January 7, 2021 – Governor J.B. Pritzker said that if the COVID-19 numbers go on without a spike, Illinois regions may be able to lift certain mitigations on January 15. After Thanksgiving, Illinois did not see a large increase in cases and Pritzker says that they are hopeful that the trend will continue with the passing of Christmas and New Year’s.
“So on January 15…any region that has met the metrics for a reduction of mitigations will be able to move out of tier 3 of our mitigation plan…I’m cautiously optimistic as there are some early signs indicating that some regions have made real progress and won’t reverse that progress this week or next,” said Pritzker.
Locally, Macon County has seen numbers increase slightly. Hospitals are seeing an uptick in cases and Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe says we need to maintain numbers or mitigations will not be lifted. She said the city council is currently split, with about half wanting to move forward with partially opening bars and restaurants and the other half wanting to hold off due to health issues.
“There are a lot of consequences if we move forward too fast. We could exacerbate a health crisis, a pandemic, and we could be right back where we were, or worse, which we certainly don’t want to have happen. Especially just as round two of the vaccine is now in town, it’s being given to our frontline healthcare workers,” the Mayor said.
Metrics to remove mitigations include a test positivity rate of 12% or less for at least three consecutive days. The mask mandate has been extended an additional 150 days.
