Over the weekend and into today, Southern Illinois has triggered our failsafe metric of a sustained average positivity rate above 8%. So starting Thursday, Region 5 will move to increased mitigations, including the temporary closure of indoor dining and indoor bar service. 
While we take action to save lives, we're working to save livelihoods as well. @IllinoisDCEO has distributed $24.6 million to Region 5 businesses and communities, and they'll receive priority consideration in the currently open round of BIG Grants, worth a total of $220 million.
As for the rest of our regions: every single one has seen an increasing positivity rate over the last week. Even more concerning: the lowest regional positivity rate in our state is now 6.2%.
Both Regions 7 and 8 have surpassed a rolling average of 8% and could join Region 5 in meeting the metrics for heightened mitigations as soon as tomorrow.
All of this takes place in a landscape where the majority of our border states have been called out as national hot spots. Indiana & Missouri have hospitals reaching capacity with ICU shortages, and Wisconsin has opened a field hospital, with more potentially in the works.
We can’t “wall off” Illinois from that surge, but we can take extra precautions and do better than others at following the mitigations that slow the spread. We have to go all in, Illinois.
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