February sees move to Phase 4 in Orland Park

  • 2021-02-11
Suburbanized areas of Cook County such as Orland Park returned to Phase 4 of the state’s plan for dealing with the coronavirus at the start of February, while other counties such as McHenry, DuPage, and Lake followed soon after.

This change means that Tier 1 mitigations were lifted but health officials warned that they would be likely to impose stricter restrictions in certain situations. The Cook County Department of Public Health stated that some of the restrictions that will remain in place include the rules for indoor dining, such as a 25% occupancy limit. Bars that do not serve food are still not allowed to serve people indoors.

Indoor events are still limited to a maximum of 25 people. Many businesses will be limited to 40% capacity rather than 50%. Poster printing can be used to share important information.

Officials feel confident in this plan because the number of positive cases has been dropping. The positivity rate for tests taken in the North Suburban and West Suburban dropped below the state’s recommended threshold of 6.5% for consecutive days. More limitations are expected to be removed if the trend continues.

One of the biggest changes in the move to Phase 4 is that bars that do not serve food are now allowed to serve people indoors. Bowling alleys and other indoor entertainment venues have the green light to open with limited capacity, and capacity restrictions for businesses have been raised.