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* UPDATED x1 * Additional mitigations announced for Region 1

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* Region 1 includes Rockford over to the Iowa border, but not the Quad Cities. Here’s Gov. Pritzker today…

I want to provide a brief update on the metrics of Region One in northwestern Illinois, where Rockford is, where Freeport is, which has been under Tier One of our resurgence mitigation plan since Saturday, October 3. Over the last few weeks, Region One has continued to see a surging positivity rate, now up to 11.9% as of this morning.

We’ve said all along that if things don’t turn around in a region after two weeks of resurgence mitigations, we may need to add more stringent measures to help usher in the progress that we need to see, to get things more open again eventually. That is now the case in Region One, which has seen its positivity rate rise nearly two percentage points since October 14 alone.

So starting Sunday, northwestern Illinois will need additional mitigations, such as tighter gathering caps of 10 individuals, instead of 25. And new restaurant and bar table caps of six instead of 10 when eating out. The existing mitigations that were already put in place in early October will remain.

Also both Region One, bordering Wisconsin and Iowa, and Region Four here next to Missouri, carry the additional responsibility of navigating a situation where the vast upsurge of cases in our neighboring states will continue to have a spillover effect on Illinois.

There is no easy fix to this. So as colder weather comes upon us and brings flu season, along with it, it’s imperative that we take extra caution and extra care. Because at the end of the day this is bigger than you. This is about all of us, and the communities that we call home.

Wear your mask. Watch your distance. Wash your hands and get your flu shot. We have to take care of each other.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

…Adding… More from the governor…

If we need to close down restaurants and bars or take away their liquor licenses, take away their gaming licenses, we will do that.

Because we are now headed into a peak that is beyond, potentially, where we were in March and April. I think you’re hearing now on national television, you’re seeing it in our surrounding states, Wisconsin, built out, not just one field house, they’re looking at multiple field hospitals rather because their hospitals are full.

We built them out in the spring because we thought perhaps we would end up in that situation. Thank God we were able to flatten the curve back in the spring. But now you can see, just look at the curves.

We’re working very hard, but we need everybody’s help in the public. We need the restaurant owners and bar owners to follow the mitigations, and to stop fighting and trying to find some flaw in the data, trying to find somebody who will say that a bar or restaurant is not a spreading location.

The truth of it is and I think every infectious disease expert that I’ve talked to and dozens and dozens of studies and I’ve held them up at the press conference yesterday, they exist. I’ve sent them out to legislators and all the elected officials, anybody who’s asked for them. Bars and restaurants are places where spreading takes place. They’re one of the top places and spreading takes place.

*** UPDATE *** From IDPH…

Bars and Restaurants

• Reduce party size from 10 to six individuals

Meetings, Social Events and Gatherings

• Maximum indoor/outdoor gathering size of 10 individuals

o Applicable to professional, religious, cultural and social group gatherings
o Not applicable to students participating in-person classroom learning
o This does not reduce the overall facility capacity dictated by general business guidance, such as office, retail, etc.
o Not applicable to sports, see sports guidance

Indoor recreation

• Maintain lesser of 25 people/25 percent of capacity
• No groups more than 10 individuals
• Does not apply to fitness

These mitigations do not apply to schools or polling places.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 2:44 pm

Comments

Data…

The science and data don’t suggest that at all in fact. But hey, you do you, wrong as you are.

Comment by Dee Lay Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:03 pm
Is it just me or does today the Governor sound like he’s losing his patience with some of these reporters during Q & A?

Comment by Chatham Resident Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:10 pm
Data is not the plural of anecdote

Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:19 pm
==Bars and Restaurants

• Reduce party size from 10 to six individuals==

Shouldn’t bars be completely closed and indoor seating completely banned during this round of mitigations?

Comment by Chatham Resident Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:24 pm
I think Lori needs to take a look at these studies.

Comment by 1st Ward Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:28 pm
“If we need to close down restaurants and bars or take away their liquor licenses, take away their gaming licenses, we will do that.”
=============
This is PRECISELY what the state needs to do. Region 7 is planning to largely ignore the restrictions, led by local governments and even state’s attorneys. Start pulling licenses yesterday and make enough examples of the miscreants to force compliance.

Comment by Fed Up With Covidiots Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:30 pm
And anybody who thinks that the governor is killing the economy needs to read this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/business/economy/economy-coronavirus-lockdown-iowa.html

Comment by Soccermom Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:30 pm
Does the Governor understand folks in this region are just crossing the borders into Iowa and Wisconsin to eat and drink?

I know of two events originally scheduled for Rockford that have been moved to Beloit, WI.

The Governor continues to talk about the data and science, but has he ever published the models and data sets that his team is using?
Shouldn’t this be up to public scrutiny?

Comment by SKI Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:35 pm
== Shouldn’t bars be completely closed and indoor seating completely banned during this round of mitigations==

The mitigation’s Region 1 was already on are still in place. Indoor seating was prohibited then. These are in addition to that. So groups of 6 outside.

Comment by thoughts matter Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:39 pm
==The mitigation’s Region 1 was already on are still in place. Indoor seating was prohibited then. These are in addition to that. So groups of 6 outside.==

Thanks. I meant to say “Outdoor seating should be banned” rather than groups of 6.

Comment by Chatham Resident Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:41 pm
The studies the governor references were posted on this blog days ago.

The mitigation plan and all of the statistics are available online.

Cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations are all climbing. Again, you can find that online. What more do you need to convince you this deadly virus is spreading and it’s a problem?

Comment by Ummm Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:41 pm
== Thanks. I meant to say “Outdoor seating should be banned” rather than groups of 6.==

Given that it’s in far Northern Illinois, I think the weather will do that in a couple weeks. I have no desire to sit outside and freeze in order to eat dinner. I’ve got a car to go thru the drive thru and a nice warm kitchen at home. Now if only the partners would get some sense.

Comment by thoughts matter Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:51 pm
Part-i-ers. Spellcheck doesn’t like it

Comment by Thoughts matter Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 3:52 pm
“I know of two events originally scheduled for Rockford that have been moved to Beloit, WI.”

And with the uncontrolled spread in Wisconsin, those events will just bring more of this Back to Illinois. Great thinking.

Comment by Dee Lay Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 4:12 pm
==Wear your mask. Watch your distance. Wash your hands and get your flu shot. We have to take care of each other.==

What part of this simple statement eludes all the anti mask and open at all cost folks?

Comment by don the legend Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 4:22 pm
There own chart shows less than 3% from restaurants. Top 5 places:
Long term care - 41%
Assisted Living - 12.2%
Workplace - 7.2%
Factory/Manufacturer - 7.1%
Food Production Facility - 5.8%

So why are we punishing the restaurants that are small businesses again???

Comment by Shemp Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 5:03 pm
“[Positivity rate] is not a measure of the percentage of the population that is infected or even a measure of the incidence of new cases,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s a measure of whether we’re doing enough testing.”

What are the plans for the state to increase testing in Region 1?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-positivity-rate-might-not-mean-what-you-think-it-does-11599211800

Comment by harp5339 Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 5:04 pm
== There own chart shows less than 3% from restaurants. Top 5 places:
Long term care - 41%
Assisted Living - 12.2%
Workplace - 7.2%
Factory/Manufacturer - 7.1%
Food Production Facility - 5.8%

So why are we punishing the restaurants that are small businesses ==

Because we can’t take the residents of nursing homes and assisted living centers out of them and have them be any safer overall? Because we don’t want to close down large work spaces and food production facilities leaving a great many More people without a paycheck again and no food at the grocery store? Because we can do something about places to go that aren’t essential?

Comment by thoughts matter Thursday, Oct 22, 20 @ 7:02 pm