If COVID-19 numbers don’t spike, Governor JB Pritzker says regions of Illinois may be able to lift some mitigation’s come January 15th.
The State didn’t see a big increase in cases after Thanksgiving, and the Governor says they are hopeful that trend will hold now that Christmas and New Year’s have passed.
“So on January 15th, exactly one incubation period from New Years Day, any region that has met the metrics for a reduction of mitigation’s will be able to move out of Tier 3 of our mitigation plan.”
Those metrics include a test positivity rate of 12% or less for at least 3 days in a row. What mitigations remain will depend on the numbers. The Governor urges everyone to continue to be careful. The State’s mask mandate has been extended another 150 days.
The statewide positivity rate for Wednesday was just 8.4-percent. The Southern Illinois Region remained at 11.5-percent, while the Metro-East Rate was over the threshold at 13.3-percent. The East Central Illinois Region is at 9.4-percent.
Both the Southern Illinois and Metro East Regions are under the 20-percent thresholds for ICU beds. The Southern Illinois Region availability is at just 12.8-percent. The Metro-East Region is at 11.2-percent.
