Mayor Questions Indoor Dining Ban, Asks Pritzker To Prove Link
AURORA, IL — Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin is calling for more consistent enforcement of new coronavirus restrictions, with bars and restaurants in three of the city’s four counties under an indoor service ban.
Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health last week placed new restrictions on restaurants and bars, as well as social gatherings, in Region 7 (Will and Kankakee counties) and Region 8 (Kane and DuPage) following a surge in those regions’ positivity rates.
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Aurora establishments in Kane, DuPage and Will counties have had to temporarily suspend indoor service since Friday, while those in the Kendall County portion of the city can operate under less-restrictive guidelines and capacity limits.
Coronavirus data from county health departments “does not support bars and restaurants as significant sources contributing to the spread, yet they are being single out if, and only if, their establishment resides in a county that is enforcing the measures,” Irvin said.
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Irvin told Pritzker he “would like to support your orders, but it is difficult as a leader for me to stand by and watch the enforcement vary as my business community suffers.”
Irvin said he supports strategies to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Aurora and throughout the region, “but I do not believe the current mitigation efforts will assist us in moving that without more consistent and uniform enforcement.”
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Pritzker said Wednesday that his administration is preparing to release data about coronavirus the spread of the coronavirus in bars and restaurants to underline why the new restrictions are necessary.
The state will publish exposure and outbreak data “probably by early next week,” Pritzker said.
Contact tracing provides officials with exposure data that shows the recent travels of those who tested positive for the coronavirus, Pritzker said, while outbreak data shows locations to which multiple confirmed cases have been traced.
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“There’s no way, really, to know where somebody contracted COVID-19,” but bars and restaurants are “near the top of the list” for potential exposure locations, Pritzker said.
The governor also slammed some local leaders in Illinois, saying their reluctance to impose their own mitigation strategies forced the IDPH to take action as positivity rates continue to climb.
State Police Taking Stronger Action Against ‘Scofflaws’: Pritzker
“There are some areas where local leaders are not doing what they need to do, and that’s where the state police will come in handy,” Pritzker said.
The Illinois State Police are "progressively taking more stringent action to hold scofflaws accountable" as many restaurant and bar owners defy regional restrictions on indoor service, Pritzker said.
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Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said the agency has the authority to issue misdemeanor citations to businesses as “a last resort” to get them to comply with public health mandates. Businesses will first receive verbal and written warnings.
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This article originally appeared on the Aurora Patch
