Illinois Region 6, Including Effingham County, Returned to Phase 4 of Restore Illinois by IDPH

The Illinois Department of Public Health Thursday announced Region 6 (Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Iroquois, Jasper, Lawrence, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Richland, Shelby, Vermillion) is returning to Phase 4 of the Restore Plan and Region 7 (Kankakee and Will) is advancing to Tier 1. Information about which tier and phase regions are in can be found at the top of the IDPH website homepage.

Region 6 just moved from Tier 3 to Tier 1 earlier this week.

The Restore Illinois plan as released by the State last May:

“I am excited that 10 out of our 11 regions have moved out of Tier 3 mitigations,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “However, this does not mean we can let our guard down. We must continue to practice actions to protect ourselves from the virus – wear our masks, avoid large gatherings, and get the vaccine when it is our turn. This is particularly critical as new variants circulate, which early studies show spread much more rapidly. We are headed in the right direction once again, so let’s stay the course.”

IDPH will continue to closely monitor test positivity, ICU bed availability, and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19. Should data show regions trending in the wrong direction, based on the established mitigation metrics, regions could once again find themselves in a higher tier with increase measures.

Metrics for Moving from Tier 1 to Phase 4

Test positivity rate ≤ 6.5% for three consecutive days (7-day average)

AND

Staffed ICU bed availability ≥ 20% for three consecutive days (7-day average)

AND

No sustained increase in COVID patients in hospital (7-day average for 7 of 10 days)

Information about mitigation and resurgence metrics can be found on the IDPH website at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics.