Stay-At-Home Recommendation, Not Order, Issued For Next 3 Weeks

ILLINOIS — Illinois residents should work from home whenever possible and participate only in “essential” activities over the next three weeks — including the Thanksgiving holiday period — as coronavirus trends continue in the wrong direction.

The Illinois Department of Public Health made several recommendations Wednesday for residents to “stay at home as much as possible” over the next three weeks, but officials stopped short of issuing any orders to that effect.

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The IDPH urged employers to allow their workers to stay home and for people to only leave their homes for “necessary and essential activities,” including work that cannot be done remotely, as well getting groceries, coronavirus tests or other necessities.

Officials are also imploring residents to limit their travels for the next three weeks, including over the Thanksgiving holiday period, which could “present a high risk of spreading the infection,” the IDPH said in a release.

“Our goal is to reduce transmission as we head into the holidays so businesses and schools can remain open,” IDPH officials said.

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Public health officials have imposed new restrictions on all 11 of the state's coronavirus-management regions with positivity rates spiking across Illinois over the past few weeks.

The entire state is currently under an indoor dining ban at bars and restaurants and capacity limits on social gatherings. Regions 1, 5, 7 and 8 are operating with additional mitigations, including stricter limits on gatherings and party sizes for outdoor dining.

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Illinois has set numerous records over the past few weeks for coronavirus-related hospitalizations and the number of new cases reported in a day, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

State officials confirmed 12,623 new cases Tuesday, topping the previous record set Saturday. That took Illinois' coronavirus case total past the half-million milestone.

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Illinois set a new record Wednesday, when officials confirmed 12,657 cases, taking the state's total to 523,840 cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March.

More than 10,400 Illinois residents have died after testing positive for the coronavirus, with state officials reporting 145 deaths Wednesday, the highest daily death toll since May. At least 364 additional deaths are likely linked to the virus, according to IDPH statistics.

As of Tuesday night, 5,042 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across Illinois, including 951 in intensive care and 404 on ventilators, state officials said.

"The virus is winning the war right now," Pritzker said Monday.