Coronavirus Indoor Dining Ban Imposed On Lake, McHenry Counties

CHICAGO — Starting Saturday, indoor service at bars and restaurants in Lake and McHenry counties will be banned, and gatherings will be capped at 25 people, as new restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus take effect in Region 9.

The restrictions were triggered after the two-county region's coronavirus positivity rate breached the 8-percent fail-safe threshold and remained above it for more than three days.

The seven-day rolling average coronavirus positivity rate in Region 9 hit 8.1 percent Friday and rose to 8.4 percent Saturday, where it remained Sunday, the most recent day for which data is available, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The north suburban region joins every other county in the Chicago area and the majority of the 11 COVID-19 resurgence mitigation regions created under Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Restore Illinois plan, which are already under the first tier of restrictions.

“As of this morning, Region 9 — Lake and McHenry Counties — has now sustained an average positivity rate of 8 percent or higher for three days — meaning that they will join seven of our 11 other regions in operating under resurgence mitigations,” Pritzker said Wednesday in a statement announcing the new restrictions. “So, beginning on Saturday at 12:01 a.m., public gatherings in Lake and McHenry counties will be reduced to 25 people, and indoor dining and indoor bar service will be temporarily closed."

Outdoor bar and restaurant service in tents remains available under the first tier of restrictions, as does delivery and drive-thru service, Pritzker noted. The measures taking effect Saturday do not apply to schools or polling places.

RELATED: Region 9 Shutdown: How Will Restaurants, Bars Survive?

"These resurgence mitigations aim to cut down on some of the highest high-risk activities until we bring down the positivity rate in a region once again," Pritzker said. "I know this virus is hard on everyone. But this battle isn’t going away by itself. We have to manage our way through it with the tools we have available to us. And there are many of those tools that nearly everyone in our state has available to join the fight.”

In order for the restrictions to be relaxed, Region 9's positivity rate will need to average less than or equal to 6.5 percent over a three-day period, hospital admissions must decrease over a three-day period, and average hospital bed availability must remain above 20 percent, according to the governor's office.

“I know that people are fed up with wearing masks and socially distancing — I am, for sure," said McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks (D-Marengo) in a statement. "But
we cannot lower our positivity rate and lift these new restrictions by wishing them gone — we
need to work together. We need to follow the CDC guidelines of masking, washing hands and
maintaining 6-foot distance. Working together, we’ll get through this quicker. We owe it to our
small businesses and our neighbors to do everything we can.”

Should the positivity rate continue to rise, a second tier of restrictions may be applied. The northwestern Region 1, which includes the Rockford area, is the first region to have seen a second tier of restrictions, which include a six-person cap on tables and a 10-person limit on social gatherings.

“We will continue to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and keep the region informed about community transmission,” McHenry County Department of Health Melissa Adamson said in a statement. “If we work together, we could avoid further mitigations and potentially see a return to Phase 4 restrictions in the next two weeks. But that’s a goal that can only be achieved by following those preventative measures we’ve stressed for the past several months and working with your local health department to complete their case investigations.”

In addition to a positivity rate that has jumped from 4.8 percent last month to 8.4 percent this week, Region 9 has also seen rapidly rising hospitalization rates. New admissions of people suffering from symptoms of COVID-19 have tripled since September.

On Saturday, the seven-day rounded rolling average of new hospital admissions of people with what public health officials describe as "COVID-like illnesses" rose to 16, representing an additional 10 people a day newly hospitalized in the region.

According to regional hospitalization metrics, the three-day rolling average of available surgical beds in the region's hospitals stood at 38 percent, with 50 percent availability of beds in the region's intensive care units.

RELATED: Lake-McHenry Region 9 Coronavirus Hospitalizations Double Since Mid-October

“The rate of new infections is surging in our region—a steeper curve than we saw in the spring,” Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister said in a statement. “We successfully flattened the curve then, and we can do it again. Our success depends on all businesses and residents doing their part, participating with contact tracing if you are called, and being extremely cautious to eliminate chances for this virus to spread. Please do not let your guard down in social settings, even around close friends and family who don’t live in your home.”

In neighboring Wisconsin, where state public health officials reported a record number of deaths Tuesday, hospitals are nearly at capacity in the southeast region. According to data from Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 89.9 percent of hospital beds and 90.7 percent of ICU beds were in use in the region.

“With Region 9 being added to the list of regions in mitigation, we are getting close to the entire state implementing mitigation measures,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement announcing the new restrictions. “This is not just a warning, but a call to action. We continue to move backwards, losing all the ground we had gained over the summer. We turned the state around once, let’s do it again. Limit your potential exposures by wearing a mask, physically distancing, and limiting in-person gatherings. It will take all of us working together to beat this virus.”

The new restrictions in Region 9 take effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.