O’Fallon to get tougher on social gatherings amid coronavirus pandemic

Getting word out to families to limit children congregating at area parks is now the focus of local and county officials after a spike in reports about groups ignoring social distancing in public places.

To lessen the spread of COVID-19, O’Fallon Mayor Herb Roach and Police Chief Eric Van Hook are stressing the importance of restricting social contact and are exploring what measures to take for stricter enforcement.

“Things are changing rapidly and we need to stay on top of them,” Roach said.

Illinois instituted a mandatory Shelter-in-Place order beginning March 20 to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus during this public health crisis. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he will consider extending it.

The order prohibits things like visiting the homes of friends and holding gatherings of any size. It has closed all nonessential establishments, including most retail, recreation and entertainment businesses. It does not prohibit essential activities like going to the grocery store, receiving medical care, or taking a pet for a walk.

O’Fallon has 11 parks and has closed all the playgrounds, fields and pavilions, and suspended league play, but the parks remain open.

“I believe we need to monitor our parks for any large gatherings and close contact,” Roach said. “On the other hand, I’m hoping that we can find a way to keep our parks open for our citizens to be able to get out and walk and/or run while practicing proper distancing.”

Mayor, police working side-by-side

Roach has asked Van Hook, director of public safety, to make sure his police officers and community service officers are aware of this, and to disperse any groups they see.

Van Hook said he has been contacted by St. Clair County State’s Attorney James Gomric requesting stronger social distancing enforcement efforts at the local and county levels.

“We all need to do our part to get beyond this as soon as possible,” Van Hook said.

People can get arrested for violating the governor’s order, but there are five steps law enforcement can take before criminal charges, according to the Illinois State Police: 1. Education about the order; 2. Verbal or written notice to comply; 3. Possible sanction from regulatory authorities that may oversee non-essential activity; 4. Civil liability and 5. Court-ordered closure or quarantine.

The basketball courts in Shiloh Park are now closed after St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department and Shiloh Police Department were called by St. Elizabeth’s and Memorial Hospitals after seeing groups of youths playing basketball.

“They expressed concern that groups getting together on basketball, soccer, baseball or in pavilions will further the possible spread and thereby lengthen the social distancing and current lockdowns,” Roach said.

‘More social gatherings could prolong this’’

Roach said he was on a conference call March 27 with 16 mayors, County Chairman Mark Kern, Sheriff Rick Watson and Gomric.

The bulk of the meeting was about groups gathering in parks and how to get the word out to families, he said. Roach said experts are now saying the expected peak in cases will not occur until sometime between April 9 and 18.

“More social gatherings could prolong this,” he said.

Some cities have shut down their parks completely, some have done nothing, some have closed off or put signs forbidding use of playgrounds, fields and pavilions, he said.

Some local school districts are going to use their Robocalls to ask families and children to refrain from gathering in parks and other locations, he said.

Roach and Van Hook were trying to reach more people through local churches and schools.

“Possibly they could reach out to their families to remind them of the importance of limiting social contact,” Roach said.

Roach said he would spend the weekend visiting the city parks “to see what we are getting.”

Roach expresses wide-ranging concern, stresses precautions

“I’m concerned that our parks may be overrun with citizens from communities that have closed down their parks completely. If this does occur, we could see our citizens exposed to a virus carrier from another community,” he said.

“I’m concerned what the length of the shutdown will do to our small businesses, but I’m even more concerned about having our citizens further exposed to the virus and O’Fallon becoming the center for future cases in St. Clair County because we didn’t take appropriate action,” he said.

City officials have been working on plans for weeks, following procedures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health. They put restrictions in place as medical experts warned of the coronavirus hitting the St. Louis metropolitan region.

“We are working hard to combat the spread and impact of COVID-19 in our community,” Roach said. “We are trying to be proactive and not panicking as we work through this. Panic never solves a problem.”

Roach asked residents to follow the safety precautions that have been recommended.

“When it comes to you and your family’s safety by doing such things as avoiding crowds, keeping safe distances and washing your hands and/or using sanitizers frequently,” he said. “We will get past this and our city will be back to normal soon but how soon depends upon everyone’s cooperation and effort. Together our city will come through this in a positive manner.”

Pritzker has also temporarily closed restaurants and bars to dine-in service. And public and private schools in the state, taking drastic measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

No one has immunity to this novel virus, which is a severe acute respiratory illness that can spread among people through respiratory transmissions and present with symptoms similar to influenza. Most cases will be mild, but people with other health conditions, compromised immune systems and the elderly are at risk for complications.

COVID-19 figures

The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic March 11. As of earlier this week, there were 664,941 cases worldwide, with 30,896 deaths.

In the U.S., the CDC expects to see widespread transmission. The first case was recorded Jan. 20. On March 11, there were 1,000 cases. The U.S. has surpassed China and Italy as being the country with the most cases in the world.

As of March 30, in Illinois there were 5,057 positive cases, with 73 deaths.

As of March 30, St. Clair County had 41 cases, according to latest statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health, including two deaths — one woman in her 80s and the other in her 30s.

The number of positive COVID-19 case in St. Clair County had increased from 31 to 41, according to the latest statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health and local officials March 30.

Madison County had 16 cases as of March 30.

The Illinois Department of Public Health announces totals every day at 2:30 p.m.

Beginning on March 30, St. Clair County will have medical personnel on their podcasts.

If people have symptoms of COVID-19 and want to get tested, try calling the state or local health department or a medical provider.

Important websites for information

Because of rapidly changing information at the federal and state levels, O’Fallon has created a webpage and is providing updates, with time and date noted, at: https://www.ofallon.org/home/urgent-alerts/covid-19-updates.

Regarding O’Fallon facilities, more info is at https://www.ofallon.org/home/news/to-help-prevent-the-spread-of-covid-19-beginning-on-march-18-access-to-city-facilities.

The mayor said the city would put new information on their official Facebook page too.

For more information, contact Grant Litteken at 618-624-4500 ext. 8760 or email at glitteken@ofallon.org.

Other important websites: State of Illinois’ coronavirus page, coronavirus.illinois.gov; federal government’s coronavirus page: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 12:41 AM.