Kendall Co. Reopening Region Positivity, Hospitalization Increase

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — Illinois' North Central region — that Kendall County is a part of — could see new restrictions imposed on public gatherings as numbers reported on COVID-19 is moving in the wrong direction.

This comes after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the first set of new restrictions triggered by regional coronavirus mitigation metrics and as state public health officials announced an increasing number of Illinois counties have reached a COVID-19 "warning level."

In Region 2 — which is made up Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, and Woodford counties — the number of coronavirus tests that came back positive increased from 5.6 percent to 5.9 percent over the course of the week. During the same period, the number of people admitted to hospitals in the region with symptoms of the virus increased.

Any region that sustains an 8 percent positivity rate for three days in a row or sees an increase in positivity rates and simultaneous decrease in hospital capacity will need to implement additional community mitigation interventions, the Illinois Department of Public Health website states.

Those measures could include restricting the size of social gatherings, reducing capacity at businesses or scaling back operations in industries that pose a higher risk of transmission, like indoor dining, bars, salons or personal care services.

Region 4 saw its positivity rates exceed the threshold for more than three consecutive days. The new restrictions mean bars, restaurants and casinos must close by 11 p.m., no one may congregate at the bar and reservations are required, while gatherings will be capped at 25 people, among other things.

Other than three days with average coronavirus positivity rates above 8 percent, restrictions can also be triggered by a combination of seven days out of the past 10 with increasing positivity rates — plus either a decline in hospital bed capacity below 20 percent or an increase for seven of the last 10 days in the rounded average number of new hospital admissions with "COVID-like illness."

As of Sunday, Region 2 is seeing 6 consecutive days of positivity increase, with 35 percent surgical beds and 43 percent ICU beds still available. If these fall below 20 percent, the region will be at a warning level for this metric.

State health officials over the weekend announced 4,249 new cases of the coronavirus, including 1,893 on Sunday and 2,356 on Saturday — the most cases in a single day since May 24. As of Saturday night, 1,488 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. Of those, 322 were in intensive care and 127 were on ventilators.

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