Twenty percent of veterans at LaSalle Veterans’ Home have died from COVID-19 during November, according to a news release by Illinois GOP.
There were 27 deaths from the coronavirus at the veterans’ home this month, with more than 200 positive cases. Seven alone died on Veterans Day.
After the unprecedented outbreak at the veterans’ home, the Illinois Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing last week.
State Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) was noted in The Southern Illinoisan for bringing up troubling findings, such as the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) not making any site visits at the veterans’ home until Nov. 12; Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Linda Chapa LaVia not personally discussing the tragedy with Gov. J.B. Pritzker; and there being at least five staff members at the home testing positive and allowed to continue to work.
After having a Halloween party together, a number of employees at the veterans’ home were allowed to continue working after testing positive, the news release states.
The Illinois GOP questions why it took 11 days before the IDPH made a site visit even after there was proof of the skyrocketing cases at the beginning of the month. It is also questioning why the director of the state veterans’ affairs had not spoken with Pritzker regarding the issues and why the staff members were allowed to continue working.
“One would think Governor Pritzker would have a greater sense of urgency to address an outbreak of a deadly disease in a state-run veterans home given that such a scenario was a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign in attacking the record of his predecessor,” the release notes.
The Illinois GOP says Pritzker and his administration need to answer for the “fatal mismanagement” since there have been 27 deaths -- more than 20% of the home’s residents.
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