COVID-19 pandemic's bitter tiers

Illinois moves to Tier 3 mitigations in effort to turn back latest wave of coronavirus

Gyms may be open, but locker rooms are closed under Tier 3 mitigations imposed statewide Friday. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

The entire state of Illinois was under Tier 3 mitigations Friday in an effort to turn back the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the Restore Illinois plan, Tier 3 mitigations call for the closing of museums, theaters, and casinos. Retail stores see their capacity levels cut to 25 percent of the usual, although grocery stores and pharmacies remain at half their usual capacity. The heightened regulations place additional restrictions on bars, restaurants, gyms, and factories, with a general advisory that “all employees who can work remotely should work remotely.”

“The core philosophy here is that we should all stay home as much as possible,” Gov. Pritzker said at the daily coronavirus briefing Friday at the Thompson Center in Chicago. “If we all avoid the trips outside the house that we don’t need to take right now, we can fight this recent surge and turn things around for our health-care workers and hospital systems, who are facing an increasingly dangerous situation across the state.”

“The core philosophy here is that we should all stay home as much as possible.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Illinois.gov)

Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reported 13,012 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide, taking the state total to 634,395, while 126 new deaths attributed to the coronavirus brought the Illinois toll to 11,304. Some 6,111 patients were hospitalized across the state being treated for COVID-19, with 1,196 under intensive care and 604 on ventilators. More than 116,000 tests were processed Friday, producing a seven-day testing positivity rate of 13.4 percent.

Calling it a “dire situation,” Ezike pointed to how there are just 22 beds available in Intensive Care Units in Will and Kankakee counties — Region 7 in the plan to Restore Illinois. Combined with rising infections in long-term-care facilities like nursing homes, that, she said, justified the increased restrictions.

“They’re in these communities that are full of disease,” Ezike said. “If our communities are not safe, nowhere can be safe.”

A day after he detected a “hint of leveling” in flattening the curve of rising infection rates, Pritzker emphasized that the heightened restrictions are “temporary.” He added there’s sufficient time for them to have an effect so that “we can potentially pull back on these mitigations for everyone before the December holidays,” although the governor, Ezike, and major U.S. health agencies continue to advise that Thanksgiving gatherings should be limited to those who share the same home, while travel is generally discouraged.

Ezike pointed to how the state had successfully worked to flatten the curve in the spring, as the first wave of the pandemic hit. But she added that more recently, under “COVID fatigue,” “that support we initially saw has faded and is sometimes absent.”

Ezike said, “We’re looking to blame one another,” for both the rising rate of infections and the mitigation measures intended to turn back the surge in cases. She urged Illinoisans to “offer kindness and support to your fellow neighbors.”