As COVID-19 warning levels increase across more of Illinois, Pritzker’s briefings don’t

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces that Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike is stepping down at a news conference at Rush Hospital on March 1. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file)

SPRINGFIELD — Regular COVID-19 briefings were once a staple of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to educate Illinoisans about the crisis and slow the spread of the deadly virus. 

In the first couple of months of the pandemic in 2020, Pritzker held them daily — even on weekends for a good chunk of that time — before opting to ratchet down the frequency of his coronavirus briefings to an as-needed basis.