Southwestern Illinois could hit COVID threshold for restrictions ‘in the coming days’
The metro-east could be just days away from hitting the threshold for bringing back restrictions on businesses and activities, based on its rate of new COVID-19 diagnoses, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday.
COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Amid the news Friday about the metro-east, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state health agency’s leader, called on the region to follow Illinois rules designed to help prevent the virus from spreading.
The virus mainly spreads when an infected person talks, coughs or sneezes, especially in close proximity to other people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Illinois requires face coverings such as masks in most public places, at least 6 feet of distance between people and crowds of no more than 50. Frequent hand washing is also encouraged.
“Those are our best strategies right now for bringing these numbers down,” Ezike said in an interview Friday. “.... We can keep our state open, keep a lot of our businesses open, if we just do the masking and distancing and hand washing together.”
“I’m counting on people to do this right thing,” she added.
One threshold to begin restricting when and where people can gather is if 8% or more of the tests performed in the past seven days were positive for COVID-19. If that happens for three consecutive days, the state says it will reimpose some restrictions that had been lifted as Illinois’ economy reopened from a stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health’s website showed the metro-east is the first region to climb above an 8% rate.
The state defines the metro-east region as St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe, Washington and Bond counties. An average of 8.2% of the coronavirus tests performed in those counties over the past seven days were positive as of Tuesday. That number is known as the positivity rate. Illinois leaders say it is a clue there is a “resurgence” of the virus in a particular region.
The metro-east’s 8.2% was twice the statewide average Tuesday. The region “is seeing increases in test positivity rates and could surpass the resurgence metrics in the coming days,” the Department of Public Health stated in a news release Friday, referencing the thresholds for restrictions.
Statistics on the state’s website at dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics are delayed by three days, so Tuesday was the latest date information was available on Friday.
Educating the public as coronavirus cases spike
Many of the metro-east’s county and city leaders have been sharing the state’s safety guidelines on their websites, on social media and in letters to business owners in recent weeks as the number of diagnoses climbed in the region. The push to educate the public and business owners came after Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged local officials “to take action” and “to consider broader mitigations before the state is required to take action.”
However, Ezike noted Friday that state leaders want “the mitigation measures by individuals to be what helps get us out of this.” In other words, Illinois wants its citizens to follow the rules.
When asked about the metro-east’s education campaign, Ezike said she is proud of the local elected officials’ and health department staff’s efforts.
“Everybody’s been working really hard to get the word out,” Ezike said. “I know there has been some businesses that have received letters from the public health department to remind them to come into compliance with different things, with masking and all these important measures. So I really just encourage everyone to continue those efforts, continue reminding people of how we’re gonna get back to where we once were, and that’s gonna be when we get these infections under control.”
Southwestern Illinois close to another threshold for business restrictions
Even if the rate of new diagnoses does not reach 8% for three days in the metro-east, the state would also step in if the rate increases for seven out of 10 days and if hospital resources take a hit at the same time.
A strain on hospitals is defined as either a seven-day increase in patient admissions for a COVID-19-like illness or less than 20% availability of hospitals’ intensive care unit beds or medical and surgical beds.
The metro-east’s rate of diagnoses had increased for six days, and just 29% of medical and surgical beds in the region were available as of Tuesday.
Restrictions to help cut down on transmission could include more limits on crowd size or on serving capacity inside restaurants. Bars could also be forced to close.
Sources of virus spread in metro-east communities
Ezike said state officials are aware of establishments in the metro-east that are not complying with state capacity limits or the mask mandate and of individuals taking party buses to bars or getting together for large family gatherings, all contributing to transmission.
“We’ve had great conversations with county leaders, mayors, other municipality leaders to talk about both the challenges and what are some of the things that can be done,” she said. “I think they know as well as we do here at IDPH some of the main causes of the increased spread.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health is asking leaders at the local level to enforce masking and crowd limits, especially indoors, “where spread could happen so readily,” according to Ezike.
City leaders in a few metro-east communities said they were discussing local mask ordinances to fine residents who do not wear masks in public. East St. Louis was the first to approve the ordinance this week.
