Governor J.B. Pritzker announced today, four regions of the state will move to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan beginning tomorrow.
Pritzker says health officials have signed off on the changes set to take place throughout the state tomorrow.
“The doctors and public health experts have reviewed the data, and the proposed conditions for greater public activity and work conditions, and have approved them, including the following activities with COVID related health and safety guidelines- health and fitness centers will reopen, indoor dining at restaurants and bars will resume, movie theaters, museums and zoos will restore operations, and child care and schools will reopen and expand, all in accordance with IDPH safety and health guidance.”
Pritzker announced the launch of 12 mobile community testing teams he says will move throughout the state to assist communities in suppressing outbreaks including places like meatpacking plans, nursing homes, or other gatherings where cases are traceable.
Pritzker says because of the people of Illinois, the state is seeing a trajectory of relative success where other parts of the country have not.
“We’ve seen what’s happened in other states that have allowed politics or short-term thinking to drive decision-making. Many other states are now seeing significant increases in cases, hospitalizations, and intensive care bed usage and they’re being forced to move backward and stay at home, that’s not the story in Illinois.
Here, we have been gradually restoring business and leisure activities in a highly deliberate manner, guided by doctors’ advice. Illinoisans are following the mitigations that we can each do ourselves, like wearing face coverings, keeping 6 feet distance between us, and washing our hands frequently.
As a result, we have significantly reduced our positivity rate, our hospitalizations and ICU bed use, and we’ve seen dramatic declines in COVID-19 deaths.”
Pritzker says the state is also launching a new county level risk assessment tool aimed at assisting individuals, families and community groups to help inform their choices about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do.
He says the county-level indicators are similar to the Restore Illinois criteria and apply the same metrics to each county.
Each county will be assessed to determine whether it is meeting or exceeding each indicator target, and using a color-coded system, counties will be able to determine whether they are meeting or not meeting set targets. The county risk assessment will be available for use on the Illinois Department of Public Health website.
IDPH today announced 894 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 41 additional confirmed deaths. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 139,434 cases, including 6,810 deaths, in 101 counties in Illinois.
Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 31,686 specimens for a total of 1,460,527. It is the first time the state has surpassed 30,000 tests in a 24 hour period. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate from June 18–June 24 remains at 3%.