SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law providing full disability benefits to Chicago police officers and firefighters struck by COVID-19 before vaccines were available. Pritzker presided Wednesday over an emotional statehouse ceremony that marked the end of a financial struggle for responders including the brother of Comptroller Susana Mendoza. The Act-of-Duty law ensures disability benefits of 75% of salary plus health insurance for anyone unable to work after contracting the coronavirus from March 9, 2020, when the flare-up intensified in Illinois, until June 30, 2021. Mendoza’s brother, veteran police Det. Joaquin Mendoza contracted COVID-19 in 2000 and cannot work. But he was denied benefits because he couldn’t prove he caught the illness while on the job.
