Region 3, including Quincy and West Central Illinois, to begin COVID-19 restrictions – WGEM

QUINCY (WGEM) -- Gov. Pritzker announced Thursday that resurgence mitigations will be implemented in Region 3 at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday November 1st.

Region 3 includes Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Christian, Greene, Hancock, Jersey, Logan, Macoupin, Mason, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler, and Scott counties.

On Tuesday the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported a 7-day positivity rate of 8% for Region 3. That increased to 8.1% on Wednesday and 8.8% on Thursday.

According to IDPH if a region has three consecutive days averaging greater than or equal to an 8% 7-day positivity rate, the region will be placed under restrictions.

Region 3 is currently seeing an 8.8% positivity rate, an increase from 4.6% in September, a summer peak of 6.2% in August, and a low of 0.9% in June. While most regions are seeing sustained increases in both positivity and hospitalization rates, as of Thursday Region 3 is experiencing triple the amount of COVID-related hospital admissions since early September.

IDPH said it will continue to track the positivity rate in Region 3 to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days, then the regions will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan. If the positivity rate averages between 6.5% and 8%, the new mitigations will remain in place and unchanged. If the positivity rate averages greater than or equal to 8% after 14 days, more stringent mitigations may be applied to further reduce spread of the virus.

Mitigation measures taking effect Sunday November 1st in Region 3 include:

Bars

Restaurants

Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings

These mitigations do not currently apply to schools or polling places.

As of Thursday 9 of the state's 11 regions were either scheduled to be, or were currently placed under mitigation restrictions.

Something has got to give, and these mitigations aim to cut down on those high-risk activities until we bring down the positivity rate in an area once again," Gov. J.B. Prtizker said. "Because lets be clear: well-meaning and reasonable people can have fair disagreements about how and where to draw lines and connect dots, but when every single metric in every single corner of the state is trending poorly, we have to take meaningful action to keep our people safe.

This is the first time a Central Illinois region has needed to implement mitigation measures because of increasing positivity, said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. For those residents living in regions and communities where the virus didnt seem to be that bad, things are changing with positivity rates steadily increasing. Weve seen regions move into and then out of mitigation, so we know the measures work. The more people adhere to the measures, the quicker we can move out of mitigation.

For more information on Illinois regional COVID-19 resurgence criteria,click here.

RELATED:Pritzker: much of west central Illinois (Region 3) will likely begin mitigations over the weekendCOVID-19 restrictions starting Saturday in Lake and McHenry Counties (Region 9)Illinois Region 3 hits 7-day positivity rate of 8%2 more regions in Illinois to face COVID-19 restrictionsHalf of all Illinois counties at warning level for COVID-19Pritzker announces more restrictions for Northwestern Illinois (Region 1)Pritzker: Illinois State Police now alerted to patrol regions with heightened mitigationsResurgence mitigations to take effect in Illinois Regions 7 and 8

More:

Region 3, including Quincy and West Central Illinois, to begin COVID-19 restrictions - WGEM