Note: Pritzker's news conference can be watched live in the video player above beginning at around 12 p.m. CST.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is set to deliever an update on state's response to the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday.
Pritzker's news conference is slated to be held beginning at 12 p.m. at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago, according to his public schedule.
The update comes after state health officials announced on Tuesday that stricter mitigations would be taking effect in one of Illinois' 11 health care regions.
That region is Region 4, which includes Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair and Washington counties, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The new restrictions will include a suspension of indoor service at restaurants and bars for at least two weeks. Outdoor service will still be allowed, but must be stopped at 11 p.m. each night, according to the new guidelines.
Party buses will remain banned in the region, with gatherings also restricted to 25 or fewer people, according to a press release.
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The new guidelines take effect Wednesday, two weeks after it became the first region in the state to see additional coronavirus mitigation strategies implemented.
Pritzker’s administration faced criticism last week after restrictions were put in place in Region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties. Those restrictions match the restrictions now being put into effect in Region 4, but were harsher than the initial mitigation strategies put in place by the state two weeks ago in Region 4.
Originally, indoor dining and bar service was allowed to continue in Region 4, a move that Pritzker said was designed to help keep strategies in place that were similar to ones in effect across the border in Missouri.
Pritzker admitted the more lax rules were a “mistake,” and said it was likely that Region 4 would end up with stricter rules by Sept. 2.
Under the state’s coronavirus mitigation rules, any region with a positivity rate of 8% or greater for three consecutive days will have new restrictions put into place. Region 4 hit that threshold in August, and although the region has seen a decline in recent days, the rate remains at 9.6%.
On Aug. 27, the rate hit 10.5%, but has begun a decline in recent days. Hospitalizations are also down in the region, according to the latest IDPH figures.
Illinois health officials reported 1,492 new coronavirus cases and 39 additional deaths on Tuesday as the number of tests conducted over the previous 24 hours dropped by roughly half, data shows.
Those figures brought the statewide totals to 236,515 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, with at least 8,064 deaths in all 102 counties attributed to the virus.
Labs in Illinois on Tuesday reported 22,961 tests performed in the past 24 hours, a sharp decline from the roughly 40,000 to 50,000 the state had been conducted on average per day over the past week. Tuesday's tests brought statewide totals to more 4,087,122 tests performed since the pandemic began
With Tuesday's increase in cases, the state’s rolling 7-day positivity rate increased to 4.3% from 4.1% the day before.
Hospitalizations ticked up slightly on Monday, health officials said. In all, 1,513 patients are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the state of Illinois, with 362 of those patients in intensive care units. The number of patients on ventilators dropped, however, from 157 to 146.
