NOTE: Any press conference by Governor JB Pritzker Friday will be broadcast live on the player above.
Governor JB Pritzker is due to give an update to COVID-19 on Friday, in which he must detail which regions may lift restrictions on the Tier 3 coronavirus.
Pritzker is due to deliver the update at noon at the Thompson Center in Chicago, according to his public schedule. The press conference can be watched live on the video player above.
Pritzker is expected to announce which regions may begin to reverse the restrictions that have been in place for months, suspending in-house restaurants across the state and closing museums and casinos.
All 11 regions of Illinois have been under Level 3 mitigations since November 20.
According to the governor’s office, some regions are expected to return to Level 2, others possibly to Level 1 and some will remain at Level 3 – according to data released on Thursday afternoon.
“It will be a mix of things,” said a spokesman for the governor’s office.
As of Thursday, however, no region was complying with the guidelines for bringing meals back indoors, although some were close by, the spokesman said.
While it is unclear what exactly the governor will announce for each region on Friday, under state guidelines, a region may move to Tier 2 mitigations if it sees a test positivity rate of less than 12% for three consecutive days and more 20% of ICUs and hospital beds are available, as well as admissions for COVID-19 in decline in seven of the previous 10 days.
Regions with an average positivity rate between 6.5% and 8% are likely to be under Level 1 guidelines, although the state may still choose to monitor before lifting restrictions further.
To pass to Phase 4, however, the positivity rate must be on average less than or equal to 6.5% in a period of 3 days.
Currently, the region closest to achieving this metric is Region 3 in western Illinois, which has an average positivity rate of 6.9%. But this region is currently oscillating on the verge of the lack of availability of hospital beds and capacity of beds in the ICU, which would mean that it would remain at Level 3.
In addition to Region 3, Regions 1, 2 and 5 – which include Kendall, Grundy, LaSalle and DeKalb in the Chicago area – are also meeting guidelines to begin to reverse some restrictions.
Regions 7 and 8 in the Chicago area are also close to reaching metrics to exit Level 3. (For a complete analysis by region, click here)