Illinois Nursing Home Can Assert Immunity for Covid Deaths

Illinois health-care providers have immunity from negligence claims that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic if they can show they were assisting the state at the time, an appeals court said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D)'s early 2020 executive orders triggering a statutory immunity provision didn’t violate constitutional separation of powers principles, the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, said Thursday.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act gave Pritzker authority to declare a disaster, the court said. He used that authority to extend ordinary governmental tort immunity to health-care facilities that helped the state fight the pandemic while the declaration was in effect, ...