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Get it together, northwest Illinois

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* Sarah Mansur at Capitol News Illinois…

The northwest region of Illinois could be two days away from triggering increased mitigations from the state to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday announced the rate of positive test results had reached 8 percent in Region 1, which extends from DeKalb and Boone counties west to the Iowa border, on Sept. 25, the most recent day those statistics are recorded. A region that has three consecutive days of positivity rates above 8 percent is subject to increased mitigations that include limited capacity indoors and restrictions for restaurants and bars.

Region 4 in the Metro East area already has increased restrictions. Its daily test positivity rate increased for the first time in 10 days, to 7.1 percent. A region must have a positivity rate below 6.5 percent for a 14-day period to have increased restrictions lifted. The IDPH placed additional restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings in Region 4 on Aug. 18.

Region 7, which includes Kankakee and Will counties, got out from under increased restrictions 10 days ago.

* Jeff Kolkey at the Rockford Register-Star…

Health Department Administrator Sandra Martell said Winnebago County on Monday had reached a 9% rolling seven-day positivity rate on COVID-19 tests. An additional 225 cases were confirmed since Friday, bringing the county total to 5,935 cases. […]

Case investigations and contact tracing suggest there have been no large events at which the disease has been spread. Family gatherings and out-of-town sporting events appear to be the biggest culprits for spreading the disease, Martell said.

Emphasis added.

* DeKalb Daily Chronicle…

The Illinois Department of Public Health also began reporting daily county testing data but with a three-day lag. For Friday, DeKalb County had a daily positivity rate of 3.6% with a rolling seven-day positivity average of 6.9%. The county’s daily rate had been 9.2% on Wednesday and seven-day rate had peaked at 7.5% on Sept. 21.

In all, there have been 1,651 cases and 38 deaths, with the most recent death reported Sept. 18 in an infant younger than 1 year old.

* According to IDPH, Boone County’s seven-day rolling positivity rate is 10.7 percent, Carroll County’s is 3.8 percent, DeKalb’s is 6.9, Jo Daviess’ is 9.1, Lee’s is 9.9, Ogle’s is 6.9, Stephenson’s is 5.2, Whiteside’s is 6.4 and Winnebago’s is 8.7.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 8:45 am

Comments

We are a roll of the dice away from a mutation and this moving to an infection that hits younger people, and everyone else, harder.

Lets see how long we can keep it circulating to improve its chances of mutation. A nice solid base before fall and winter comes should do the trick.

We are doing this to ourselves. There’s nobody else to point fingers at.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 8:50 am
No amount of Illinois mitigation can save us. Too much commerce with Iowa and Wisconsin and too many people heading over the borders to party.

Comment by 100 miles west Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 9:28 am
I know we’re thrilled with parents of soccer club teams here in central Illinois traveling to Iowa and Missouri each weekend.

Comment by BTO2 Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 9:49 am
==In all, there have been 1,651 cases and 38 deaths, with the most recent death reported Sept. 18 in an infant younger than 1 year old.==

Who wants to talk about how it doesn’t affect kids? But high school football, amiright?

Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 9:49 am
=== No amount of Illinois mitigation can save us.===

Wash your Hands
Wear a Mask
Social Distancing.

The willfully ignorant are those hurting, not just the travelers.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 9:51 am
== I know we’re thrilled with parents of soccer club teams here in central Illinois traveling to Iowa and Missouri each weekend.==

My parents assisted living facility is going to open up for indoor visits. Naturally there will be all sorts of restrictions including only two guests in the entire building at one time. They will close it all back up again with the first positive test, etc. But before that happens, some soccer mom will expose their loved one. Who will in turn go eat in the dining room, play a card game with other residents,etc.

Comment by thoughts matter Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 10:00 am
As said above, we are doing this to ourselves. No amount of information can interfere with the neurotic need of some to be around others, fighting the information given. Unfortunately, those people seem to escape the virus, or get a very mild case while they gleefully spread to others not so fortunate. All each responsible individual can do is protect themselves from those reckless ones-stay far away from them and the situations they place themselves in. Remember, it is people who will get you infected, as repellent as that statement is to some.

Comment by A Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 10:28 am
Lots of anti maskers here and people not wearing a mask. The Dixon Walmart told me that they couldn’t prevent people coming in the store without a mask that a lawyer that came into the store said that to him. I told him he should call Rochelle because they are doing just that.

In one local town there was a party with 200 people, no masks no distancing.

There are also a lot of people in the Border towns, including Rockford, that work in Wisconsin towns like Janesville and Beloit.I suspect there may be some cross border transmission, but I have zero proof and it could actually be that people from Illinois are taking it to Wisconsin.

The list goes on, but this is why we just can’t get over the hump and in fact. are going backwards.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 10:31 am
We have dramatically improved in Whiteside County over the past several weeks, only to be closed down because surrounding counties can’t get it together. We started a large marketing campaign here with our businesses as the main image to beg people to please mask-up and our numbers have actually gone down. Our biggest problem is weddings, large private parties and events taking place at local bars with no real enforcement from our County Officials. I am hopeful when we close this time for a short time (fingers crossed) it will wake people in our region up to start doing the right thing. If not, we will see large amounts of permanent closures in small businesses.

Comment by Westender Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 10:52 am
I’ll give this pandemic one thing-

It’s revealed people for who they truly are.

Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:00 am
==It’s over.==

Except for those who actually die, or get permanent injuries. More junk from the Debunker.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:18 am
=== It’s over.===

Like your ridiculous drive-by, you lack any facts, and your opinion is willful ignorance, nothing more

Your Covidiocy is what others are fighting to save lives.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:21 am
Deaths are fewer than early in the outbreak for a couple of main reasons. One is that doctors now know how to treat people more effectively. I won’t link an article on this because Google. Second, most of the cases now are younger people who are not distancing. Google again. It is true that they do not die at the same rate as older folks, but folks continue to die.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:21 am
Jibba, those are all valid. Another reason is that we’re testing a whole lot more than we did in March, April and May.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:33 am
=== most of the increase in ‘cases’ now are the result of mandatory testing for students.===

Oh, now it’s the…

“We need less testing cause more testing means more cases” part of your ignorance?

Turn off FoxNews and realize as a country we are the sickest not because of more testing but because of actual cases.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:34 am
“If the lab tests were accurate, you would see a linear relationship between cases, infection, and deaths. Deaths have flatlined.”

If you’re not smart enough to understand that healthcare professionals have honed their treatment of this disease over the course of eight months, millions of cases and 200,000+ deaths, my writing this probably won’t help you.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:38 am
I should clarify that I was talking about actual deaths, not death rate, which as Rich points out can confound any conclusions and will never be known exactly. Factually, far fewer people in Illinois are dying daily now than in the peak in May (about 90% fewer). Attributing this decline is difficult and likely due to lots of factors. This might be affected by the actual number of cases occurring (an unknown), but it is impossible to think that there are 90% fewer cases now than in May. The majority of the decline seems attributable to factors I mentioned above, plus some others including better hygiene at group homes, older folks being sensible about distancing, etc. Not the end of the pandemic, though.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 11:56 am
==== most of the increase in ‘cases’ now are the result of mandatory testing for students.====

I would love to know who posted that. I have heard people say that on TV, and read other posts online where people make the same ridiculous statement. As an educator for the better part of three decades I am confounded at how little I apparently have taught people.

Testing does not give people COVID-19, it identifies who has it. The “new cases” are not the “result of mandatory testing”. Identifying them is the result of testing and it will ultimately result in slowing the spread and fewer cases.

To quote Sean Connery in The Untouchables, “Here endeth the lesson.”

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 12:02 pm
We rushed going back to “normal” for many wrong reasons, and will continue to pay for that decision in human lives. Meanwhile I see people every day in south suburbs of Chicago not wearing masks properly or at all, and businesses refuse to kick them out, even when employees are properly masked. I’m high risk, but still have to go out to live. I’m about to start yelling at people in businesses to put their (explitives) mask on, and kick out the (explitives) who refuse to wear one.

Comment by thisjustinagain Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 12:32 pm
Lack of local enforcement in some counties of mask and indoor occupancy mandates? Where’s that Casablanca GIF “I am shocked, shocked!” when I need it?

The ILCC and ISP do hundreds, if not thousands of underage SAM (Sales of Alcohol to Minors) sting inspections at liquor licensed businesses every year. I’m sure they did very few during Stay At Home order.

Get that detail back out looking for underage alcohol sales and just incidentally to see who is requiring masks and following the other rules.

Comment by ChicagoBars Tuesday, Sep 29, 20 @ 12:47 pm
The only two for sure things I have observed the last six months are:
- no one in Illinois government health had a handle on what happened, what is happening, and what will happen;
- kids have ignored washing/masking/distancing all summer.

Other states experiment with their own decisions, and we will see how they do.

Comment by Touré's Latte Wednesday, Sep 30, 20 @ 9:34 am