Editor's Note: This story was originally published in the The Belleville News-Democrat
It was a bad idea to allow bars and restaurants to continue indoor service in the metro-east last week, and it will be banned Sept. 2 because of the uncontrolled spread of coronavirus, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday.
Alarmed by the highest rates of COVID-19 in the state, Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike told the region’s mayors Monday to expect a ban on indoor dining and drinking, one of the main causes of the virus’ spread, by Wednesday. The announcement frustrated mayors and local leaders, who thought they had until Sept. 1 to bring rates down.
In a matter of hours, the governor’s office and public health officials reversed their decision to put the ban in place early. IDPH decided to give bars and restaurants in the metro-east until next week to prepare for closing indoor service, but Pritzker said it’s only delaying the inevitable. Suggestions from local health officials to align with St. Louis’ rules on bars and restaurants — suggestions the state followed — haven’t been effective, he added.
Starting Aug. 18, bars, restaurants and casinos were ordered to close at 11 p.m. and limit their capacity in Region 4, defined by the state as including St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe, Washington and Bond counties.
Pritzker said it was a mistake to adhere to St. Louis’ rules. Rather, the metro-east should have seen an immediate ban on indoor service as outlined in the state’s three-tiered coronavirus resurgence plan. The region triggered restrictions after surpassing three days of an 8% positivity rate, or the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive.
“We wanted to be responsive to the local communities’ county health departments,” Pritzker said during a news conference in Joliet Tuesday. “I will readily admit that that was not a good idea and that it appears now we want to put those mitigations exactly in place as we had originally intended.”
The governor was in Joliet to announce restrictions in Will and Kankakee counties, which make up Region 7. The northern Illinois region became the second after the metro-east to reach coronavirus resurgence levels that trigger restrictions. Like the metro-east, it has seen recent increases in its positivity rate.
“Those increases seem may seem minimal,” Ezike said, “but they are representative of a much larger problem that we do have in this state, a problem that can lead to crowded hospitals, a problem that can lead to additional lost lives.”
Pritzker said starting Sept. 2, the metro-east will be under the same restrictions as Region 7. The new rules come in addition to updated safety guidelines for restaurants, which include requiring customers to wear masks anytime a server comes to their table.
The metro-east will have to reduce its average regional positivity rate to 6.5% or below for two weeks to return to Phase 4 under the state’s reopening plan, according to IDPH. As of Tuesday, the regional positivity rate was 9.8%. High numbers in Bond and Clinton counties contributed to the region’s positivity rate at 17.2% and 18.3%, respectively.
The new restrictions include:
BARS
- No indoor service
- All outside bar service closes at 11 p.m.
- All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside
- 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
Region 4’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate dropped slightly to 9.4% Monday, down from 9.6% on Sunday.
On Tuesday, state health officials announced 1,680 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Illinois, including 29 additional deaths, for a total of 223,470 cases and 7,917 deaths since the pandemic began.
Kelsey Landis is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
