Elk Grove Village recently raised its flags to full staff.
Elk Grove Village recently raised its flags to full staff.
Early on in the pandemic, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked that flags be lowered to half-staff across the state to honor those who have died in the pandemic.
Last week, Elk Grove Village decided to move its flag back to full-staff after honoring recently deceased U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson, who has held the office for 23 years, told North Cook News that the village regularly lowers the flag in honor of those who have died in service of the nation, but it became obvious that keeping the flag at half-staff throughout the pandemic was no longer feasible.
“Some have said this pandemic may be going on for a year or two,” Johnson said. “Having the flags down for that long, it may lose its effectiveness.”
Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson
In fact, he said residents were regularly asking why the flag was still down after months. Rather than spreading awareness, the position of the village's flag was causing confusion.
“It was in some ways detrimental to the effort to fight the pandemic,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the decision to raise the flag was not political in nature, adding that the village has a unique display honoring those assisting in frontline efforts in the Covid pandemic as those directly affected by the virus.
“What we’ve done in our village to compensate, back in April, we mailed every single resident green ribbons,” Johnson said. “Today there are thousands of them tied all over the greenways to show the efforts of the first responders and the people lost in this pandemic.”
According to latest figures, the state has seen 9,491 deaths attributed to Covid with 5,357 recorded in Cook County alone. However, the Illinois Department of Health has come under increased criticism for the way it has counted the number of Covid deaths and hospital visits due to Covid.
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