Pritzker urges bars, restaurants to follow guidelines as officials announce 18 more coronavirus-related deaths

As the state announced 18 more coronavirus-related deaths Friday and more than 800 new cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged bars and restaurants to continue to follow health guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus.

Residents were also urged to remember to wear masks, social distance and wash their hands during the Fourth of July weekend.

“The virus is not taking the holiday weekend off, and neither can we,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Letting our guard down now would fly in the face of the progress we’ve made over many months. We have seen that mitigation measures have worked in our state and we’ve seen too many other states rapidly lose ground in the fight against the virus.”

Pritzker said he wouldn’t hesitate to close establishments that won’t follow occupancy limits laid out under Phase 4 of his reopening plan.

The warning comes a day after a Clay County judge ruled against Pritzker in a lawsuit brought by Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia over the governor’s executive orders to slow the spread of the virus.

In his order, Judge Michael McHaney ruled that emergency powers provided under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act lapsed on April 8, and any executive orders relating to the virus in effect after that date were determined to be void.

The state has said it will appeal the ruling.

Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, meanwhile Friday, stressed that bars, in particular, were ripe areas for the transmission of the coronavirus.

“Bars, by design, are social settings where people gather closely together for extended periods of time,” Ngozi said in a statement. “Additionally, people often need to raise their voices or shout to be heard, which means droplets from seemingly well but infected individuals could spread further than the recommended 6 feet of distancing.”

The Liquor Control Commission and Gaming Board also warned local authorities and business owners that they could have their license suspended or revoked if they did not follow capacity and health guidelines.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has also vowed to crack down on bars and restaurants that don’t follow local orders to cap patrons at 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is less.

On Friday, The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 868 new confirmed cases among the latest 34,318 test results received by the state. The statewide rolling positivity rate over the last week is 2.6%, while just over 1.7 million tests have been administered overall.

Included in the new cases were 18 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 7,005 out of 145,750 total positive cases statewide.

The deaths announced Friday included nine Cook County residents, as well as individuals living in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy and Cass counties.