Indoor dining at bars, restaurants to close in Will County

Region 7 hits three days of positivity above 8%
By: 
STAFF REPORT

Bars and restaurants in Will County will have to shutter their indoor dining services once again at the end of this week. Starting on Friday, Oct. 23, heightened resurgence mitigations will go back into place.

That means no indoor dining at bars and restaurants, and meetings and gatherings will be limited to 25% of capacity.

Four of the state’s 11 regions have hit that threshold.

Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday that the businesses inside regions that are under resurgence mitigations will be given priority for $220 million in business interruption grants from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Pritzker said on Tuesday afternoon that positive cases were trending upward across the state. State officials said that Illinois was officially in the second wave of the virus.

“We’re going to see the rippling effects of these trends,” Pritzker said as cold weather approaches.

Pritzker also said that conract tracing indicates that bars and restaurants are “significant spreading locations” across the state.

This is the second time that Region 7 has hit the resurgence metric. The last mitigations were in affect from late August to mid-September.

IDPH will track the positivity rate in the region to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place.

If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% over a 14-day period, the region will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan.

On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) metrics showed Region 7, which consists of Will and Kankakee Counties, had once again hit a positivity rate for COVID-19 above 8% for three straight days.

A sustained positivity rate above 8% triggers a failsafe metric, which then puts in place additional mitigations in a region.

According to the IDPH, Region 7 has sustained nine days of positivity increases, hitting 8.2% on Oct. 15, 8.3% on Oct. 16, and 8.6% on Oct. 17.

By county, Will County saw its three day average rise to 8.4% on Oct.. 15, 8.5% on Oct. 16, and 8.9% on Oct. 17. In Kankakee County, the average was 7.2%, 7%, and 7.3% on those same days, respectively.

Region 7 also had six days of hospital admission increases.

Prior to the announcement of new mitigation efforts, Will County had already entered the warning level for COVID-19.

Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with gatherings in people’s homes, weddings and funerals, bars and clubs, university and college parties as well as college sports teams, family gatherings, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools, and cases among the community at large, especially people in their 20s, according to the IDPH.

Public health officials are observing businesses blatantly disregarding mitigation measures, people not social distancing, gathering in large groups, and not using face coverings.

Mayors, local law enforcement, state’s attorneys, and other community leaders can be influential in ensuring citizens and businesses follow best practices.

Several counties are taking swift action to help slow spread of the virus, including increasing testing opportunities, stressing the importance of testing to providers, hiring additional contact tracers, working with schools, and meeting with local leaders.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the IDPH is reporting a total of 350,875 cases in Illinois, including 9,277 deaths, in 102 counties.

The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from Oct. 13 though Oct. 19 is 5.5%.

Over a 24-hour period from Monday to Tuesday, laboratories have reported 59,077 specimens for a total of 6,883,314.

As of Monday, 2,261 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 489 patients were in the ICU and 195 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

According to the IDPH, as of Tuesday afternoon, the total number of cases in the 60481 zip code, including Wilmington, Symerton, Shadow Lakes, and surrounding areas, was 191. The Wilmington zip code has a current positivity rate of 4.2%

In the Braidwood 60408 zip code, the total number of cases is now at 96, with a positivity rate of 5.2%.

As of Tuesday, Will County is reporting 17,100 total positive COVID-19 cases,

All data provided by the IDPH are provisional and will change.

In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered.

For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.

Specific mitigation measures taking effect include the following:

Bars
• No indoor service
• All outside bar service closes at 11 p.m.
• No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
• Tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• No dancing or standing indoors
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table

Restaurants
• No indoor dining or bar service
• All outdoor dining closes at 11 p.m.
• Outside dining tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table

Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings
• Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25% of overall room capacity
• No party buses
• Gaming and Casinos close at 11 p.m., are limited to 25% capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable