Indoor Dining Ban Lifted As Oswego Moves To Tier 1 Mitigation

OSWEGO, IL — Public health officials lifted some coronavirus restrictions in Kendall County Sunday, meaning Oswego has moved to the least restrictive of the state’s three tiers of COVID-19 resurgence mitigation measures.

Region 2 moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1, meaning restaurants and bars in Kendall County can reopen at 25 percent capacity. In addition, all bar and restaurant guests should be seated at tables. Ordering, seating and congregating at bars is prohibited and bar stools should be removed. Tables must also be six feet apart, under Tier 1 mitigation measures.

Meetings, events and gatherings are limited to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity. View full list of restrictions here.

Gov. JB Pritzker said during his Friday news conference that "bars and restaurants have carried an extremely heavy burden throughout this public health crisis through no fault of their own."

To move into Tier 1, Kendall County and other Region 2 counties collectively met the following IDPH metrics:

• A test positivity rate below 8 percent for three consecutive days, as measured by the seven-day rolling average.
• Greater than or equal to 20 percent available ICU and medical/surgical hospital beds for three consecutive days, on a three-day rolling average.
• No sustained increase in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 for seven out of 10 days.

As of Saturday, the positivity rate in Region 2 had been under the 8 percent threshold for five straight days, while hospitalizations have been dropping steadily. The region's positivity rate stood at 7 percent Saturday, the most recent day for which testing data is available.

The IDPH is no longer using the availability of medical/surgical beds to determine coronavirus-related restrictions in any region.

Region 8 moved to Tier 2 on Monday along with Regions 9 (Lake and McHenry counties), 10 (suburban Cook County) and 11 (Chicago).

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