This means that restaurants and bars will be able to reopen for limited indoor dining.
SEE ALSO | The indoor dining room in Chicago is expected to return from Saturday
The total number of cases in Illinois now stands at 1,093,375, with a total of 18,615 deaths, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the PGCE director, dr. Ngozi Ezike, on Friday a number of new positive COVID-19 cases are higher than they were recently.
WATCH: Government Pritzker provides on 22 January 2021 the latest information on vaccinations, restrictions, new variant
Metro East Region 4 also moved to Tier 2 on Friday, bringing all Illinois regions out of Tier 3 mitigation, according to IDPH. However, there are still three regions that remain in Phase 4.
Region 4 includes the counties of Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair and Washington in.
“With all the regions of Illinois now outside Tier 3, we can now see that the entire state is on the right track,” said Dr. Ezike said. “During the summer, we were on the same path. We know we need to continue to take precautions and be smart about easing some of the mitigation measures to protect our health and safety.”
Region 7, which includes the provinces of Will and Kankakee, has progressed to Level 1.
Some restaurants, including George’s in Lockport, serve customers inside, even though it has been officially banned by the state. But the team there is still excited about the news and hopes it will make more customers feel safe to drop by for a bit. Manager Lauren Straub said she was delighted that limited indoor dining could resume in Will and Kankakee provinces.
State health officials announced Thursday that Illinois Region 7 is transitioning to Tier 1 mitigation, allowing for indoor restaurant and bar dining for up to 25 people or 25% capacity per room, whichever is less.
“People are going to feel comfortable and, you know, want to come in and they feel safe enough to come in and eat with us,” Straub said.
Straub said her team has served people before because the restaurant, like so many, tries to stay afloat. But she hopes the official green light will boost the business.
“Our clients in the morning, the elderly, so they, I think they will feel more safe to come out that it’s good to come out and not feel so worried,” she explained.
Some customers, such as Karen and John Sadler, were already comfortable eating inside before the changes – and they were back for lunch.
“It’s nice to be in a hockey game again and it’s like coming home because you know, it’s an integral part of our environment,” Karen Sadler said.
In nearby Romeoville, Gio’s breakfast was still empty after the announcement of the reloading of the indoor dining room. But manager Giselle Evangelista thinks her dining room will be an attractive option for people hoping to keep their social distance.
“It’s really big,” Evangelista said. “I feel like people are going to see it on our Facebook page.”
And with more personal eating, she hopes her staff will see more tips – which have not been so plentiful with pick-up orders.
“Because our servers rely on tips, it will help us a lot more, because that’s actually what we live on,” she said.
LOOK: Why some restaurants will not reopen, even if restrictions are weakened
But as more suburban restaurants get this new lifeline, indoor dining in Chicago remains banned.
And even if these restrictions are lifted in the city, some restaurants will not reopen for the time being.
“25% (capacity) makes us lose money, 50% (capacity) makes us lose money,” said Jodi Fyfe, owner of Eden in the West Loop.
But in Chicago restaurants that want to reopen indoor eateries, city officials say it’s possible this weekend if current trends apply.
Region 6 moves to phase 4
And Region 6, which will include Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Iroquois, Jasper, Lawrence, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Richland, Shelby and Vermillion move on to phase 4 of the recovery plan.
“I am excited that 10 of our 11 regions have moved out of Tier 3 mitigation,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said. “However, this does not mean that we can guard. We must continue to take actions to protect ourselves from the virus – wear our masks, avoid large gatherings and take the vaccine when it is our turn. This is especially critical “New variants are circulating, which from previous studies show that they are spreading much faster. We are heading in the right direction again, so let’s stay the course.”
IDPH will continue to closely monitor the positivity of the test, the availability of the ICU bed and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19, government officials said. If data show that regions are moving in the wrong direction, based on the set benchmarking criteria, regions may again find themselves at a higher level with increased measures.
You can see a map of the Illinois regions restored here and the differences between Illinois’ COVID-19 mitigation levels here.
Dumbbell Registration Frustrations
A few days before Illinois wants to go to vaccination phase 1B, some are frustrated by the lack of information on how to register.
“I’m trying to do my part, and it looks like I’m running into a brick wall,” said James Henry of Elmhurst.
Henry said he was excited when government JB Pritzker announced last week that Phase 1B would begin on January 25 in Illinois for people 65 and older and many needy workers.
RELATED: Chicago COVID-19: City Enter Phase 1B Next Week, Arwady Says
But Henry, 72, said he found nothing on how to register for a vaccine on state or DuPage County websites.
Eventually he finds a local pharmacy that takes 1B appointments and plans himself and his wife for next week.
“And then we call today and Mariano says, ‘We’m sorry, but the country says they are not releasing the vaccine for group 1B,'” Henry said.
Earlier this week, the DuPage County Department of Health said that phase 1B for the country would probably only start in early February. But late Wednesday, it issued a press release saying it “… expects to begin the transition to Phase 1b from Monday, January 25 …” But due to the limited supply “… it could take about 12 weeks. .. “to vaccinate everyone in 1B.
There is still nothing on the country’s website on how to register.
“I mean, at this point, I’m just saying, ‘We don’t know, people,'” Henry said.
In the Chicago area, DuPage County, the suburb of Cook and the city of Chicago, they began 1B vaccinations on Monday. But in Lake County, officials said it could take one to two weeks. And in Will County, a few weeks.
According to Kane County, Thursday inoculated a number of essential workers in phase 1B. Vaccinations for Kane County residents in essential workers of group 1B and the elderly aged 65 and over will begin within the next two weeks.
“In the first weeks of the national vaccination campaign, the supply of vaccine was limited,” said Kathy Fosser, interim executive director of Kane County. “We are delighted to say that we are catching up with our 1A health workers and have started vaccinating 1B essential workers.”
Kane County will have more than 40 COVID-19 vaccine providers, including clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and medical practices in preparation for the Group 1B vaccination.
“We are committed to getting these vaccines as soon as we get them into the arms of residents,” Fosser said. “We expect our weekly allocation to increase as time goes on so that we can get vaccination to residents faster.”
ABC7 left messages for McHenry and Kankakee counties that were not returned.
Find out how many people before you can get a COVID-19 vaccine
In the past 24 hours, laboratories reported 99,036 samples for a total of 15,083,685.
RELATED: Illinois Coronavirus Testing: Where to Get Tested for COVID-19 in Illinois, Chicago Area
As of Wednesday night, it was reported that 3,281 patients in Illinois were in the hospital with COVID-19. Of these, 662 patients were in the ICU and 358 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary positive test of seven days across the country from 15 to 21 January is 6.2%, which was the lowest since the end of October.
The test positivity rate is a measure that the state started providing at the end of October. It is calculated by using the total number of positive tests above the total number of tests. This is the yardstick by which state health officials are accustomed to making decisions about mitigation.
As of Thursday night, 922,325 doses of vaccine had been delivered to suppliers in Illinois, including Chicago, with another 524,050 doses allocated to federal government partners for long-term care facilities, bringing the total number delivered in Illinois to 1,446,375.
RELATED: Illinois COVID Vaccine Map Shows How Many Inhabitants Are Vaccinated Per Country
IDPH reports that a total of 616,677 doses of vaccination, including 93,683 at long-term facilities. The running average of vaccines administered over seven days is 24,190.
WATCH: World War II veterinarian surviving COVID-19 vaccinated
The IDPH says that the distribution numbers of vaccines are reported in real time and that the number of vaccines lags by as much as 72 hours.
The deaths reported on Friday include:
– Adams County: 1 70-year-old man, 1 90-year-old woman
-Coles County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
-Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 50s, 3 men 50s, 8 women 60s, 9 men 60s, 1 female 70s, 11 men 70s, 5 women 80s, 4 men 80s, 1 male 90s
-DuPage County: 1,70 men, 2,80 men, 1,90 women
-Hancock County: 1 80-year-old man
-Kane County: 1 60s male, 2 women 80s
Lake County: 1 70s female, 1 70s male, 1 90s female
Madison County: 1 80-year-old woman
-Marshall County: 1 female 70s
-McHenry County: 1 female 70s
-McLean County: 1 70-year-old man, 1 80-year-old woman
-Montgomery County: 1 70-year-old man, 1 80-year-old woman, 1 90-year-old man
-Ogle County: 1 60-year-old man
-Peoria County: 1 women 70s, 1 70s female
-Piatt County: 1 90-year-old man
-Randolph County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
-Richland County: 1 woman 60s
-Rock Island County: 1 60-year-old man, 1 90-year-old man
-Sangamon County: 1 women 70s, 1 80s men, 1 90s men
-St. Clair County: 2 men 80s, 3 women 90s, 1 men 90s
-Washington County: 1 80-year-old man
-Will County: 2 women 70s, 1 70s, 1 80s, 1 90s
-Winnebago County: 1 30s female, 1 90s female
-Woodford County: 1 man 70’s
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