(WTVO) — Even though President Joe Biden announced earlier this year that the COVID-19 pandemic was over, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s virus-related disaster proclamation was in place throughout 2022.

As of this report, Illinois has been under a coronavirus disaster edict since March 2020.

As most states moved into the endemic stage of COVID-19, in August, the governor insisted Illinois should continue to stay the course in order to maximize federal relief money.

“In fact, we’re all the way down to the very bare minimum and we are concurrent with the federal disaster proclamation which is still in place and we’ll be leaving that impact to ensure the maximum amount of federal funding,” Pritzker said.

The National Academy for State Health Policy has Illinois as one of 11 states that have ongoing COVID-19 disaster proclamations, according to The Center Square.

Of the $4.4 trillion in federal obligations, Illinois has received $107 billion, according to USASpending.gov.

Of all neighboring states, Illinois has more per capita of obligation from those funds. USASpending.gov shows Illinois has $8,469 per capita from the funds. Wisconsin’s per capita cost is around $5,700. All other neighbors come in below $5,300, with Indiana at around $4,900 per capita, The Center Square reported.

Critics of the governor’s perpetuated disaster proclamation say it is doing nothing to help the state or national economy.

“We’ve already seen the disaster of inflation that has been created by all the federal spending, so we’re one of the states that is perpetuating that problem,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said in August.

Pritzker’s currently COVID-19 disaster proclamation expires Jan. 8.