State officials say they aren’t trying to punish bars and restaurants with stricter COVID-19 rules in the Southern Illinois Region that includes Marion, Jefferson, and Wayne County as well as three other regions.
New mitigations for the regions with rising cases include no indoor dining or bar service. Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says contact tracing has shown that exposure is greatest in schools, at work, and at bars and restaurants.
“We’re not going to not have people go to school. We’re letting the local health departments and school administrators decided for themselves what is appropriate regarding school. In terms of the workplace, if you cannot work from home then you have to go to work. So the next things we can actively act on are the bars and restaurants.”
Four of the state’s 11 designated COVID-19 regions are now under the new mitigations until test positivity rates and hospitalizations come down.
The Governor instituted additional mitigation on two other regions with positivity rates that have topped eight percent for three days. They are Region 7 that includes Will and Kankakee Counties and Region 8 that includes Kane and DuPage Counties. They join the Southern Illinois and Northwest Illinois Regions.
Statewide, 3,714 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday along with 41 deaths. The state positivity rate increased a tenth of a percent to 5.5-percent. The Southern Illinois Region’s positivity rate dropped four-tenths of a percent on Tuesday to 8.7-percent. Marion County’s rate declined another two-tenths of a percent to 5.1-percent. The Metro-East Region has risen four-tenths of a percent to 7.4-percent. The East Central Illinois Region remains at 7.6-percent.
