Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Monday that healthcare regions who meet specific criteria can roll back from Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions beginning Friday, Jan. 15.
All 11 healthcare regions in the state have been under Tier 3 mitigation rules since late November, which include reductions in capacity at businesses and a variety of other restrictions.
Beginning Friday, the governor says that regions can begin to move forward to Tier 2 mitigations if they adhere to three different statistical criteria beginning later this week.
Pritzker says that three key metrics must be met in order for a region to move forward from Tier 3 mitigations:
-A seven-day positivity rate of 12% or lower for three consecutive days.
-An availability of 20% or greater of staffed ICU and general hospital beds for three consecutive days.
-A decline in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on seven days in a 10-day span.
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“These metrics, together, give us a picture of community transmission risk and hospital availability to treat any influx of patients,” Pritzker said. “(This) could include those in need of care because of COVID-19 or anything from car crashes to heart attacks to other critical surgeries.”
As of Sunday, three regions in Illinois qualified under the three criteria to move forward from Tier 3 mitigations, including Region 2, comprised of west-central Illinois and including Peoria, Region 3, which includes Springfield, and Region 7, comprised of Will and Kankakee counties.
