Governor Bruce Rauner is creating a committee to recommend how to fight Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run veterans’ home in Quincy.
Rauner spent the last week living at the facility after a WBEZ investigation into his administration’s handling of three outbreaks over the last three years.
Rauner has defended the state’s response.
But he’s also proposing massive infrastructure upgrades.
"It’s clear that even though we’ve done everything exactly as recommended, we’ve taken every step - we still had some cases. And our goal is zero cases. And now we know we need to - the next phase, the next step is replacing all the plumbing."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report that the possibility of future cases cannot be eliminated.
Senator Sam McCann, a Republican from Plainview, says the governor's response should have come long ago.
"Everything they're talking about here would have been a wonderful press conference to have been held 30 months ago. That's the problem, is they're just now getting around to doing what they should have done two and a half years ago."
McCann says he'd like to see a brand new facility built on the grounds.
He's also criticized the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health's response to the outbreak - and says Dr. Nirav Shah ought to resign.
