Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration has unveiled an emergency rule to allow essential employees, such as nurses, to receive workers’ compensation if they contract COVID-19.

Under the rule, essential employees would also include first responders, paramedics and healthcare providers engaged in patient care. Employees who apply for workers’ compensation as a result of contracting COVID-19 will be “rebuttably presumed” to have contracted the virus through their employment.

“My intention is to protect the workers of Illinois, the people who are most affected by COVID-19,” Pritzker said. “We are in a pandemic… this is what we need to do right now to protect people.”

Illinois Nurses Association Executive Director Alice Johnson, who joined Pritzker during Monday’s press conference, praised the new rule.

“Due to this change, there will now be a fair and reasonable presumption that a nurse who becomes infected with COVID-19 during this crisis became infected on the job, which will then ensure that they receive the workers’ compensation benefits they rightly deserved,” she said.

Pritzker outlined additional steps to expand access and availability to unemployment benefits, such as improving the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s website to handle additional traffic and expanding call center capacity.

Officials reported 74 more deaths on Monday, bringing the state’s total to 794. Additionally, 1,173 new cases were reported Monday, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 22,025 in 87 counties.

There have been 105,768 total tests.

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