Northwest Illinois faces new COVID restrictions
St. Clair County can’t leave Region 4, and UIUC may not save Region 6
The Windmill Cultural Center along the Mississippi River in Fulton in Whiteside County is part of Region 1, facing renewed COVID restrictions effective Saturday. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
The governor and the state’s public health director defended new coronavirus restrictions placed on the northwest corner of Illinois Wednesday, while warning that extensive testing at the state’s flagship public university may not save its region from additional lockdown measures.
Under quarantine for two weeks after a staffer tested positive for COVID-19, Gov. Pritzker spoke online in a virtual coronavirus briefing Wednesday of “resurgence mitigations” to be imposed on Region 1, the northwest corner of the state, effective Saturday.
According to Pritzker, the region’s testing positivity rate rose 2 percentage points over two weeks to top the 8 percent threshold calling for “resurgence mitigations,” same as those in effect in Metro East and previously imposed on Will and Kankakee counties. He also cited rising hospitalizations in the region for COVID-19, reflecting “an increasing seriousness of the illness.”
That means no indoor bar or restaurant service, and those businesses will be forced to close outdoors at 11 p.m. Party buses are banned, and gatherings are limited to 25 people or 25 percent of the area’s capacity, whichever is less.
Region 1 comprises Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties, including Northern Illinois University, Rockford, and Galena.
Pritzker said it’s “up to the residents of Region 1” to rein in infections, bring the positivity rate below 6.5 percent, and return to Phase 4 of the plan to Restore Illinois with indoor service at restaurants and bars.
He again lauded Region 7, Will and Kankakee counties, for following that path, adding, “We’re getting very close” to easing restrictions on Metro East, Region 4. As of the end of last week, the positivity rate there stood at 6.9 percent, after previously hitting double digits. According to the governor, nine of the state’s 11 regions under the Restore Illinois plan have recorded diminishing positivity rates over the last two weeks.
Asked by a reporter if St. Clair County, one of the few Democratic strongholds in southern Illinois, could be removed from Region 4, Pritzker said that was “not a good idea in my view,” even if it’s enjoying more success in stemming outbreaks.
For obvious reasons, if restrictions were eased in St. Clair County, other Metro East residents might flock to the area, potentially making it a hot spot.
Yet the same dynamic threatened to work in reverse in Region 6, eastern Illinois, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Pritzker has previously lauded UIUC for its groundbreaking development of a saliva-based COVID test, enabling the university to test all students and staff twice a week. On Wednesday, Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike spoke of the “tremendous number of tests” on campus — up to a fifth of all tests conducted statewide on a daily basis — which has kept Region 6’s positivity rate in the area of 2 percent. Yet she added that if Champaign County were removed from that data the region’s positivity rate would be 7 percent, nearing the 8 percent threshold triggering renewed restrictions.
Ezike warned that, if the Region 6 positivity rate outside Champaign County hits 8 percent, the entire region would face resurgence mitigations.
“We want to ensure that the large volume of tests at Urbana-Champaign does not overshadow the trends that we’re seeing in the broader region,” Ezike said, “and we don’t want to be inhibited from taking action to keep people safe.”
She urged eastern Illinois, including Charleston and Danville, to “take action right now” to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.
Obviously, again, the state couldn’t impose restrictions on Region 6 and leave Champaign County untouched, because it would only encourage other regional residents to flock to that area.
“These rules are not meant to be a punishment,” Pritzker insisted. “We’ve got to keep people safe.” Restaurants and bars might be lifebloods of certain communities, but they’re also key transmission points.
Ezike also set preliminary Halloween guidelines. Hayrides are premitted with limited capacity allowing social distancing, along with the wearing of face coverings, but haunted houses are out, and she warned against crowded costume parties. She emphasized that costume masks are not face coverings, and recommended that candy and other items be left out on a table for trick-or-treaters so they can take a piece themselves with minimal contact.
Ezike reported 2,273 newly confirmed COVID-19 infections statewide Wednesday, putting the state on course to top 300,000 total later this week, while 35 deaths took the statewide toll to 8,672.