Two Illinois counties – Lake, near Chicago, and St Clair, near St Louis – will be pilots for expanded contact tracing for coronavirus.

“This straightforward process truly does reduce the number of new infections, and, if done at scale, it can be a very effective weapon against COVID-19,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at his daily briefing Monday.

Pritzker, who is Jewish, answered a question Wednesday about anti-Semitism at recent rallies – ostensibly against his orders which have shut down businesses in Illinois.

“Yes, i have to admit that i am worried about my family’s safety,” said the governor. “You saw some of the signs, you saw the vehemence; people were carrying those signs with swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler, references to me and my family … yeah, I’m concerned.”

At Saturday’s rally in Springfield, when a reporter noted a sign referring to Pritzker as a “Nazi Hypocrite,” and with a Hitler mustache drawn on Pritzker’s photo, strikes a nerve with the Jewish governor, the protester said, “It does, doesn’t it.”

The coronavirus numbers for Illinois are now 96,485 cases and 4,234 deaths.