Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday issued a “stay at home” order for the state — joining New York state and California in telling residents to hunker down inside unless they have vital reasons to go out.
The Illinois order takes effect Saturday and goes through April 7.
The actions by the all three states' governors amount to the most sweeping efforts in the U.S. yet to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
They also encompass more than 70 million people and the three biggest cities in America: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Residents can still go to the grocery stores, put gas in their cars, take walks outside and make pharmacy runs, the governor said at a news conference, the Chicago Tribune reported.
And all local roads, including the interstate highways and tollways, will remain open to traffic, as well.
“For the vast majority of you already taking precautions, your lives will not change very much,” Pritzker said, but he conceded: “We don’t know yet all the steps we’re going to have to take to get this virus under control,” the Tribune reported.
The state has 12.6 million people.
Exceptions were made for vital jobs and errands, such as grocery shopping and obtaining medicine, as well as exercise.
Across the U.S., governors and public health officials watched the crisis in Europe with mounting alarm and warned of critical shortages of ventilators, masks and other protective gear at home.
As promised earlier in the week, President Donald Trump officially invoked emergency wartime authority to try to speed production of such equipment.
But while the government has vowed to fix the botched roll-out of widespread virus testing, laboratories reported serious shortages of test supplies such as swabs and chemical components.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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