Emergency’s over, but danger’s not: Pritzker ends pandemic disaster status, but warns, ‘COVID-19 has not disappeared’

Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update to reporters in the Blue Room at the Thompson Center in February of 2021. (Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file)

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday announced the end of the state’s COVID-19 disaster proclamation — almost three years after first declaring a public health emergency in Illinois during the early surge of the pandemic.

Pritzker’s decision piggybacks on the White House’s announcement on Monday that it will end the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11. Illinois’ public health emergency declaration will also end that day.