Mayors skeptical McHenry, Lake counties will move out of Tier 3 restrictions

As the Illinois public health region consisting of Lake and McHenry counties Tuesday met the set of COVID-19 caseload metrics to make the area eligible to loosen restrictions on businesses and gatherings, Gov. JB Pritzker made no indication he would provide the green light to relax mitigations.

Mayors of McHenry County cities are doubtful the governor will move the region from Tier 3 restrictions into the less stringent Tier 2 rules this week.

"I don't see the governor making the change to Tier 2. My guess is he will hold until the second week of January due to holiday get-togethers," McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett said.

The mayor expressed a desire for the governor to move the region forward, as did some local restaurant owners, while other eatery workers believe waiting to open up the economy a bit longer is smartest.

"I hope I'm wrong," Jett said.

Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager said he believes Pritzker is "looking at the state from a macro perspective" and thinks the governor is unlikely to make changes to a given region's status right now.

Given that Region 9 (McHenry and Lake counties) is meeting all of the necessary metrics, McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler said he hopes that the state will loosen restrictions on the two counties as soon as possible.

“I would hope that they wouldn't wait until after Christmas," Buehler said. "That's two weeks from now and our small businesses are suffering greatly, especially the bar and restaurant industries."

Pritzker, in his daily afternoon news conference, was excited to announce that the first health care workers in the state received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday morning, but did not mention the McHenry and Lake counties region meeting the metrics previously put forth to move out of Tier 3 restrictions.

"As most governors, he is hoping there will be a strong, positive impact from the vaccine which would justify changes to the mitigations orders on a broad, statewide basis," Sager said

Buehler said it is this kind of ambiguity that has been confusing for residents and frustrating for businesses.

"If they are waiting until after Christmas, I would feel that that would be them, once again, moving the goal post on us," he said. "I would not be in favor of that."

Within the region, McHenry County by itself is well below the recommended hospital capacity thresholds to loosen from Tier 3 restrictions. While the region as a whole, according to data released by the state health department Tuesday, is several percentage points above the 20% bar for both intensive care unit hospital beds and medical/surgical beds, the latest McHenry County Health Department data showed just 13.8% of ICU beds were available and 12.4% of medical/surgical beds.

McHenry County now is meeting the state's requirement to report an average test positivity rate below 12%, reporting 11.8% on Tuesday. The region as a whole has now been satisfying this metric for three consecutive days, as is required to loosen restrictions.

McHenry County health department spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said she was unable to comment Tuesday on whether the department has or would recommend to the governor that Region 9 move into less restrictive mitigations after the area satisfied the metrics to do so.

Pritzker on Tuesday morning said that it is too early to tell whether the initial availability of vaccinations warrants a new timeline for moving the state into Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois plan, which would mean the state and businesses could operate on a normal basis, according to a tweet by Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokeswoman for the governor.

The spokeswoman did not respond to messages Tuesday afternoon seeking comment on whether the North Suburban health region of Lake and McHenry counties could soon receive approval to loosen restrictions from the Tier 3 rules.