Kane County To Stay In Tier 3 As Restrictions Loosen Elsewhere

KANE COUNTY, IL — Kane County is set to remain under Tier 3 coronavirus mitigations despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s announcement Friday that some of Illinois can loosen its pandemic-related restrictions.

Three of the state’s 11 coronavirus-management regions returned to Tier 2 mitigations Friday: Regions 1 and 2 (northwest Illinois)and Region 5, which covers most of southern Illinois.

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That means gaming centers, casinos and cultural institutions in those regions can reopen, while indoor fitness classes, meetings and other gatherings can restart with a 10-person limit. There is a 25-person limit on group recreational activities.

Indoor dining at bars and restaurants is still banned under Tier 2 mitigations.

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Those three regions moved back to Tier 2 after meeting the state’s three benchmarks: having less than 12 percent positivity rate for three straight days, more than 20 percent of ICU and hospital beds available, and declining hospitalizations for seven out of 10 days.

The positivity rate in Region 8 — made up of Kane and DuPage counties — has been under the 12 percent threshold for 33 straight days, as of Tuesday, the most recent day for which testing data is available. The region’s positivity rate stood at 9.8 percent Tuesday, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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Hospitalizations have dropped for nine of the past 10 days, the state’s data shows.

However, the availability of hospital beds has been fluctuating around the 20 percent threshold since mid-November. As of Thursday, nearly a quarter of all ICU beds in the region were available, but only 16.7 percent of medical/surgical beds were available, public health data shows.

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