Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Illinois stay-at-home order could continue into June

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that Illinois’ coronavirus stay-at-home order might remain in place well into May or even June, according to local reports.

“April 30 is no longer, I think, a viable date,” she said at a briefing with local journalists, according to Fox 32 Chicago.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker had previously extended the state’s shutdown until at least that date – and Lightfoot said she expects to see it extended again.

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Illinois had seen the sixth-most confirmed coronavirus cases out of the 50 states with more than 33,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 1,400 people have died in the state.

Dozens of governors have ordered stay-at-home restrictions, prompting protests in some states, Illinois included. The goal of the shutdowns is to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWN: WHAT STATES HAVE SEEN PROTESTS AGAINST STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS

But an additional result has been a snarled economy and the closures of nonessential businesses – putting millions of Americans out of work for weeks and causing unemployment claims to skyrocket.

President Trump and governors from around the U.S. have been rolling out plans to reopen the economy – generally in phases as certain goals are met along the way.

"To preserve the health of Americans, we must preserve the health of our economy," President Trump said at a White House press briefing last week. “We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time.”

For his part, Illinois Gov. Pritzker said that the state would partner with several regional neighbors to coordinate the reopening of their economies in the Midwest. That group includes Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Kentucky.

The governors said they are weighing the following factors as they inch toward lifting coronavirus restrictions: control over the rate of new infections, enhanced testing and tracing abilities, sufficient health care capacity to handle a possible resurgence of the virus and “best practices” for workplace social distancing.

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Despite the coordination, Pritzker said the states are not bound to take the same steps toward reopening at the same time.

“Over time, people will go back to work, restaurants will reopen, and things will go back to normal,” he said.

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.