Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner called Thursday for the construction of an “ultra-modern facility” in Quincy to replace a state-run veterans’ home beset by fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks.

Two more confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease were found among residents of a veterans home in the western Illinois town of Quincy where the illness has been linked to the deaths of 13 people since 2015, health officials said.

Illinois public health officials delayed informing the public for nearly a week about a deadly 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a state veterans’ home in Quincy despite knowing the facility was facing “the beginning of an epidemic,” according to internal emails from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office obtained by Illinois Public Radio's member station in Chicago, WBEZ.

Since July 2015, 13 residents of a veterans’ home in west central Illinois have died from Legionnaires’ disease. Eleven families are suing the state for negligence.