Mayor Lightfoot Says Stay-At-Home Order Could Go Into June; Gov. Pritzker Has Not Given Specifics About Reopening

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Tuesday marked one month since the stay-at-home order to fight the novel coronavirus went into effect in Illinois.

Now, there are indications from both Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot that the order might be extended.

As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported, this comes after state officials have been saying the curve is flattening. But there are two key factors, it seems, when it comes to opening the state and city back up.

One factor continues to be the number of cases. We have hovered around a 5 percent increase over the past week, which state leaders say is a good sign.

But we still have not reached the peak. And that, the governor said is the key to what happens next and when.

And with that, Pritzker said people should not expect a mass opening of businesses on May 1, which would be the day the current stay-at-home order is supposed to be lifted.

"I wanted to give our staff and myself enough time to have conversations with the epidemiologists and the experts and people and different industries to try to understand what we could do – not just in the very near term about changing the stay-at-home order in some ways; tweaking at the edges and trying to make it easier on people, but also what we will do going forward if, in fact, the peak comes in mid-May or whenever that may come, you know, we need to have 14 days after that," Pritzker said.

Lightfoot on Tuesday afternoon said she no longer thinks April 30 is viable when it comes to lifting the statewide order. She made that comment on the same day the city canceled many large summer events through the middle of June – including the Memorial Day Parade and wreath laying and the Gospel and Blues festivals – all summer staples.

The mayor added that she expects the stay-at-home order will go into May, but could extend well into June and even the end of June as well.

The governor did not give any specifics about when he might start to open up the state – whether in stages or otherwise. But he did indicate he might have more to say about that this coming Friday.

Pritzker on Monday did reiterate that the total removal of stay-at-home restrictions would just open Illinois up to more COVID-19 cases, and potentially an alarming demand for hospital beds and ventilators.

So far, that demand has been manageable.