Here’s how southwestern Illinois officials plan to fight the spike in COVID-19 cases
Metro-east leaders are responding to the governor’s call for action to cut down on coronavirus spread largely with a push to educate residents and business owners.
Illinois officials have called out metro-east residents for throwing parties despite crowd limits and local businesses for ignoring state capacity guidelines.
City and county leaders can impose restrictions that are stronger than the state’s, issue cease-and-desist orders or go as far as revoking business and liquor licenses.
Several of them said they do not want to use those measures, but they would take action against businesses that do not voluntarily enforce the state guidelines aimed at preventing the virus from spreading. Liquor commissioners in St. Clair and Clinton counties have already issued cease-and-desist orders to some bars during the coronavirus pandemic, local leaders say.
However, in East St. Louis, where the mayor contracted the virus, officials will consider implementing a curfew and mandating masks.
The novel coronavirus causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease. The rate of new COVID-19 diagnoses in the metro-east is the highest in the state.
“It’s a very serious thing, and after experiencing COVID myself, I take a different outlook now,” East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III said. “I was always trying to protect myself and my family as well, but I was still able to contract the disease.”
If the metro-east’s numbers continue climbing, the region will have more state-imposed restrictions on businesses, which could include suspending indoor bar service. And the metro-east is “dangerously close” to the threshold, according to Illinois officials.
The state defines the region as St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe, Washington and Bond counties.
As of Monday, over 7% of coronavirus tests were positive for residents in the metro-east. Restrictions will be triggered if the region reaches 8% or more for three consecutive days.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week he was calling for “action” in the metro-east before the state steps in, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health news release.
“Businesses that disregard public health guidance are putting themselves and their communities at risk and threatening the progress we’ve made for the vast majority of businesses that are safely reopening,” Pritzker stated in the release. “I urge county and local officials in the Metro East region to take action in response to those who refuse to help keep people safe and to consider broader mitigations before the state is required to take action.”
St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said his impression from personal conversations with Pritzker is that the governor wants local officials to work with the community “to try to get the point across that these numbers are getting close to meeting the criteria” for restrictions.
Several local officials, from mayors to police chiefs, have decided to make public statements about the possibility of restrictions. In them, the officials ask residents to follow the state’s health guidelines, including wearing face coverings such as masks in public, at least 6 feet of distance between people and no more than 50 people together in a crowd. Some mayors said they also wrote messages to bar and restaurant owners, reminding them about the rules.
Local groups have been distributing face masks. And next week, the state is sponsoring new coronavirus testing sites coming to the metro-east, including in St. Clair, Clinton and Bond counties.
‘Hope it doesn’t come to that’
Officials in Belleville, O’Fallon, Fairview Heights and Edwardsville all said they were contacting businesses to warn them about the possibility of tightening restrictions on their indoor capacity if coronavirus cases keep spiking.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert said the city has not sought to revoke the liquor license of a bar or restaurant or issue fines to businesses that were not following Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines.
“I don’t want to see that happen,” Eckert said, but he noted that it is something that could happen.
“I don’t want to dwell on those things,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
For now, Eckert said he is sending out emails to bar and restaurant owners to give them reminders about the rules.
In O’Fallon, Mayor Herb Roach said he is also writing to businesses and has personally visited locations he received complaints about.
If the complaints ring true, he said he speaks with the manager on duty about guidelines they need to follow.
“If St. Clair County continues at the rate it is and we see raises in some of the other counties, that could be devastating because it means we could roll back to where we were in Phase 3 or Phase 2,” Roach said of the five-phase reopening plan for the state. “That would be devastating to our businesses.”
All counties in Illinois have been in Phase 4 since June 26, when restaurants and bars reopened indoor service.
Fairview Heights Mayor Mark Kupsky said since Fairview Heights is classified as a “home rule” city, it can impose restrictions that may be greater than the ones imposed by the state.
“I certainly don’t want to have to do that, but I’ve got to protect the public,” he said. “I believe in a collaborative approach in working together. I think that’s how we solve things.”
Kupsky said businesses in the city have been cooperative with city officials, and he has not had to revoke any business or liquor licenses. “We haven’t but if we would need to, I am certainly prepared to take those steps,” he said of the possible revocation of licenses.
Edwardsville has not sought to revoke any business or liquor licenses either, according to City Administrator Kevin Head.
“We haven’t gone to that extreme. We’re trying to be as helpful versus hurtful to businesses,” Head said.
A different approach in East St. Louis
Mayor Eastern said East St. Louis officials are working on different initiatives, including a possible curfew or a mask mandate. A total of nine city employees have tested positive for COVID-19 this month, including the mayor.
“My anticipation is that we’re going to have some type of decision made soon before the end of the month as it relates to COVID-19 and its spread,” he said. “... We’re going to look over some of the recommendations from the state at the beginning of all this, and if we have to re-implement some of those things, then we will.”
“Curfews and shutting things down like we did in the beginning worked on containing the spread for four or five months,” Eastern added. “Having masks and proper PPE (personal protective equipment) available also helped. Legislation on making sure everyone wears a mask is something that should be looked at.”
‘Young people aren’t taking this pandemic seriously’
Metro-east leaders say more young people are getting sick now than in previous months.
Kern, the St. Clair County Board chairman, said throughout the week that 50% or more of the county’s new cases were people under 40 years old. “That seems to be the group that may not be getting the message,” Kern said in the county’s daily COVID briefing Thursday.
Kern said most St. Clair County residents, in general, are contracting the virus through gatherings with friends and family or by going to bars.
Centreville Township Supervisor Curtis McCall Sr. said he thinks young people are not taking the pandemic seriously.
“They’re still having gatherings, and I’m not afraid to say, but it’s also some of our churches that aren’t following the guidelines as they should, so we have to get our young people and our churches and pastors to follow the state-recommended CDC guidelines,” McCall Sr. said.
Cahokia Mayor Curtis McCall Jr. said he and his father, Curtis McCall Sr., plan to speak publicly about the guidelines and encourage people to get tested for COVID-19. McCall Jr.’s assistant recently shared a photograph on social media of the mayor “leading the way” by getting tested himself.
“When you’re young, there’s a feeling of invincibility, and then on top of that, they have social media, and there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” McCall Jr. said. “... We’re African American, and we need to talk to the African-American community. The people in these communities know me and my dad, and hopefully if they see us out there speaking on this, they’ll pay attention and heed to the call.”
What would trigger restrictions?
Here are the criteria to bring tighter restrictions back to the metro-east or other regions of the state:
Three consecutive days averaging at or above an 8% positivity rate. The positivity rate is the percentage of coronavirus tests that were positive. This alone will trigger restrictions.
Or increase in the seven-day rolling average of the region’s positivity rate for seven out of 10 days.
Plus one of the following:
An increase in hospital admissions for a COVID-19-like illness for seven days.
Intensive care unit capacity or medical/surgical bed capacity below 20%. In other words, a reduction in hospitals’ ability to handle a surge in patients.
The public can track the metro-east’s numbers at dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
