Three regions leave Tier 3, ease COVID bans
Northwest, southern Illinois join Quad Cities, Bloomington-Normal in reopening museums, allowing low-risk sports, group fitness
The museum is cleared to open — at 25 percent of capacity — at the Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
The governor cleared the way Friday for three of the state’s 11 regions to ease strict mitigation measures meant to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Gov. Pritzker said the northwest corner of Illinois, including Galena and Rockford, west-central Illinois, including the Quad Cities and Bloomington-Normal, and southern Illinois, including Carbondale and Marion — Regions 1, 2, and 5 — are all cleared to move from Tier 3 to Tier 2 mitigations, allowing museums to reopen at 25 percent capacity, and low-risk sports and group fitness classes to resume.
“My great hope is that all of our regions will move out of the tiers of resurgence mitigations,” Pritzker said during a coronavirus briefing, delivered virtually. “The majority of Illinois’s regions are making good progress. … Of our remaining regions, the data shows that most are on track to leave Tier 3 in the coming days if current trends hold.”
The governor imposed Tier 3 mitigations statewide the week before Thanksgiving.
For a region to move down to Tier 2, it has to have a seven-day test positivity rate below 12 percent and at least 20 percent availability for hospital beds and intensive-care units, all for three straight days, as well as a sustained decrease in COVID hospitalizations for seven out of 10 days. To move to Tier 1, the testing posivity has to drop below 8 percent, hospital-bed availability has to remain above 20 percent, and there must be no sustained increase in COVID hospitalizations for seven out of 10 days.
The governor also announced that indoor service at bars and restaurants would be permitted under Tier 1, but at 25 percent capacity or 25 people per room, and with parties limited to four persons.
Pritzker said he had talked with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after her plea this week to allow bars and restaurants to serve indoors. The city is “heading very much in the right direction,” he said, but has not yet moved to Tier 2, and the requirement for a region to be in Tier 1 to allow indoor service would hold firm, even as he expressed sympathy for businesses in the hospitality industry.
“Bars and restaurants have carried an extremely heavy burden throughout this public health crisis, through no fault of their own,” Pritzker said. He maintained that health experts have determined that the food and drink businesses have proved to be “amplification points” in the spread of COVID-19.
The governor praised Illinoisans across the state for their “painful sacrifice, but it prevents the loss of many more lives.”
“My great hope is that all of our regions will move out of the tiers of resurgence mitigations.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Illinois.gov)
Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike confirmed 6,642 new or probable cases of COVID-19 Friday, bringing the state total to 1,059,423, while 123 new deaths attributed to the coronavirus pushed the statewide toll to 18,049. But fewer than 3,500 COVID patients were hospitalized, and the state’s seven-day testing positivity rate stood at 6.5 percent.
Even as three regions eased restrictions, both Pritzker and Ezike emphasized the need to take all precautions against the pandemic, especially as the first state case of a more contagious strain of COVID-19, first detected in Great Britain, was found in Chicago on Friday.
“It’s incredibly important for Illinoisans not to let their guard down,” Pritzker said. “We must remain vigilant if we are to retain our progress.”
Ezike urged Illinoisans to continue to observe the three Ws: wear a mask, wash hands, and watch social distancing.
Both Pritzker and Ezike bemoaned the limited number of vaccines being received from the federal government, with Ezike calling the current rate a “trickle.” But both expressed optimism that vaccines will increase exponentially under President-elect Biden once he takes office next week, as he’s pledged to invoke the Defense Production Act and has made confronting the pandemic and its economic fallout his top priority.
The governor is calling in the Illinois National Guard to aid in vaccine distribution, and it’s expected to help open two new inoculation sites in Cook County on Tuesday as the start of spreading vaccinations across the state. According to the governor, the entire state should move from Phase 1A vaccinating frontline health-care workers and residents and staff at long-term-care facilities next week, moving on to Phase 1B, vaccinating police, firefighters, teachers, and those over 65, a week from Monday.
“Patience will be required,” Pritzker said. He added that elected officials would not receive “special dispensation” to get the vaccine earlier than they might otherwise, depending on their risk factors, saying, “They will fill in wherever the rest of the population does.”
Ezike quoted Mahatma Gandhi, saying, “To lose patience is to lose the battle.”
But in the meantime Illinoisans can monitor the progress statewide and by region at the official Department of Health COVID-19 website.