No Hugs For Mom: Officials Urge Virtual Mother’s Day Celebrations

ILLINOIS — With Mother’s Day around the corner and many Illinoisans itching to see to their families, officials warned Wednesday that in-person celebrations with loved ones outside of people’s quarantine circles could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said the situation isn’t “that far from where we were a month ago or before we started the stay-at-home order” in terms of how easily the coronavirus can spread between people.

Illinois Has 4th Most Coronavirus Restrictions: Study

“Virtual hugs are still … the order of the day. It’s that simple,” Ezike said during Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday. “The more people you’re around, the higher the risk of contracting the virus from someone in this new expanded circle.”

Illinois Coronavirus Update May 7— Don't miss updates about precautions in the Aurora area as they are announced — Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

Ezike and Gov. J.B. Pritzker also said it’s too early to begin considering reducing visitation restrictions at long-term-care facilities, which have seen some of the largest outbreaks in the state.

Pritzker Highlights Coronavirus' Toll On IL Latino Community

“Nothing in this situation has changed to decrease the risk for that most vulnerable population,” Ezike said. “When there is a game-changer, when there is a treatment that would be able to counter the devastation that we have seen thus far in our long-term-care facilities, we can think about loosening it.”

“Right now, trying to open up visitation to create more contacts for this group that has already been so hardly hit, it doesn't seem like the right thing to do,” Ezike added.