The Southern Illinois Region that includes Marion, Jefferson, and Wayne Counties is one of three regions to face additional COVID-19 mitigation efforts effective this Wednesday as the number of cases continues to rise.
Maximum indoor and outdoor gathering size for meetings, social events, and gatherings is reduced to ten people. This does not impact overall facility capacity, students participating with in-person classroom learning, or to sports.
In addition to the earlier restrictions on no indoor restaurant or bar seating, the businesses are now directed to reduce party size from ten to six individuals.
For recreational activities, there will be a limit of the lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity for both indoors and outdoors. The changes do not impact fitness centers.
The three regions impacted by the increased mitigation have all had a positivity rate above eight percent and a continual rise after more than 14-days under Tier 1 mitigations.
Governor JB Pritzker says the situation has worsened considerably in certain areas of the state, with massive increases n the rates of community transmission in the three regions to face the heightened mitigations. The other two regions are Region 7 and 8 both in the collar counties around Chicago.
