The town of Cicero filed a lawsuit on Friday against a local nursing home, the state of Illinois, the state health department and Gov. J.B. Priztker, alleging the facility and state officials failed to respond appropriately to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a deadly outbreak at the home.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that employees at City View Multi-Care Center, 5825 W. Cermak Road, failed to wear personal protective equipment, residents were not appropriately quarantined and patients with respiratory illnesses were not provided protective wear.
According to the lawsuit, there have been 216 COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths connected to City View.
“The Town of Cicero has been on this center to get its act together, to follow the directives to minimize the spread of the virus including requiring staff to wear full PPE protections,” Cicero Town President Larry Dominick said in a statement.
A City View spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Dominick said Cicero blames Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health for failing to take any action to prevent what “quickly became a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections” at the facility.
Cicero is asking the courts to transfer City View residents to the alternative care facility at McCormick Place and other hospitals to ensure they receive proper care and end the spread of the virus at that location.
The Tribune reported on Friday that the McCormick Place operation was winding down and would no longer be accepting new patients.
When asked about the lawsuit during a Friday news briefing, Pritzker deferred the question to the state department of health’s director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
Ezike called the outbreak at the Cicero facility a “major issue,” and said her department was “looking into it.”
“I’ll leave it to the legal team to deal with whatever lawsuits there might be pending,” she said.
The nine-story nursing home that sits along a busy stretch of Cermak Road has been a hot spot for the virus.
The lawsuit says that the 216 positive cases represents nearly one-fifth of the known COVID-19 infections in town. The 10 deaths include one staff member.
The number of staff members diagnosed is 41. But the count could rise as 39 staffers wait for their test results to return, officials said.
Town officials noted that with 320 residents living at City View, more than half of the home’s population has contracted the disease.