State loosens COVID-19 restrictions for McHenry, Lake counties and other regions in sweeping move

The Illinois Department of Public Health has loosened COVID-19 restrictions for McHenry and Lake counties as well as several other regions after the launch of a new statewide staffing program aimed at helping hospitals manage surges in patient volumes.

The move by the IDPH Monday afternoon is a relief to business owners in McHenry County who have been looking for signs of progress, McHenry County Economic Development Corporation President Jim McConoughey said Monday.

“It is my hope that they feel like they’ve weathered the storm and that we’re coming out of this on the other side right now so I think that is a very positive feeling,” McConoughey said.

Particularly for retailers and those in the service industry, there is “this emotional uplift that has to do with maybe that, you know, some of the winds are behind us,” he said

McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler said Monday’s news is very encouraging for residents and business owners alike.

“We’re very excited, and I’m sure that a lot of the small businesses will be glad to hear that as well,” Buehler said.

Region 9, which is composed of McHenry and Lake counties, moved to Tier 2 of the state’s COVID-19 mitigation measures, meaning indoor gaming, casinos and cultural institutions can now reopen, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Fitness classes, meetings and social events can resume in groups of up to 10 people and sporting facilities can open at 25% capacity. Indoor dining remains prohibited.

“Baby steps, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Buehler said. “This will put us on the road to hopefully moving on to Tier 1 in the near future.”

Region 9 made the move to the less restrictive Tier 2 along with Region 8, which is composed of Kane and DuPage counties; Region 10, which is suburban Cook County; and Region 11, which is the city of Chicago, according to an IDPH news release Monday.

The move was made possible after the state worked with staffing agencies to create a pool of health care workers that hospitals can draw from when extra staff is needed. This was done at the request of hospital leaders and local health departments across the state, according to the release.

“Hospital leaders have made clear the importance of staffing in their continued response to this pandemic and conveyed that staffing contracts will be extraordinarily valuable in their ability to meet the needs of their communities,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in the release.

In response, the IDPH partnered with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to launch a surge staffing program that Illinois hospitals can lean on as needed. This will be beneficial for hospitals that might have enough available beds to increase their capacity, but do not have enough personnel to staff them, according to the release.

As a result, the IDPH will no longer use the availability of medical and surgical hospital beds in measuring whether regions are ready to move between the tiers of the state’s COVID-19 response plan.

“A lot of what was holding [McHenry County] back on moving to the next tier was bed availability and that was really dependent on the staffing,” Buehler said. “So this will be great ... it puts us on the right path to recovery and we look forward to it.”

Previously, regions were required to have at least 20% of hospital beds available in case of a surge of COVID-19 cases and this requirement was holding a number of regions back from moving to looser restrictions. Now, the state will look at just the availability of ICU beds, as well as the positivity rate and hospitalization trends in each region.

“We are pleased to see most of our regions move out of Tier 3 mitigations with this change, and it is critical that we maintain this progress,” Ezike said in the release. “With new variants of COVID-19 spreading, it is more important than ever to follow the public health guidance that keeps people safe – wear your mask and watch your distance.”

Also on Monday afternoon, Region 1, which spans northern Illinois west of the Chicago suburbs, and Region 6, which covers east-central Illinois, moved to Tier 1, which opens up limited indoor dining for restaurants, among other loosened restrictions. They join the state’s north-central region, also called Region 2, in this tier.

West-central Illinois’ Region 3 and southern Illinois’ Region 5 became the first two regions to move out of the tiered mitigation measures entirely, moving back to Phase 4 of the Gov. JB Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan.

Region 4, the Metro East area surrounding St. Louis, and Region 7, which is composed of Will and Kankakee counties, are the only two health regions in the state that remain in Tier 3, the most restrictive tier.

In order to move to Tier 2 mitigations, a region must meet all three of the following metrics:

• A test positivity rate between 8% and 12% for three consecutive days, calculated on a 7-day rolling average
• At least 20% available staffed ICU hospital beds for three consecutive days, on a 7-day rolling average
• A sustained decrease in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 for seven out of the last ten days, calculated on a seven-day average.

In order to move to Tier 1 mitigations, a region must meet all three of the following metrics:

• A test positivity rate between 6.5 and 8% for three consecutive days, calculated on a 7-day rolling average
• At least 20% available staffed ICU hospital beds for three consecutive days, on a 7-day rolling average
• No sustained increase in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 for seven out of ten days, on a 7-day average.

In order to move to Phase 4, a region must meet all three of the following metrics:

• A test positivity rate of 6.5% or lower for three consecutive days, calculated on a 7-day rolling average
• At least 20% available staffed ICU hospital beds for three consecutive days, on a 7-day rolling average
• No sustained increase in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 for seven out of 10 days, on a 7-day average.