic, they’re also about people’s livelihoods. We’re actually looking hard at that decision making today. We obviously saw what happened in Europe. Nowhere in the United States really has there been a lockdown on bars and restaurants, but it’s something we’re seriously looking at.”
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