(Photo by Lightscape / Unsplash)
By the end of the week, Chicago and the surrounding suburbs will be operating under tightened mitigations designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday that indoor service at bars and restaurants will halt Saturday in Lake and McHenry counties due to rising positivity rates.
All bars and restaurants in the region must close by 11 p.m. and all patrons must be seated at outdoor tables, according to the mitigation plan. Additionally, gatherings must be limited to 25 people or 25% of a room’s overall capacity.
“These resurgence mitigations aim to cut down on some of the highest high-risk activities until we bring down the positivity rate in a region once again. I know this virus is hard on everyone. But this battle isn’t going away by itself,” Pritzker said in a statement. “We have to manage our way through it with the tools we have available to us. And there are many of those tools that nearly everyone in our state has available to join the fight.”
The restrictions come after Lake and McHenry counties — which make up region 9 in the state’s mitigation plan — have had a seven-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8% or higher for three consecutive days.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 6,110 new cases of COVID-19 – the second-highest single day total reported since the start of the pandemic. The highest number of cases, 6,161, was reported on Oct. 24.
In the past 24 hours, officials reported 51 virus-related deaths, which included a Cook County youth whose age was not released. To date, there have been 389,095 cases of the virus and 9,619 deaths statewide.
“Getting beyond this pandemic, getting more kids into classrooms and keeping our businesses open isn’t going to happen sooner or safely” by ignoring the virus, Pritzker said Wednesday afternoon.
He repeated the need for temporarily suspending indoor dining and bar service to curb the spread of the virus, citing research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state contact tracing efforts that identify these places as sources of spread.
In a virtual press conference Wednesday morning, state Rep. Jim Durkin, along with Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens, called on the governor to keep bars and restaurants open.
“Please allow these businesses to stay open as long as they follow the guidelines,” Durkin said. “The hospitality industry, which includes bars, restaurants and hotels, have suffered enough. Instead of pushing them off of a cliff, we should be finding ways to keep them alive.”
While some business owners and local leaders throughout the state have said they’ll defy state-imposed mitigations, Durkin said that’s not the solution.
“We can strike a balance to … keep businesses open,” he said. “I don’t believe we should be violating laws or executive orders. I hope we can avoid this.”
Under an emergency rule Pritzker filed, businesses that don’t comply with face covering mandates, social distancing and capacity limits could face fines up to $2,500 and misdemeanor charges. While the governor and Illinois State Police have been primarily relying on an educational campaign, ISP Director Brendan Kelly said citations have been issued in five undisclosed counties.
Durkin also called on the governor to provide the data backing up his claims that bars and restaurants are sources of COVID-19 transmission in Illinois.
“We need to be shown the data that shows bars and restaurants are (major sources) of spread of the virus,” Durkin said, adding there are no restrictions on big-box stores like Target and Walmart. “You’ve got to be fair across the board. You can’t keep kicking restaurants to the curb. … I just want to see the data.”
During his afternoon press conference, Pritzker announced the state health department would soon be providing more detailed information about COVID-19 exposures and outbreaks.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate is 6.7%, a full percentage point higher than it was a week ago, according to IDPH data. In Chicago, that rate is 8.1%, while it’s 8% in suburban Cook County, according to IDPH data.
Within the past 24 hours, labs processed 70,752 specimens, with more than 7.4 million tests completed since the start of the pandemic, according to IDPH data.
As of Tuesday night, 2,861 people in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19 — an increase of more than 500 since last week, according to IDPH data. Of those currently hospitalized, 600 patients were in intensive care units and 243 were on ventilators, according to IDPH.
By Saturday, eight of Illinois’ 11 regions will be operating under the state’s resurgence mitigation framework.
Starting Wednesday, Suburban Cook County and Metro East — regions 10 and 4, respectively — will begin operating under tightened mitigations. Chicago will begin operating under these restrictions Friday.
Regions 1, 5, 7 and 8 are already operating under stricter regulations — though region 1, in northern Illinois, is operating under “tier 2” restrictions that limit gatherings to 10 people and patrons at bars and restaurants to six per table. Regions start in “tier 1” and advance to the second tier if they experience a sustained resurgence of COVID-19, according to the state’s mitigation plan.
“This is not just a warning, but a call to action. We continue to move backwards, losing all the ground we had gained over the summer,” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement. “We turned the state around once, let’s do it again. Limit your potential exposures by wearing a mask, physically distancing, and limiting in-person gatherings. It will take all of us working together to beat this virus.”
Contact Kristen Thometz: @kristenthometz | (773) 509-5452 | [email protected]
