With the coronavirus continuing to surge largely unabated, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that he would impose a 10-person limit on gatherings in parts of suburban Chicago and much of southern Illinois and suggested a statewide stay-at-home order is back on the table as a possible step to bring COVID-19 under control.
DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties, along with the state’s 20 southernmost counties, will come under the stricter rules, which also include a limit of six people per table for outdoor restaurant and bar service, beginning Wednesday. They join the northwest region, home to Rockford, DeKalb and Galena, in facing the next level of restrictions in Pritzker’s 11-region reopening plan.
The latest restrictions came on the fourth consecutive day that state health officials reported more than 10,000 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19. The virus is flaring in much of the country, but there was some good news as a major pharmaceutical company announced significant progress on a coronavirus vaccine.
Pritzker last week said he was considering renewed statewide restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, and on Monday he appeared to open the door to a new stay-at-home order. The stay-at-home order that went into effect March 21 and was lifted May 29 was Pritzker’s most drastic measure to date to combat the spread of the virus.
“We are looking at, really, all the possibilities: the possibility that we would have to go back a phase, the possibility that we would have to, ultimately, have a stay-at-home order,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus briefing. “Those are not things I’d prefer to do.”
It was a subtle shift for the governor, who as recently as Thursday had said a new stay-at-home order was “not something right now that we’re considering.”
Positivity rates on coronavirus tests in the suburban and southern Illinois regions have continued to increase even after Pritzker ordered the shutdown of indoor dining and bar service and capped gatherings at 25 people in those areas roughly two weeks ago. Many establishments have flouted the governor’s orders, and local officials in some areas have refused to enforce them.
“These mayors and city councils and county boards and state’s attorneys need to take some responsibility for keeping their constituents safe,” Pritzker said Monday. “I promise them, that responsibility pales in comparison to what could come when the hospitals in your area are filling up and there aren’t enough nurses or doctors to save their constituents’ lives.”
Those appeals, which Pritzker has made repeatedly as the virus has surged this fall and more regions have come under tightened restrictions, have been ignored by some local leaders who disagree with the governor’s decisions.
“It’s not the mitigations that aren’t strict enough,” Pritzker said. “It’s whether people are following the mitigations.”
The positivity rate has continued to rise in the one region where the 10-person limit on gatherings is already in effect. In the nine-county northwest region, the positivity rate hit 17.6% on Friday, up from 13% on Oct. 25, when the region came under the lower limit on gatherings and other stricter rules.
In DuPage and Kane counties, the seven-day average for the test positivity rate was 13.7% as of Friday, up from 9.5% when the prohibition on indoor service at restaurants and bars took effect Oct. 23. In Will and Kankakee counties, the positivity rate was 16.4%, up from 9.3% on Oct. 23. Southern Illinois was faring slightly better, with a positivity rate of 11.5% as of Friday, up from 8.7% when tighter restrictions went into effect Oct. 22.
Under the governor’s plan, if the regions facing the second level of tighter restrictions don’t bring down their positivity rates, the next step could include suspending indoor and outdoor recreational activities and in-store shopping at nonessential retailers.
Pritzker largely has relied on the Illinois State Police to enforce his orders in areas where local officials aren’t. But at last count, state police had only issued four citations for violations.
The governor also has said he would look to pull liquor licenses and video gambling permits from establishments that don’t follow the rules.
A spokeswoman for the Illinois Liquor Control Commission said the agency, along with others, is “actively enforcing” the governor’s rules. But so far, no licenses have been revoked. A spokesman for the Illinois Gaming Board did not respond to a request for comment.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she is planning an unspecified series of restrictions that are more limited than measures taken in the spring.
As the virus spreads “across every neighborhood, across every demographic, every age group, we’ve got to be very strategic about the way in which we deploy interventions,” she said.
“We’ve got to use a surgeon’s knife and not a blunt ax. In thinking about the next steps, that is really the mindset that we are taking,” Lightfoot said.
Statewide, the test positivity rate — the share of positive tests out of all tests take in a 24-hour period — was at a seven-day average of 12.4% as of Sunday, up from 8.2% when the state began reporting the figure on Oct. 29.
State health officials on Monday reported 10,573 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, bringing the seven-day average for new daily cases to 9,626, up from 6,360 a week earlier. A month ago, the seven-day average was 2,267 cases per day.
It’s unclear what effect the inclusion of probable cases — those that meet clinical criteria and have an epidemiological link to the virus or those who have a positive antigen test — has had on the daily totals since the state began including them in the count on Friday, though the previous day’s total was 9,935 confirmed cases. In all there, have been 498,560 cases statewide during the pandemic.
Officials also reported 14 additional fatalities Monday, bringing the statewide death toll to 10,210.
Surging hospitalizations also remain a concern for health officials. As of Sunday night, 4,409 people were in the hospital for COVID-19, bringing the seven-day average for hospitalizations above 4,000 for the first time since May 23. A week ago, the seven-day average for hospitalizations was 3,091. The number of patients in intensive care and on ventilators also continues to rise statewide.
Pritzker’s plan doesn’t fully open the state until a vaccine is available. On Monday, Pfizer and a German partner announced preliminary results that suggested their vaccine was more than 90% effective.
The results are preliminary, and the vaccine will not come in time to rescue the world from the next several months.
Chicago Tribune’s Jamie Munks contributed from Springfield. Associated Press also contributed.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
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