COVID-19 restrictions in southwest Illinois will go into effect Tuesday night
New restrictions in the metro-east will go into effect at 11 p.m. Tuesday night to slow the spread of coronavirus, according to local officials.
The new restrictions, which include a ban on indoor service at bars and restaurants, were inevitable, said St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern. Outdoor service and takeout are still allowed.
Until Tuesday afternoon, it wasn’t clear exactly when the restrictions would go into place. The county Emergency Management Agency made it official in a post on social media Tuesday afternoon after a call with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office in the morning.
Here are the restrictions in the metro-east, which includes St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe, Bond and Washington counties. Masks are still required statewide in public places when it’s not possible to maintain 6 feet of distance from others, and customers are required to wear them when interacting with wait staff at bars and restaurants.
COVID-19 continued increasing
The Illinois Department of Public Health allowed bars and restaurants to reopen in late June when Illinois first got a grasp on COVID-19. But cases in the metro-east region have increased steadily since July and show no sign of slowing. Public health officials blame large private gatherings, crowds at bars and restaurants, and lax rules in nearby Missouri for the spread.
Health officials monitor the percentage of tests coming back positive, or the positivity rate, to determine when a region needs to rollback reopening, among other metrics. Even if people aren’t dying from the virus, keeping case numbers low prevents hospitals from being overwhelmed by extremely sick people, IDPH director Dr. Ngozi Ezike has said.
The metro-east was the first region in the state to see a dangerous resurgence that triggered new restrictions on Aug. 18. That followed three consecutive days of 8% test positivity, or the positivity rate.
“We’ve got to demand more tests,” Kern said. “When we test more, we get a positivity rate that goes downward. ... We need to make sure we’re testing a broad range of people.”
When only symptomatic people are tested, it drives up the positivity rate. In Bond County, for instance, the daily positivity rate was 55.6%, Kern said, because only 18 people were tested and 10 tests came back positive.
Each county’s positivity rates contributes to the overall rate for the region, so when one county’s rate is higher, it affects the whole area.
As of Tuesday, the seven-day average positivity rate in the metro-east over region was 9.6%, down from 10.4% on Monday, according to IDPH. St. Clair County reported 85 new cases and one death Tuesday, while state health officials announced 1,492 new confirmed cases and 39 deaths.
One the region goes into the new phase of restrictions, IDPH will monitor the positivity rate for two weeks. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% over those two weeks, the region will return to Phase 4 in the state’s Restore Illinois plan.
Phase 4 allows indoor service at bars and restaurants with limited capacity.
If the region’s positivity rate averages between 6.5% and 8%, things will stay the same and IDPH will continue to monitor to see if additional restrictions are needed. If the region exceeds 8% test positivity after two weeks, more restrictions will be put into place.
The latest regional metrics can be found at dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics.
Business concerns
The region must advocate for funding to help struggling businesses, Kern added.
“We’ve got to understand that businesses are going to be hurt by this, and this interruption is a problem and we’re going to have to talk to the state ... and make sure money comes not in December, but we need funding now to be able to help our businesses to stay open,” Kern said. “Otherwise, we’re going to lose a lot of our favorite establishments.”
Mayors on the call with the governor’s office brought up the concerns of the business community, said St. Clair County Emergency Management Director Herb Simmons.
“It’s kind of like they’re being penalized, but again, we’ve got to get it done,” Simmons said.
A list of state assistance for businesses is available on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity website at dceocovid19resources.com/restore-illinois.
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
