NOTE: Any JB Pritzker government press conference on Friday will be broadcast live to the player above.
Gov. JB Pritzker is due to release an update to COVID-19 on Friday that is expected to detail which regions may lift level 3 coronavirus restrictions.
Pritzker is due to deliver the update at 12pm at Chicago’s Thompson Center, according to its public schedule. The press conference can be watched live on the video player above.
Pritzker is expected to announce which regions may begin delaying restrictions that have been in place for months, suspending indoor food statewide and closing museums and casinos.
All 11 Illinois regions have been subject to Level 3 mitigation since Nov. 20.
According to the governor’s office, some regions will return to level 2, others possibly to level 1, and some will remain at level 3, according to data released Thursday afternoon.
“It will be a mixed bag,” a spokesman for the governor’s office said.
As of Thursday, however, no region was complying with guidelines for recovering indoor food, although some were nearby, the spokesman said.
While it’s still unclear what exactly the governor will announce for each region on Friday, according to state guidelines, a region can switch to level 2 mitigations if it sees a test positivity rate of less than 12% for three days. consecutive and more than 20% of the ICU. and hospital beds are available, as well as the decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations in seven of the previous ten days.
Regions with an average positivity rate of between 6.5 and 8 percent are likely to be under the Level 1 guidelines, although the state could still choose to monitor before lifting restrictions.
However, to move to phase 4, the positivity rate must be less than or equal to 6.5% over a 3-day period.
Currently, the region closest to meeting this metric is Region 3 in western Illinois, which has an average positivity rate of 6.9%. But this region is currently on the brink of insufficient hospital bed availability and ICU bed capacity, which would mean 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, also meet the guidelines to begin reversing some restrictions.
Regions 7 and 8 in the Chicago area are also close to meeting metrics to drop level 3. (For a complete breakdown by region, click here)