Illinois will close the state’s bars and restaurants from March 16 to March 30 amid the coronavirus outbreak, announced Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Sunday afternoon (March 15.)
The news comes only hours after the governor said he was “seriously looking” at the move.
According to Patch, Pritzker expressed frustration at long lines outside bars and revelers continuing to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in public.
“Every choice that we face — every choice now — is hard and it comes with real consequences for our residents,” Pritzker said, according to Patch. “I cannot let the gravity of these choices prevent us from taking the actions that the science and the experts” say is best, he said.
The St. Louis American asked a spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson if St. Louis and Missouri would follow their neighboring state’s lead.
Spokesman Jacob Long said, “I cannot speak for Missouri; however in the city everything is on the table and under consideration.”
The COVID-19 response is “extremely fluid,” Long said at about 4 p.m. Sunday, and Krewson was in a meeting “about all of it now.” He said announcements are coming.
The Illinois Department of Public Health today announced 29 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) across Illinois. Five additional counties are now reporting cases – Champaign, Clinton, Sangamon, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties. Other locations with cases include Chicago and Cook, Cumberland, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, St. Clair, and Woodford counties.
“We are seeing the number of COVID-19 cases increase exponentially and in more locations across Illinois,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “At this point, it is best to assume that the coronavirus is circulating in your community and you should take the same precautions when interacting with other people that you would when interacting with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. This may seem like an extreme step, but this is how we reduce the number of new cases and prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.”
Currently, IDPH is reporting 93 cases in 13 counties in Illinois. Cases have occurred in all age ranges and the number of cases that do not have a clear connection to travel or a known COVID-19 case is increasing.
Infectious disease experts have said that social distancing is the fastest way to “flatten the curve.” A Washington Post reporter was able to visually show through graphic simulations potential outcomes of four courses of actions: a free-for-all, enforced quarantine, moderate social distancing and extreme social distancing. He was able to show that moderate social distancing outperformed attempted quarantine and extreme social distancing worked the best. Experts found that reducing the areas to gather helps people to practice social distancing. If this doesn’t happen, the United States could face the overrun hospitals and high number of deaths that other countries like Italy are currently facing.
Some experts have said that people without serious symptoms — especially those in their 20s and 30s — play a substantial role in the spread of the new coronavirus.
“Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and longtime adviser to the CDC, told CNN. “They’re going to be the drivers of spread in the community.”
Osterholm urged public officials to be clearer about the way the virus is spread.
“At the very beginning of the outbreak, we had many questions about how transmission of this virus occurred. And unfortunately, we saw a number of people taking very firm stances about it was happening this way or it wasn’t happening this way. And as we have continued to learn how transmission occurs with this outbreak, it is clear that many of those early statements were not correct,” he told CNN.
“This is time for straight talk,” he said. “This is time to tell the public what we know and don’t know.”
Dr. Hilary Babcock, infectious disease specialist and a Washington University School of Medicine professor, said during an online town hall forum that the amount of surge that the region will have in our healthcare facilities is driven by the amount that we are able to control the spread in our communities.
“So the community mitigation strategies that you all hear about in terms of canceling large crowds of people and not shaking hands,” Babcock said, “are ways that we try to take this epidemic and flatten the curve that the amount of surge will still be within the capacity of our healthcare system.”
