Southern Illinois sees COVID rollback
Restaurants, bars to be closed for indoor service; Pritzker warns of ‘new wave’ of infections
Gov. Pritzker and Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike are resuming their daily coronavirus briefings as infections rise across the state. (Illinois.gov)
By Ted Cox
The governor moved to ban indoor service for bars and restaurants in southern Illinois, effective Thursday, after the seven-day rolling positivity rate for COVID-19 testing in the region rose above the threshold of 8 percent.
“Here in Illinois, it looks like a new wave may be upon us,” Gov. Pritzker said at a news conference Monday at the Jackson County Health Department in Murphysboro.
Region 5 joins Region 1, the northwest corner of the state, in being placed under “increased mitigation,” in the governor’s words, with indoor service halted for bars and restaurants, which will also close at 11 p.m., and with gatherings limited to 25 people or 25 percent of a designated area’s capacity, whichever is smaller.
Region 5 includes Marion, Jefferson, Wayne, Edwards, Wabash, Perry, Jackson, Franklin, Williamson, Saline, Hamilton, White, Gallatin, Union, Johnson, Pope, Hardin, Alexander, Massac, and Pulaski counties.
According to the governor, Region 5’s positivity rate stood at 9.1 percent, Region 1’s at 11.1 percent, although hospitalizations in northwest Illinois have leveled off. He warned that infections are rising across the state and that Regions 7 and 8 — including Will, Kankakee, DuPage, and Kane counties — have both risen about 8 percent positivity rates on rolling seven-day averages, and could potentially face renewed restrictions as well on Thursday.
Pritzker said he would be resuming daily coronavirus briefings with Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, as in the early months of the pandemic, after they had gone to weekly briefings over the summer. He repeated calls for Illinois voters to cast their votes by mail or in early voting in the Nov. 3 election.
At a separate news conference in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on all city residents to wear masks and limit gatherings to 10 people after the number of new daily cases climbed above 500 for the first time since late May.
“The data is clear — we are now in a second surge of COVID-19 and I am extremely concerned,” Lightfoot said. “Now is the time to double down on what we know works and come together as a city to flatten the curve once again. Everyone must do their part to keep themselves and others safe and help us overcome this deadly disease.”
“I’m deeply concerned about these trends and worried that we’ve got some COVID fatigue setting in where people are not following the public health guidance as they should,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s public health commissioner. “This virus doesn’t care who you are, it’s just looking to spread, and if we give it the opportunity to do so it will.” Arwady emphasized the heightened health risk to African Americans and Hispanics, but added, “We’re seeing a rise in cases across the city and across all races and ethnicities, so we all need to rededicate ourselves to combatting this epidemic.”
Pritzker pointed to how prevailing medical advice calls for restaurants and bars to be closely monitored, as gatherings for food and drink are known to ease the spread of the coronavirus. He cited the availability of Business Interruption Grants through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for businesses feeling the pinch from mitigation measures. “We realize that this is problematic for businesses,” he said, “but we’ve all got to work our way through this pandemic.”
While Pritzker said that things are not as dire as they appeared in the spring, when less was known about the novel coronavirus and the state was scrambling to amass personal protective equipment that has since been stockpiled, he emphasized that the danger presented by the pandemic is once again rising.
“Things have changed,” Pritzker said. “Every region of this state has started to move in the wrong direction.”
The governor said he felt the resurgence was being fueled by neighboring states, all of which have positivity rates in the double digits. “We can’t wall off Illinois from the surge,” Pritzker said, “but we can take precautions and do better than others at following the mitigations that slow the spread.” He repeated that the goals for now are to “save our economy and let our kids go to school,” without reimposing a statewide lockdown.
Both the governor and Dr. Ezike blamed “COVID fatigue” in part for the resurgence, but while sympathetic they counseled Illinoisans to remain wary of the pandemic.
“The state is headed in the wrong direction,” Ezike said, “and it’s partially because people aren’t worried about this anymore.” She announced 3,113 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, down from the one-day record of 4,554 reported Friday, but nonetheless bringing the state total to 347,161, while 22 new deaths attributed to the coronavirus took the statewide toll to 9,236. The state’s overall positivity rate rose to 5.4 percent. More than 220,000 have died nationally from COVID.
“If you’re getting tired and you’ve let your guard down, now is the time to pick it back up again,” Pritzker said.
Dr. Craig Davis, of Southern Illinois Healthcare, said infections in the region were “dramatically rising,” and he blamed it on “complacency” and “polarization,” especially politically with masks and social distancing.
“Now is not the time to let pandemic fatigue get to us,” Davis said. “The enemy is the disease. It’s not each other.”
After again calling out President Trump for persistently undercutting the prevailing medical advice to wear a mask, Pritzker urged the three W’s — wear a mask, wash hands, watch social distancing — along with “an understanding that we’re all in this together.”