Fellow City of Elmhurst Residents,
As news of the spread of the COVID-19 virus remains a vital concern for our country, I am reaching out to you with an update on what we are doing as an organization to take preventative and proactive measures based on the daily information we are receiving.
As of today, there are 105 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 15 counties of in the State of Illinois. A patient in the care of Elmhurst Hospital has tested positive for the virus, but is not considered a DuPage County case as this individual resides in Cook County. As we understand, this patient has had little to no contact with the Elmhurst community.
To help combat the spread, this past weekend City building maintenance staff along with a cleaning contractor completed a City Hall building wide sanitizing. All touch points (railings, door handles, key pads, etc) and all surfaces were wiped down using a disinfectant. The city council chambers and public lobby were again wiped down following the close of the early voting site. We will continue to clean our public facilities multiple times a day.
The Governor announced that the March 17th election will continue as scheduled, which means city hall will be open as a polling site. We will sanitize again after the election day.
The Governor also announced that further restrictions are necessary to contain the spread of the virus. He announced Sunday afternoon that all restaurants and bars in Illinois will be closed effective at 9pm on Monday, March 16, continuing through March 30, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Drive-through and curbside pickup service from restaurants will be allowed to continue. As you can imagine, these closures will have a negative impact on our local business, so I am asking our community to please help support our local businesses by ordering delivery or curb-side pick-up.
With these strange and unprecedented times, we are aware that City of Elmhurst Employees have committed to serve our community at all times. We encourage anyone who needs to conduct City business to do so by phone or online if possible. However, we provide vital services to our residents, and for this we remain calm and want you to know that we are here for you.
We will continue to share updates as we learn them. Below you will find some additional updates from the City of Elmhurst on COVID-19.
Please be smart and practice social distancing to do your part in keeping our community safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Jim Grabowski,
City Manager