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The Metro East on Sunday became the first region in Illinois to have some pandemic restrictions restored by the state health department based on its rate of positive COVID-19 tests.

Starting Tuesday, bars and restaurants will close at 11 p.m. and will be required to space out tables and take customers only by reservation. Gatherings will be limited to no more than 25 people or 25% of a business’ occupancy, whichever is smaller.

“We could be just a step away from additional mitigations if things don’t turn around in the next two weeks,� Pritzker said in a news conference on the lawn of the East Side Health District.

Pritzker explained that the state’s 11 p.m. bar curfew was designed to match the same rule enacted by the St. Louis health department last week. St. Louis County has a similar curfew set at 10 p.m.

�We didn’t want people to get up and try to drive into St. Louis to go to their bars and restaurants, which would be open later,� Pritzker said.

The governor added that the next 14 days will be crucial to determining whether more restrictions are to come.

The new rules were triggered Sunday when the region, made up of Madison, St. Clair, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington counties, passed the benchmark of three consecutive days with a seven-day average positivity rate above 8%.

State health officials will monitor the rate for the next 14 days. If it remains above 8%, more restrictions may be added, including the suspension of indoor bar and restaurant services and additional limits on hospitals, gyms and salons.

If the average rate over 14 days falls below 6.5%, the new restrictions can be lifted, according to state health officials.

But St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern said during the governor’s news conference that he expects the region’s positivity rate to remain above 8% for several days based on current trends.

The region’s seven-day average positivity rate has been on the rise for nine consecutive days, topping out at on Monday. The data is delayed and represents tests through Friday.

Elizabeth Patton-Whiteside, public health administrator at the East Side Health District, said during the governor’s news conference Monday that she worried more people in her coverage area, which includes East St. Louis, Centreville, Canteen and Stites, would die if things did not improve.

“This is a mecca of the comorbidities for the coronavirus. I’m talking high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, respiratory and cardiac issues and poverty,� Patton-Whiteside said. “This is a breeding ground for coronavirus. So, people, you need to wake up, you need to step up, you need to do better. Health officials cannot stop this virus alone.�

The governor said Monday that he believed Missouri’s higher rate of COVID-19 cases this summer contributed to the Metro East’s case rates.

Illinois reopened businesses more slowly than Missouri. Pritzker also issued a statewide mask mandate in May, while Missouri Gov. Mike Parson never issued a similar measure.

“From the beginning, they had lower levels of mitigations put on in Missouri, and I think that’s had an effect on their overall positivity rate, which is higher than that of Illinois,� Pritzker said Monday, adding that he thought St. Louis and St. Louis County have done a better job on restrictions than the state as a whole.

Over the previous seven days, Illinois on Monday had an average statewide positivity rate of 4.2%. Missouri was at 11.2%.

Missouri was also considered a high-risk state in new travel guidelines released Monday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The travel advisory map on the considers any state to be high-risk if it has a seven-day average of more than 15 cases per 100,000 residents. State health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the map is designed to give guidance to residents considering trips.

“We do know that this virus does not recognize borders and specific regions and it doesn’t stop at the edge of a region or county,� Ezike said. “That’s why we are trying to help residents of Illinois make the best decisions we can.�

Pritzker also addressed the issue of Metro East schools on Monday. While many have switched in the past two weeks to remote learning plans, some districts, including schools in Edwardsville, plan to continue a model that includes in-person classes.

Two area districts reversed course in recent days, including Collinsville Community Unit School District 10. The district announced Monday, the day before the first day of school, that it’s switching to remote-only classes through Labor Day after several school district employees tested positive.

The Freeburg School District, in St. Clair County, also announced Friday that a teacher in the district tested positive for COVID-19 and the district would switch to online-only learning, after starting the year with a model that included in-person classes.

Pritzker said he was monitoring school reopenings closely.

�I won’t hesitate to take action if I need to, but we want school districts to do what they need to do based upon the guidance that we put out from the State Board of Education,� Pritzker said Monday. “We want kids to be able to get in-person learning if they can — if it’s safe.�

Statewide Monday, Illinois added 1,773 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 12 additional deaths. That brings the state’s total to 207,854 cases, including 7,756 deaths in the county.

The state’s daily case counts are trending up this month. Illinois has recorded an average of 1,714 new cases per day over the past seven days, up from 1,513 on Aug. 1.

Missouri numbers trend up

The average daily tally of new cases in Missouri also began to tick back up in the past week.

The seven-day average remains down from its peak of about 1,600 at the end of July, but it rose to 1,238 Monday, up from 1,149 the week before.

The state added 1,148 new cases and 26 COVID-19 deaths Monday. That brings the total to 68,623 cases and 1,393 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

St. Louis County reported 23 new deaths from the virus Monday, the most in a single day since mid-June.

Across the St. Louis metro area Monday, daily hospital admissions for confirmed COVID-19 cases fell to 32, down from 38 the day before, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

That figure has stayed mostly stable at around 40 for the last few weeks, according to the task force, a coalition of the area’s major hospital systems.

Anything above 40 remains concerning to hospital leaders, task force head Dr. Alex Garza has said.

A shift to south St. Louis

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said Monday that new case numbers have shifted in the last month from north St. Louis to south St. Louis.

All zip codes with the highest case numbers in the last two weeks are south of the Delmar Boulevard, Krewson said in a Monday video briefing.

The top zip codes for the past 14 days include:

• 63116, which contains Tower Grove South, Bevo, Holly Hills and parts of Dutchtown, at 101 cases.
• 63109, which includes The Southhampton, Princeton Heights and part of the Lindenwood Park neighborhood, at 53 cases.
• 63139, which includes parts of Dogtown, Cliffton Heights, Southwest Garden, Northhampton and Lindenwood Park, at 50 cases.
• 63111, which includes the Carondelet neighborhood, at 48 cases.

�Fortunately we’ve seen a bit of a drop in the North St. Louis zip codes,� Krewson said.

The mayor added Monday that she was glad to hear that the Metro East would soon have similar bar restrictions to those enacted in the city last week.

�I think that’s great because we know even though that Mississippi is big, we are a very fluid society and folks are back and forth between the two,� Krewson said. “In this region, we are all in this together.�