Coronavirus Illinois Update: COVID-19 cases reach 137K, over 6,700 deaths
CHICAGO (WLS) -- COVID-19 cases and deaths in Illinois continue to decline as Illinois prepares to enter Phase 4 of Gov. JB Pritzker's reopening plan at the end of the week.
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The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 601 new cases of COVID-19 and 38 additional deaths on Tuesday. That brings the total in the state to 137,825, including 6,707 deaths. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 20,507 specimens for a total of 1,399,510.
IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said that Illinois has seen a week-over-week decline in cases and deaths for the past five weeks.
And last Wednesday, Illinois set a high in testing with nearly 30,000 tests processed in 24 hours.
"Please forget what you've heard. Increased testing is a good thing," Dr. Ezike said. "Testing capacity across the state continues to grow."
IDPH broke down Tuesday's reported COVID-19 deaths by county:
Restore Illinois: 5-phase reopening plan by Governor Pritzker splits IL into 4 regions
All four regions in the state are set to move into Phase 4 on Friday. As part of Phase 4, health and fitness centers, museums, zoos, movie theaters can reopen as well as indoor dining at restaurants. Phase 4 also allows for up to 50 people to attend gatherings.
The use of facemasks and social distancing remain in effect for Phase 4.
RELATED: Illinois Reopening: Chicago to move into Phase 4 Friday, Mayor Lightfoot says
The full list of Phase 4 guidelines from Governor Pritzker's Office are below.
-Meetings and events: Venues and meeting spaces can resume with the lesser of up to 50 people OR 50% of overall room capacity. Multiple groups are permitted given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups. This includes activities such as conferences and weddings.
-Indoor and Outdoor recreation: Revised guidelines to allow select indoor recreation facilities (e.g., bowling alleys, skating rinks), as well as clubhouses to reopen. Indoor recreation to operate at lesser of 50 customers OR 50% of facility capacity with outdoor recreation allowing group sizes of up to 50, and permitting multiple groups given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Indoor Dining: Indoor dining can reopen with groups of 10 or less, with tables spaced 6-feet apart in seated areas and with standing areas at no more than 25% of capacity.
-Museums: Can reopen with no more than 25% occupancy, and with interactive exhibits and rides closed; guided tours should be limited to 50 people or fewer per group; museums should have a plan to limit congregation via advance ticket sales and timed ticketing; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Zoos: Can reopen with no more than 25% occupancy, and with interactive exhibits, indoor exhibits, and rides closed; guided tours should be limited to 50 people or fewer per group; zoos should have a plan to limit congregation via advance ticket sales and timed ticketing; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Cinema and Theatre: Indoor seated theaters, cinemas, and performing arts centers to allow admission of the lesser of up to 50 guests OR 50% of overall theater or performance space capacity (applies to each screening room); outdoor capacity limited to 20% of overall theater or performance space capacity; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Outdoor seated spectator events: Outdoor spectator sports can resume with no more than 20% of seating capacity; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Film production: Allow no more than 50% of sound stage or filming location capacity; crowd scenes should be limited to 50 people or fewer.
Industries with revised guidelines in Phase 4:
-Youth and Recreational Sports: Revised guidelines allow competitive gameplay and tournaments; youth and recreational sports venues can operate at 50% of facility capacity, 20% seating capacity for spectators, and group sizes up to 50 with multiple groups permitted during practice and competitive games given venues have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups; concessions permitted with restrictions.
-Health and fitness centers: Revised guidelines allow gyms to open at 50% capacity and allow group fitness classes of up to 50 people with new safety guidelines for indoors, with multiple groups permitted given facilities have space to appropriately social distance and can limit interaction between groups.
-Day camps: Water-based activities permitted in accordance with IDPH guidelines; no more than 50% of facility capacity with group size of no more than 15 participants in a group, unless participants changing weekly.
