(WTTW News)
Illinois is ready to move into the next phase of reopening, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Thursday, and a full reopening could happen next month.
“This good news comes with a caveat: we have all seen throughout this pandemic that this virus and its variants have proven to be unpredictable. Metrics that look strong today are far from a guarantee of how things will look a week, two weeks, a month from now,” Pritzker said Thursday afternoon. “We saw that last August and again last March but we do know is that we have tools in arsenal like vaccination and wearing masks that if we all use them have proven extremely effective.”
Restrictions designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 will be eased as the state enters the bridge phase on May 14. If metrics continue in the right direction, the state could enter phase 5 – full reopening – as soon as June 11.
As of Thursday, more than 85% of Illinois residents ages 65 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, far surpassing the 70% required for the state to move out of phase 4 and a step closer to phase 5, the final phase in Pritzker’s reopening plan.
The entire state has also maintained at least 20% availability of intensive care unit beds while holding steady on COVID-19 hospital admissions and case rates over a 28-day monitoring period – all required to move into the bridge phase. But the state is seeing an increase in COVID-19 mortality rates, according to statewide reopening metrics.
Pritzker said deaths are a “lagging indicator” among coronavirus metrics — the current increase in deaths is a result of the surge in cases six to eight weeks ago. “I don’t disregard it. It pains me every day, frankly, to see those numbers and to think about the families that are affected by those deaths,” he said. “But we make decisions going forward based on as much leading indicator information as we can rather than lagging indicator.”
The bridge phase raises capacity limits from 50% to 60% for offices, personal care services, retail and service counters. Health and fitness centers will also be allowed to operate at 60% capacity and provide group fitness classes for up to 50 people indoors and up to 100 outdoors, according to the guidelines.
At bars and restaurants, diners must remain 6 feet apart and groups will be limited to 10 people under the bridge phase, but capacity limits will be increased from 25% to 30% indoors and up to 50% outdoors.
Museums and zoos can move from 25% capacity to 60% capacity under the bridge phase.
Pritzker said it’s very important for people to continue to wear masks when appropriate and that the state will adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask guidance as its updated.
More than 9.6 million vaccine doses have been administered across the state, and 33.6% of the state’s more than 12.7 million residents have been fully vaccinated, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data.
State health officials on Thursday reported 1,778 new and probable COVID-19 cases and 40 additional deaths. Since the pandemic began in 2020, there have been more than 1.3 million cases and 22,136 virus-related deaths, according to IDPH data.
As of Wednesday night, 2,055 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, and of those, 483 patients were in intensive care units and 243 people were on ventilators.
The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests is 3%, according to IDPH — a week ago, it was 3.5%. Test positivity across the state — the number of positive tests as a percentage of total tests — is 3.8%. That rate is higher in suburban Cook County (4.6%) and Chicago (4.4%), IDPH regional data shows.
Contact Kristen Thometz: @kristenthometz | (773) 509-5452 | [email protected]
