![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IDPH-Logo-a-9-29-14-300x83.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A performance audit from the Illinois state\u2019s Auditor General found placed blame with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) in its response to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at a state-run veterans home.<\/p>\n
A November 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans\u2019 Home resulted in 36 resident deaths.<\/p>\n
At fault is Gov. J.B. Pritzker\u2019s Public Health department for failing to \u201cidentify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n
OAM sends.<\/p>\n
Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune<\/strong><\/p>\n An Illinois state auditor general review of the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 36 elderly military veterans at the LaSalle Veterans\u2019 Home in 2020 blames Gov. J.B. Pritzker\u2019s Public Health department for failing to \u201cidentify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n Department of Public Health officials didn\u2019t show up at the LaSalle home until 11 days after the outbreak began on Nov. 1, 2020, even though department leaders had been receiving near daily updates on the deteriorating situation at the home, according to Auditor General Frank Mautino\u2019s review, which was released Thursday.<\/p>\n The public health department\u2019s visit came only after top agency staff members were told that Pritzker was \u201cvery concerned\u201d and wanted them to go to the facility, the report said.<\/p>\n The health department\u2019s failure to intervene quickly at the home after the outbreak had been detected was notable, the audit said, because \u201call but four\u201d of the 36 \u201cresidents who died were positive prior to\u201d the agency\u2019s first site visit on Nov. 12, 2020.<\/p>\n Mautino\u2019s review, requested by the General Assembly, also said an inspector general\u2019s report ordered by Pritzker and released in April of last year that blamed management failures at both the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and the LaSalle home was too narrowly focused on the VA and largely excluded the public health department\u2019s role in the crisis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n Overall, the state audit points to a massive bureaucratic failure involving the administration\u2019s response to the pandemic and the LaSalle deaths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n MSN<\/a><\/p>\n