Illinois has recorded its first case of a more contagious version of COVID-19, state and Chicago public health officials disclosed Friday.
The announcement came as Gov. J.B. Pritzker began easing restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus and laid out a path for a quicker return to limited indoor service at restaurants and bars in regions that meet state-established requirements. The state on Friday also said that the next step in its vaccination plan — the so-called phase 1b — will begin Jan. 25, allowing a wider swath of people including those 65 and older to be inoculated.
The SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7, which first cropped up in the United Kingdom, was identified by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine during an analysis of samples from positive COVID-19 tests, officials said.
The new variant was first identified in the United States in Colorado and has spread to about a dozen states. Though it is believed to spread more easily, officials said there isn’t evidence that it is more severe or increases the risk of death.
Chicago public health officials said the person with the variant had traveled to the U.K. and the Middle East in the two weeks prior to being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Despite that, Illinois continues to see some progress in the fight against the virus. Pritzker announced Friday that three of the 11 regions in his reopening plan would see restrictions eased immediately after meeting bench marks for coronavirus positivity rates, hospital capacity and COVID-19 admissions.
Chicago and the surrounding counties don’t yet qualify for the looser rules, which include higher capacity limits for retail stores, the return of indoor group fitness classes, and the reopening of museums and casinos.
Pritzker on Friday also announced that the bench marks had been made less strict for allowing restaurants to resume indoor service, although only at 25% capacity or 25 customers, whichever is less.
Regions still must meet the more stringent original requirements before restaurants are permitted to seat as many patrons as can be accommodated in tables set six feet apart, with groups limited to 10 people.
While indoor dining and bar service is currently prohibited statewide, many restaurants across the state have openly defied the governor, in some places with the backing of local officials who’ve refused to enforce the rules.
Still, Pritzker credited the much criticized rules that have been in place since November with helping Illinois avoid the kind of post-holiday surge that has overwhelmed hospitals in states such as California and Georgia.
“As usual, most Illinoisans took these mitigations very seriously,” Pritzker said. “And I really want to thank all of the people and businesses throughout the state who acted to protect themselves, their families and their communities. It involves painful sacrifice but prevents the loss of many more lives.”
Some of the fiercest rebukes of Pritzker’s rules have come from the restaurant industry, which has found an occasional ally in such criticism in Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Lightfoot has often publicly undercut the governor’s assertions that research shows bars and restaurants are virus transmission hot spots. The mayor has herself faced criticism for the city’s anti-coronavirus measures, including stricter rules on liquor sales that she’s since rescinded.
Lightfoot on Thursday said she wanted the city’s bars and restaurants to reopen for indoor service “as soon as possible” and planned to push the issue with Pritzker, despite the fact that the city hasn’t met the state’s requirements for lifting restrictions.
Pritzker said Friday that he had spoken with Lightfoot but reiterated that he would be sticking with the long-standing measurements for easing restrictions.
“If you look at the progression of the numbers in Chicago, they are very much moving in the right direction,” Pritzker said. “So I’m hopeful, I expressed that to the mayor, that we can move Chicago into lower tiers than tier three sometime soon. But it will all be based on the metrics.”
A Lightfoot spokeswoman say the mayor and the governor “are engaged in ongoing discussions about the state’s COVID-19 regulations.”
“Our businesses, as well as the people of Chicago, have stepped up and done what it takes to bend the curve, twice, and we will continue working toward reopening our city as our numbers trend in a positive direction,” the spokeswoman said.
While acknowledging Pritzker’s willingness to negotiate, the Illinois Restaurant Association rejected the new rules, which also include a limit of four people per table, as a half measure.
“No restaurant can break even at that volume, let alone hire back their team members,” association president Sam Toia said in a statement.
The three regions that saw coronavirus restrictions in effect statewide since Nov. 20 lifted Friday include the northwest corner of the state, home to Rockford, DeKalb and Galena; the 20 county north-central region, stretching from Kendall and Grundy counties west to the Quad Cities and including Peoria and Bloomington; and the state’s 20 southernmost counties.
In those regions, capacity limits on retail stores will go back to 50%, up from 25%, and groups of up to 10 people may resume gathering outside of their own households. Museums and other cultural institutions can reopen, as can casinos in East Peoria, Rock Island and Metropolis beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday.
While restaurants remain closed for dining and bars service for now, video gambling terminals at establishments in those regions also will be turned on at 8 a.m. Saturday, potentially generating much needed revenue for those businesses.
The remaining eight regions in Pritzker’s plan must meet a number of criteria to qualify for the looser “tier two” rules those three regions are under. The coronavirus test positivity rate — the percentage of positive results as a share of total tests — must remain below 12% for three straight days on a seven-day rolling average; at least 20% of staffed hospital and intensive care unit beds must be available for three consecutive days on a three-day average; and there has to be a sustained decline in hospital admissions for COVID-19.
The “B.1.1.7” variant that has now shown up in Chicago could eventually become the dominant variant of coronavirus in the U.S., according to a Friday report from the Centers for Disease and Control.
CDC data show it has appeared in at least 12 states and more than 30 countries as of Wednesday. The implications of its spread could beget “universal and increased” mitigation from officials as well as a need for more people to get vaccinated.
“Modeling data indicate that B.1.1.7 has the potential to increase the U.S. pandemic trajectory in the coming months,” the CDC wrote in its report.
The variant, which was estimated to have emerged last September, already has become dominant in England, the report says.
“The modeled trajectory of this variant in the U.S. exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March,” the report says. “Taking measures to reduce transmission now can lessen the potential impact of B.1.1.7 and allow critical time to increase vaccination coverage.”
Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said this week that the current vaccines are believed to work against all variants.
Experts are divided on whether children are more at risk of getting infected by the variant, but Arwady said Wednesday the decision to reopen schools stands regardless of the variant’s existence in Chicago.
“It doesn’t change a decision around reopening schools,” Arwady said. “You’ve got to make sure that the good mitigation practices are in place. We’ve seen that those are broadly protective against the spread of COVID.”
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike encouraged people to continue taking steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“If we do not continue to wear our masks, watch our distance and avoid gathering, this new variant could sweep across the state as it swept across the U.K., and that would lead us back to a place that we don’t want to go to,” Ezike said.
Under phase 1b of the state’s vaccination plan, which Pritzker said will begin Jan. 25, about 3.2 million people will be eligible to be vaccinated, including those 65 and older and “essential” workers such as teachers, postal workers and grocery store employees.
Chicago receives its own vaccine doses and sets its own guidelines for distribution.
Sites led by the National Guard as well as some Walgreens, CVS Health and Jewel-Osco pharmacies across the state will begin vaccinating those eligible under the next phase, with pharmacy vaccinations by appointment, Pritzker said. The state also plans to launch a website in coming days where people can find vaccination sites near them.
A number of hospital systems plan to use their electronic medical records to find and contact patients who are 65 and older to let them know when it’s their turn to make appointments to get vaccinated. Some hospitals and local health departments have been given the go-ahead to start vaccinating seniors and essential workers before Jan. 25.
State health officials on Friday reported 6,642 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of known cases to 1,059,324 statewide throughout the pandemic. Over the past week, the state has averaged 6,000 new cases per day, down from an average of 6,676 daily cases the prior week.
The state also recorded 123 additional fatalities Friday, bringing the statewide death toll to 18,049 since March. The state surpassed 18,000 deaths just nine days after surpassing 17,000.
The statewide case positivity rate — the percentage of cases as a share of total tests — was at a seven-day average of 6.5% for the week ending Thursday, its lowest point since the week ending Oct. 26, when the massive fall surge was climbing toward its peak.
Chicago Tribune’s Lisa Schencker contributed.
