Entire State Could be Under COVID-19 Mitigations by Early Next Week
Patrons outside The Blind Pig Brewery in Champaign.
A large swath of east central Illinois has been added to a COVID-19 mitigations mandate by Governor JB Pritzker. 21 counties are impacted by the latest rules, which close bars and restaurants to indoor dining beginning Monday.
The new restrictions apply to Iroquois, Ford, DeWitt, Piatt, Champaign, Vermillion, Macon, Moultrie, Douglas, Edgar, Shelby, Coles, Cumberland, Clark, Fayette, Effingham, Jasper, Crawford, Clay, Richland, and Lawrence counties. Those include Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Danville, Charleston-Mattoon, and Effingham.
The region has three straight days of positivity over 8%, not including massive testing being done on the University of Illinois campus. Friday’s rate is 8.6%.
“We are on the precipice of the entire state entering into mitigation,” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “These last few regions have seen rapid increases in test positivity, one right after another, because of increasing disease spread throughout our communities. We need all people to adhere to both the community mitigation measures and well as personal and family measures so we can swiftly turn our entire state around.”
State Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) criticized Pritzker for a lack of testing available in the region.
“In seven months, the Governor’s office has absolutely failed to bring widespread testing availability to downstate Illinois,” said Rose. “The fact is that testing just isn’t widely available to most of Region 6. And even for those lucky enough not to have to drive an hour each way to get tested, waiting 5-7 days for results doesn’t do much good either. It’d be nice if he’d spend more time getting us the testing resources we need to knock this back, and less time having press conferences blaming others.”
The latest region is the 10th of 11 around the state to face further mitigations, and the final region tested over 8% Friday and could be added to statewide mitigations next week.
Pritzker says he is “not considering at this time” a statewide stay-at-home order.
Republicans as well as bar and restaurant owners have criticized Pritzker in recent weeks for cracking down on the hospitality industry. Pritzker says the science shows bars and restaurants are major transmission locations.
“Bars and restaurants are more dangerous places for spread,” said Pritzker. “They’re really amplification points for people who are sick who go into a bar or restaurant. It’s very easily spread in that environment.”
Pritzker has been criticized for hurting small businesses, but he says the decisions he’s making are being dictated by the spread of COVID-19.
“This disease is unrelenting,” Pritzker says. “It doesn’t care about what the location is and what we’re trying to do here is limit the cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.”