Suburban Cook to be limited to outdoor drinking, dining — two days after first snowfall: ‘COVID storm on the rise’
A man walks near the Thompson Center at West Randolph and North Clark streets in the Loop as the first snowfall of the season hits Chicago, Monday morning. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file
The state imposed similar restrictions Friday on bars and restaurants in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties.
Bars and restaurants in suburban Cook County and the downstate Metro East area will no longer be able to serve patrons indoors beginning Wednesday as the state tries to curb a rise in coronavirus cases.
In addition, outdoor service will end at 11 p.m. and meetings, social events and other gatherings will be limited to 25 guests or 25% of overall room capacity in Region 10, which is surburban Cook County, and in Region 4, the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.
The new restrictions were announced Monday by the governor’s office and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, also reported 4,729 new COVID-19 cases Monday for a total of 378,985 in the state since the pandemic began.
It’s the first time the state’s the seven-day case average has exceeded 4,500.
As of Sunday night, 2,638 people were hospitalized.
Of that number, 589 patients were in the ICU and 238 people were on ventilators.
“There seems to be a COVID storm on the rise,” Pritzker said.
An additional 17 deaths were also reported Monday, bringing the state’s death toll to 9,522.
Pritzker said there are no current plans to re-open the field hospital at McCormick Place. The field hospital was put in place earlier this year but was decommissioned after serving only 38 patients.
The state imposed similar restrictions Friday on bars and restaurants in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties. And Chicago reimposed a ban on indoor service in bars and a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for restaurants and other non-essential businesses.
The latest round of tightened restrictions on indoor restaurant and bar service was announced on the same day that the Chicago area saw its first snowfall of the season.
O’Hare and Midway airports both reported light snow between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Suburban Cook County has had eight consecutive days of increases in test positivity and seven days of increased hospital admissions, making it the first region in the state to meet the metrics for additional mitigations in this way and surpass warning levels in two categories simultaneously, the governor’s office said in a statement.
Metro East has had a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8% or above for three consecutive days.
Ezike said the two regions are also seeing a “steady increase in hospitalizations,” which could overwhelm the state’s hospitals.
“We are entering flu season, and our hospitals are facing both COVID-19 and flu admissions,” Ezike said in a statement. “The same things that can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 will help prevent the spread of flu. Please, wash your hands, watch your distance, and wear your mask. And make sure to get your flu shot.”
The state’s public health department will track the positivity rate in both regions in the coming days to determine next steps, which could include no changes to the mitigations in place or the state loosening the safety measures or adding to them.
Six of the state’s 11 regions are now operating under state mitigations to curb the resurgence of the virus, Pritzker said Monday.