Illinois COVID restrictions will remain through the holidays despite regional plan
Despite improving numbers and a Thanksgiving surge that didn’t materialize, Gov. J.B. Pritzker says statewide COVID-19 restrictions in Illinois will stay in place for the time being.
“There are still many, many hospitals around the state that have an inability to take in new ICU patients or even new hospitalizations,” Pritzker said. “So, we’re trying very hard to bring it down across the state.”
In the metro-east — which includes St. Clair, Madison, Bond, Clinton, Randolph, Monroe and Washington counties — 16.8% of staffed intensive care unit beds were available as of Friday and 17% of staffed hospital beds were available.
Earlier this week, the region near St. Louis met one of the requirements that would allow it to be moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 under Illinois’ regional COVID-19 resurgence plan when it reduced its rolling seven-day average positivity rate to 12%. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a seven-day period. The region must must also see 20% available ICU and medical/surgical bed availability for three consecutive days.
Tier 3, which includes a ban on indoor service at bars and restaurants, went into effect Nov. 30. Indoor service at bars and restaurants isn’t allowed until a region reaches Tier 1.
But in November, the governor announced regional exceptions would be suspended as the state monitored a potential holiday surge. That surge in coronavirus cases did not materialize as feared after Thanksgiving, but public health officials still worry upcoming holiday gatherings could cause already limited hospital capacity to be overwhelmed.
“We’re very glad that things are moving in the right direction,” Pritzker said Friday during a news conference in Chicago. “We’re also concerned the numbers have not come down as precipitously as we would have liked to have seen by now, so that’s of great concern to us.”
State health officials have reported between 7,000 and 9,000 cases daily recently, and the statewide 9.7% test positivity rate was still well above the World Health Organization recommended 5%, Pritzker said. After the spring surge subsided because of restrictions and a stay-at-home order, the state routinely reported fewer than 2,000 cases per day.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 7,377 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus, including 181 additional deaths, bringing the total to 886,805 cases and 15,015 deaths.
After the governor and health officials are confident holidays haven’t contributed to a surge, Pritzker says he will consider lifting some restrictions.
“It’s certainly our intention as we get through these holidays to begin to look at, without having holidays ahead right after the New Year, to get to reducing the tiers for various regions.”
Illinois businesses frustrated
Bar and restaurant owners and their allies say the governor’s restrictions are unfairly targeting them, and fear their favorite local establishments might not survive.
Many haven’t. The Illinois Restaurant Association estimates as many as 60% of restaurants could close because of the pandemic if the federal government doesn’t step in to help.
Joe Schuler, 50, a frequent customer of Sue’s Corner bar in Granite City, says people are angry because restrictions don’t always make sense.
“The governor has deemed it appropriate for mass numbers of people to go to Walmart,” Schuler told the Belleville News-Democrat for a story on divisions in southern Illinois. “Why we would impose a higher level of restrictions on small businesses is beyond me. Small businesses are the backbone of our community. We need to stand behind them as much as we can.”
Public health officials say restaurants and bars are more dangerous because people remove their masks to eat, talk and drink, unlike in retail stores, which are larger and have more room for social distancing.
Yet critics point to the sliver of coronavirus cases spread at bars and restaurants in Illinois. When the governor says the small number is due to restrictions, they simply don’t believe him. To them, he’s the reason places like Sue’s Corner are at risk of closing.
“And Sue’s Corner isn’t just a place for people to come and socialize, relax and enjoy,” Schuler said. “They do a lot of good for the community.”
