West Central Reporter

City of Beardstown issued the following announcement on Oct. 31.

I wanted to take a moment and make sure that all of you were informed of the recently announced mitigation measures for Region 3. These additional measures will go into effect

at 12:01am on Sunday, November 1 as a result of high COVID test positivity in Illinois region 3.

We have announced these new mitigation measures via Facebook, and have reached out by email to all of our licensed food establishments. We have been hopeful that these mitigation guidelines wouldn’t be necessary for our region. We realize the strain that these guidelines will put on our businesses, their employees, and our community. We hope that a serious, no nonsense approach to following these guidelines will minimize the length of time that these more stringent measures will be in place. From the beginning of this pandemic, Cass County has been heavily affected by the pandemic, which is why we currently rank eighth in the state for case rate by population. We have seen our rates improve from a month ago, when we were first in the state on case rates. Unfortunately, as our rates improved the rest of the region and state saw a spike in cases. The State of Illinois has 11 Covid Regions, and every region except for Region 2 (Peoria) is either in mitigation, or has announced mitigation starting in the next few days. The month of October saw huge increases in every metric for the state of Illinois. Since October 1:

· New Covid cases have increased 151%

· Case positivity has increased 3.4%

· Covid patients in the hospital has increased 73%

· Covid patients on ventilators have increased 63%

· New Covid deaths have increased by 82%

*Statistics reported during October 29, 2020 daily press briefing by the Governor’s office

These restrictions will be in place at least 14 days. We hope that these restrictions will not be long term, and that our region will quickly see a decrease in cases due to these additional restrictions. The state health department will continue to monitor our region for the next 14 days to look for metrics that support relaxing these mitigations. There are three possibilities for next steps after the next 14 days:

· If the rolling seven-day positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% over a three day period, we will return to phase 4 guidelines under the restore Illinois plan.

· If the rolling seven-day positivity rate averages between 6.5%-8% positivity, IDPH will continue to monitor to determine if additional measures are needed.

· If the rolling seven day positivity rate average remains at 8% or above after 14 days, more stringent mitigations can be applied to further reduce spread and attempt to gain better control of spread in the region.

The additional mitigation measures are:

Bars

· No indoor service.

· All outside bar service closes at 11 p.m.

· All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside.

· No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed).

· Tables should be six feet apart.

· No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting.

· No dancing or standing indoors.

· Reservations required for each party.

· No seating of multiple parties at one table.

Restaurants

· No indoor dining or bar service.

· All outdoor dining closes at 11 p.m.

· Outside dining tables should be six feet apart.

· No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting.

· Reservations required for each party.

· No seating of multiple parties at one table.

Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings

· Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25% of overall room capacity.

· No party buses.

· Gaming and casinos close at 11 p.m., are limited to 25% capacity, and must follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable.

Organized group recreational activities (fitness centers, sports, etc)

· No change

· All Sports Guidance effective August 15, 2020, remains in effect

· Outdoor Activities (not included in the above exposure settings) continue per current DCEO guidance

This information on mitigation requirements was taken directly from the state’s Resurgence Mitigations document that can be found here. The public can follow our region’s metrics here.

We have seen that there are peaks and valleys to new cases over the seven months that we have been dealing with Covid in our county. Cass County was one of the last ten counties in the state with no cases before we saw our first positive. From there we saw our numbers skyrocket making us the most affected county in the state by population. If we are to learn from that experience, we should remember that we can go from being relatively comfortable with few cases to losing control and seeing many in a short period of time. This is why it is important that we take the increases in the rest of the state seriously.

The Cass County Health Department is committed to the health and safety of the people of Cass County. We will continue to work to protect the health of the residents of Cass County, and will support all members and businesses in our community, while remembering these responsibilities.

Original source can be found here.