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COVID-19

IL Region 4 Additional Restrictions Coming

By August 16, 2020August 24th, 2020No Comments

This message contains time sensitive information. 

A few moments ago, IRMA participated in a conference call with senior staff of the Governor’s Office. They were making us aware that beginning this Tuesday, August 18th, Region 4 will have additional restrictions imposed. The additional restrictions will consist of the following:

  1. Taverns will close at 11:00 p.m.. There can be no congregating at the actual bar including no ordering or seating. Additionally, groups can be seated at tables but tables can hold no more than 6 people and tables must still be six-feet apart. If the facility has an outdoor option, they must still close at 11:00 p.m.
  2. Restaurants must close at 11:00 p.m. Parties are limited to six people at one table. There must be a reservation on file for at least one member of each party including name and cell phone of that individual. This is to assist the local health department with contact tracing. 
  3. Meetings, social events, and gatherings will be limited to 25% of 25 people, whichever is less.

You may view all the mitigation requirements here. Additional information is expected from the Illinois Gaming Board and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. IRMA will forward that information as soon as we have it. 

Region 4 is the region directly across from St. Louis, Missouri and includes the Illinois counties of Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair, and Washington. IRMA members will recall from previous communications that a additional restrictions can be imposed on a region if a region:

  1. Has three consecutive days of an 8% or greater positivity rating; or
  2. Has a sustained increase in 7-day rolling average (7 out of 10 days) in the positivity rate; AND one of the following:
    1. Sustained 7-day increase in hospital admissions for a COVID-19 like illness; or
    2. Reduction in hospital capacity threatening surge capabilities (ICU capacity or medical/surgical beds under 20%)

Region 4 has experienced three consecutive days of a positivity rate over 8% (currently at 8.5%).  Therefore, mitigation measures are triggered regardless of other metrics. Members can view metrics by region here and IRMA provides these updates daily.

What does a rollback mean? Per the mitigation measures noted above, it does NOT mean going back to Phase 3. Phase 4, the current phase, is the new baseline. Instead, Illinois has instituted a three-tiered approach that, by design, is deliberately vague and not exhaustive. It allows the state to have a more flexible response. The three tiers can be viewed here.  

Again, this Tuesday, the following restrictions are being imposed in Region 4:

  1. Taverns will close at 11:00 p.m.. There can be no congregating at the actual bar including no ordering or seating. Additionally, groups can be seated at tables but tables can hold no more than 6 people and tables must still be six-feet apart. If the facility has an outdoor option, they must still close at 11:00 p.m.
  2. Restaurants must close at 11:00 p.m. Parties are limited to six people at one table. There must be a reservation on file for at least one member of each party including name and cell phone of that individual. This is to assist the local health department with contact tracing. 
  3. Meetings, social events, and gatherings will be limited to 25% of 25 people, whichever is less.

You can monitor changes by region here or in IRMA’s daily report. Additionally, IRMA will notify you have changes as we are notified. Please let us know if you have any questions.