Stage 2 could begin as early as June 26 if the Phase 4 requirements of Restore Illinois are met throughout the state. 

Teams, which in Phase 1 were limited to non-sport specific workouts in groups of 10, can expand groups to 50 for both practice and contests as the fall season approaches. Health screenings, including checking athletes for fevers, chills, cough, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of taste or smell prior to each practice. Those with symptoms or a positive COVID-19 test should not participate, and return only after clearance from a physician.

“Prioritizing the health and safety of all students and staff must remain the focus of each IHSA member school,” the release said.

If schools choose to permit spectators, there should be a designated area for spectators with existing seating capped at 20-percent of capacity.

PRE-WORKOUT

• Schools must maintain a daily record of what athletes are participating, when, symptoms they may present.
• Athletes should be screened at the start of practice for temperature >100.4F/37C or symptoms of COVID-19 (fevers, chills, cough, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of taste or smell).
• Any person with symptoms or a positive COVID-19 test, should not participate in practice, competition, or conditioning and should be referred to a physician for evaluation and only return after clearance to do so from a physician.
• Signage about symptoms and transmission of COVID-19 should be posted around facilities.
• Gatherings of up to 50 individuals, indoors or outdoors, are allowed. Thirty feet of space must be maintained between gatherings of 50.
• When students are not actively participating in a drill, practice, or contest, care should be taken to maintain social distance between individuals.
• If locker rooms are a necessity, capacity should be limited to ensure members can maintain 6 ft of social distance.
• Individuals should sanitize or wash their hands for a minimum of 20 seconds with warm water and soap before touching any surfaces or participating in workouts.
• Appropriate clothing/shoes should be worn at all times in the weight room to minimize sweat from transmitting onto equipment/surfaces.
• Students must be encouraged to shower and wash their workout clothing immediately upon returning to home.

FACILITIES CLEANING

• Adequate cleaning schedules, before and after each use by a group of athletes, should be created and implemented for all athletic facilities to mitigate any communicable diseases.
• Prior to an individual or groups of individuals entering a facility, hard surfaces within that facility should be wiped down and sanitized (chairs, furniture in meeting rooms, locker rooms, weight room equipment, bathrooms, athletic training room tables, etc.).
• Hand sanitizer should be plentiful and available to individuals as they transfer from place to place.
• Weight equipment should be wiped down thoroughly before and after an individual’s use of equipment.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT

• On June 26, or when your region reaches Phase 4, summer contact days will begin. Coaches are encouraged to use a staged approach to build back up to full summer contact activity and competitions. Local districts should work with their health departments and local school officials to make decisions about team travel to summer competitions.
• Athletes who did not participate in Stage 1, are encouraged to follow the fall acclimatization schedule for any sport.
• Football players should maintain their summer acclimatization schedule, per IHSA By-Law 3.157.
• There should be no shared athletic towels, clothing, or shoes between students.
• Hand sanitizer or hand washing stations should be plentiful at summer contact events.
• Athletic equipment such as bats, batting helmets and catchers gear should be cleaned between each use. Other equipment, such as hockey helmets/pads, wrestling ear guards, football helmets/other pads, lacrosse helmets/pads/gloves/eyewear should be worn by only one individual and not shared.
• Shared equipment such as athletic balls, thud pads, sleds should be cleaned frequently during practice and competitions.

• In Stage 2 spotters for weightlifting are allowed. Maximum lifts should be done only with power cages for squats and bench presses. Spotters should stand at each end of the bar.

HYDRATION

• All students shall bring their own water bottle. Water bottles must not be shared.
• Hydration stations (water cows, water trough, water fountains, etc.) may be utilized to fill individual water bottles but must be cleaned after every practice/contest.

CONTESTS

• Group sizes should be limited to 50 total participants, coaches, and referees (i.e. excludes spectators).
• Any additional team members can sit on the sidelines 6 feet apart from one another.
• During the use of summer contact days, multiple groups of 50 or fewer participants are permitted in a facility at once as long as: facilities allow for social distancing of students, coaches, and spectators o 30-ft of distancing is maintained between groups/ opposing teams on the sidelines, and o areas for each group are clearly marked to discourage interaction between groups outside competitive game play.
• Schools must have information posted at entrances and around facilities explaining the transmission as well as symptoms of COVID-19, encouraging all visitors to maintain social distance, and reminding people to stay home if they feel sick or have any of the symptoms of COVID-19: temperature >100.4 F/37 C, fevers, chills, cough, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or loss of taste or smell.

• If schools choose to permit spectators, there should be a designated area for spectators with existing seating capped at 20 percent of capacity.
• Visual markers shall be displayed at queue points (Check-ins, along sidelines, concessions, bleachers, etc.) to help people maintain social distance.
• Concession stands may open in line with restaurant businesses physical workspace guidelines.
• Encourage spectators to bring their own chairs from home for outdoor activities.
• No handshakes, high fives, fist bumps, hugs, etc. can occur pre- or post-match.
• No spitting or blowing of the nose without the use of a tissue is allowed.

PPE

• Coaches/ participants/ volunteers may choose to wear a mask.
• Officials may choose to wear a mask and use an electronic whistle (no blow horns)

“It is the responsibility of each IHSA member school to comply with [these] requirements. If available, it is encouraged that an athletic trainer or medical personnel be available for workouts,” the release states. “They should be masked for any interactions with athletes and maintain appropriate social distance when feasible.”

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When Friday May 29, 2020 arrives, it will have been 74 days since people could gather for a sit-down meal at their favorite restaurant in Illinois.

Still, as Illinois moves into Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois plan, dining out will take on a different atmosphere. Indoor seating will be closed, parties will be limited to six, or fewer, disposable silverware will be provided and waiting areas must be closed.

For some restaurant owners, offering an outdoor dining opportunity is something they are familiar with. Two days before the beginning of Phase 3 has some restaurant owners still wondering how they will be able to make outdoor dining a possibility while others say it is not something they want to deal with.

Mayors in small towns in East Central Illinois have been working with local restaurant owners since Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced seven days ago that restaurants could host outdoor seating.

St. Joseph’s Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges updated the St. Joseph Board of Trustees on progress Tuesday night. All downtown businesses in St. Joseph, including the seven food vendors located downtown, are allowed to open when Illinois reaches Phase 3.

Fruhling-Voges reported that residents had asked about the possibility of closing down Lincoln St. to accommodate seating for restaurants, but she wanted to keep in mind that customers going to businesses like Chittick Family Eye Care, Wagner’s Sign and Apparel and Salon 192 would also need access to their destination.

She said that even restaurant owners were unsure that offering outdoor seating was the right approach for their business at this time.

Scratch, which was closed for a month, just reopened its doors on May 13. “She wants to keep her curbside, because she’s getting more business from curbside,” Fruhling-Voges. “She doesn’t feel she can manage that outdoor seating situation.”

But other establishments, like El Torro and Geschenk Boutique and Coffee and Tea Haus, are planning to offer an outdoor dining experience.

To accommodate those businesses, the Mayor suggested to the board that Lincoln could become a one-way street, moving from east to west temporarily. She cited that it would slow traffic through that area while also limiting the number of cars traveling down the road, providing a safer situation.

Geschenk will utilize its outdoor space in the back of the building while also setting up coffee tables along the side of the building.

The Village would also accommodate El Toro by giving it a few parking spaces in front of the building while doing the same for Roch’s on the south side of its building.

The Wheelhouse, which offered outdoor dining prior to the pandemic plans to open eight dining tables, offering three seating times at 5:30, 7:00 and 8:30, closing the doors at 10 p.m.

Fruhling-Voges said it is important that there is still room for, and a focus on, curbside for the restaurants that offer it.

“All the businesses seem very willing to compromise and work with one another to allow everybody to take advantage of more opportunities to start bringing in more sales. So, that’s a good thing,” she said.

Additionally, the Village of St. Joseph plans to extend an event liquor license without additional fees to the establishments so that they can serve alcohol outdoors.

“I’m confident that all of our business owners in St. Joseph are responsible and will do all that they can to keep our community safe,” Fruhling-Voges said in an email. “It’s been amazing to see the local support from our residents during this shutdown. I encourage their continued efforts and patience as we navigate our way through this opening process.”

The Village of Mahomet will take a similar approach to its liquor license modifications during the Illinois stay-at-home mandate.

“We are getting creative and trying to support them as much as possible with both the liquor licenses and some, I guess, additional freedoms or relaxing of some things,” Mayor Sean Widener said at a board meeting Tuesday night.

Widener, having come off two meeting with the Reopen Mahomet Restaurants Task Force, which included members of the Mahomet Chamber of Commerce, JT Walker’s owner Justin Taylor, and property owners Jill Guth and Mark Kesler, said that the Village is willing to work with local restaurant owners, particularly those dine-in establishments that had been hardest hit, to find solutions to make the transition to Phase 3 easier.

“I think what you’re gonna see is more sidewalk cafe type of arrangements,” Widener said.

Some restaurants, like JT Walker’s and Project 47, owned by Taylor, are set up for outdoor seating. Taylor said that he will use the outdoor seating areas that they already have, moving a few things around to meet the guidelines.

The only restaurant located in the old downtown Mahomet, Walker’s has a unique situation where they could also put tables on the sidewalk.

“The main thing for this is going to be weather dependent,” Taylor said. “That’s the big problem for a lot of the restaurants; even if they can figure out what to do with outside seating, you have to have staff and have people ready to go, and then if it rains and an hour later it’s super nice out and people start coming out, you’ve got to figure out what you are going to do with your staff.”

While having the opportunity for outdoor seating is exciting for businesses, Taylor said that there is more that is being taken into consideration by restaurant owners.

No matter what the outdoor dining or curbside situation is, all restaurant owners in Illinois have a few more financial worries looming overhead. By July 1, they will be required to pay a $10 minimum wage to employees, a $.75 increase over the $9.25, a $1 increase that was mandated Jan. 1, 2020.

Mahomet Subway’s owner, Satesha Patel said that the road to $15 an hour by 2025 will hit small businesses hard.

“Increased wages are catastrophic for small businesses like ours,” he said. “We are locally owned and operated and the corporate will help with national emergencies and pandemics but when the issues are local, we’re on our own.  So increased wages is not something corporate has propriety on.”

Patel has been working with his landlord, Mark Kesler, to figure out how Subway can offer outdoor seating until customers can eat inside again.

“We will have to purchase new outdoor tables and chairs or benches,” Patel said. “This will be expensive.  I am also trying to figure out if we can do something permanent since we will be investing in the new outdoor furniture.”

The Reopen Mahomet Restaurants Task Force is offering $1,000 grants to dine-in restaurant owners who want to offer outdoor seating to help cover the cost of additional expenses. Widener said that there will be an application process that will go through the Task Force for approval.

According to Village Administrator Patrick Brown, Los Zarapes is working with the building owner Jill Guth to try to offer outdoor seating that will also be ADA compliant. Last week, Los did not plan to host an outdoor dining experience. Brown said that because of the tight schedule, outdoor dining will not be available this weekend.

Brown also said that Breaking Taco is excited about the possibility of expanding its outdoor dining area with the help of the grant.

Filippos, on the other hand, will stick to the no-contact curbside pick-up system it instituted early on in the stay at home order.

“Our priority is safety and making good food,” Brigi Paris said.

Increased food prices and consistency in food availability is something that local restaurant owners have had to deal with over the last nine weeks.

Filippos said that they have not raised their prices much, knowing that everyone is hurting at the moment.

Billy Bob’s of Ogden has had to change its menu prices twice, though, to help cover the costs.

Owner George Woodard wrote a letter to the Champaign County Board, explaining the current state of business.

“The current restrictions in place for in-house dining allows only carry-out orders, and the complete loss of income from bar customers has severely impacted my business hours and our operations are down 33-percent,” Woodard said. “This in turn, caused total receipts to be down 70-percent. Most of my staff is currently laid off, but to keep up with the carry-out business, I still have to keep enough employees on duty to fill orders, this has only resulted in a 24-percent decrease in labor cost.”

Woodard said that the cleaning costs associated with reopening would also cause hardship for his business.

A consistent observation among restaurant owners,Obie’s Artic Chill in Oakwood said that beef prices have doubled and pork prices are near 40-percent more than what they previously were.

Obie’s has also seen an additional $500 per week increase since the first minimum wage increase, saying it will be difficult for businesses to withstand the full increase.

Obie’s will continue to follow the state of IDPH guidelines along with the Vermilion County Public Health District guidelines through cleaning, wearing masks and marking six-feet distance for customers.

Oakwood’s Mayor Clayton Woodard said that his community has taken the COVID Pandemic very seriously.

“The Village of Oakwood has followed the directives of the Governor and will continue to do so to the extent the civil liberties of our residents and business owners are not violated,” Clayton said. “We will make every legal reasonable accommodation necessary within our municipal powers to support our businesses with the continued concern for public health.

“We, as a community, have taken the COVID Pandemic very seriously.  We have tried to be very understanding and compassionate as to the extreme stress this epidemic has placed on our residents, businesses, and employees and first responders.  We are very grateful for the dedication to public service our employees and first responders have displayed during this unprecedented time.”

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“Here’s the truth, and I don’t like it any more than you do,” Pritzker said. “Until we have a vaccine, or an effective treatment or enough widespread immunity that new cases fail to materialize, the option of returning to normalcy doesn’t exist.”

The statement came after an update from Dr. Ngozi Ezike who said that 2,122 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the last 24 hours, bringing the state’s total to 65,962.

Within the last 24 hours, Illinois saw the highest one-day COVID-19 death total at 176, bringing the Illinois death total to 2,838. 

Pritzker said Illinois must step into the near future figuring out how to live with COVID-19 until it can be vanquished. 

“Science and data are our overarching guardrails for how we route forward,” he said.

“It’s important to remember that we put this plan together not only because the state needs a plan, but because mayors need a plan, because small business people need a plan, workers need a plan, everyday Illinoisans need a plan.”

Pritzker said that he listened to plans from mayors and community leaders across the state, understanding that different regions have been impacted differently, both in cases of the virus and economically.

“Many of those ideas are incorporated into the executive order that I issued last week,” he said.

“Many members of the General Assembly proposed a regional approach to reopening. Senate Republican leader Bill Brady and his caucus suggested using our EMS regions to shape a reopening plan. Indeed, that’s the structure of the plan that I presented today.”

The regions: Northeast Illinois, North Central Illinois, Central Illinois and Southern Illinois will be able to move through the five-phases of the Restore Illinois plan at different time, either forward or backward, based on data and epidemiological recommendations.

“To be clear these regions are not arbitrarily selected,” Pritzker said. “These reflect the IDPH emergency medical service regions that have existed for decades, the same regions that set parameters for ambulance drivers and hospital collaborations. Using the existing medical regional breakdown allows our public health professionals to manage and monitor capacity in an existing framework.”

Here are the phases based on a press release provided earlier today:

Phase 1 – Rapid Spread: The rate of infection among those tested and the number of patients admitted to the hospital is high or rapidly increasing. Strict stay at home and social distancing guidelines are put in place and only essential businesses remain open. Every region has experienced this phase once already and could return to it if mitigation efforts are unsuccessful.

Pritzker said this is where Illinois was from mid-March to April 30. 

“We’ve been through this phase once, and no one wants to go backward,” he said.

Phase 2 – Flattening: The rate of infection among those tested and the number of patients admitted to the hospital beds and ICU beds increases at an ever slower rate, moving toward a flat and even a downward trajectory. Non-essential retail stores reopen for curb-side pickup and delivery. Illinoisans are directed to wear a face covering when outside the home, and can begin enjoying additional outdoor activities like golf, boating and fishing while practicing social distancing. To varying degrees, every region is experiencing flattening as of early May.

Pritzker said this is where Illinois is now, and one Illinois could be in until May 30.

“Many of our Phase 2 mitigations are similar to phase one, but adjustments were made to offer flexibility where public health experts told us we could,” he said. “That’s where we’ve been and where we are.”

Looking forward, Pritzker said some regions may be able to enter into Phase 3 if they meet certain thresholds in the coming weeks.

Phase 3 – Recovery: The rate of infection among those tested, the number of patients admitted to the hospital, and the number of patients needing ICU beds is stable or declining. Manufacturing, offices, retail, barbershops and salons can reopen to the public with capacity and other limits and safety precautions. All gatherings limited to 10 or fewer people are allowed. Face coverings and social distancing are the norm. The earliest a region can move to this phase is May 29.

“At that point, with face coverings as the norm, non-essential manufacturing and other non-essential businesses can open in accordance with safety guidance,” he said.

Telework, wherever possible will be strongly encouraged, barber shops, salons, health and fitness clubs can offer outdoor classes and one-on-one Personal Training, all in accordance with IDPH safety guidance. 

“The region’s state parks can open,” he said. “Limited childcare and summer programs can operate with IDPH guidance; public health gatherings of 10 people or fewer can take place during this phase.”

Even as businesses reopen, employers will be expected to provide remote accommodation for older and COVID-vulnerable employees.

In order to move into Phase 4, the region would need to see continued declines in its positivity rates and hospitalizations and maintain surge capacity. 

Phase 4 – Revitalization: The rate of infection among those tested and the number of patients admitted to the hospital continues to decline. All gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed, restaurants and bars reopen, travel resumes, child care and schools reopen under guidance from the IDPH. Face coverings and social distancing are the norm.

Phase 4, according to Pritzker, is called revitalization because it will be what school and work will look like until there is a vaccine or effective treatment available for COVID-19. 

“The only way that we can cross into Phase 5, “Illinois Restored”, with all the sectors of the economy running with completely normal operations is with a vaccine, or a widely available and highly-effective treatment or with the elimination of any new cases over a sustained period of time,” Pritzker said.

“It brings me no joy to say this, but based on what the experts tell us everything we know about this virus and how easily it spreads in a crowd, large conventions festivals and other major events will be on hold until we reach Phase 5.

“I spent decades in business, so I understand the urge to try and flip the switch and reopen our entire economy. Here’s the problem: that switch simply does not exist with a virus that can’t currently be eliminated by medical science. And I won’t open the door to overwhelming our hospital system, and possibly 10s of thousands of additional deaths by exposing everyone to the virus today just because a loud, but tiny minority would like to indulge in that fantasy.”

Phase 5 – Illinois Restored: With a vaccine or highly effective treatment widely available or the elimination of any new cases over a sustained period, the economy fully reopens with safety precautions continuing. Conventions, festivals and large events are permitted, and all businesses, schools, and places of recreation can open with new safety guidance and procedures in place reflecting the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pritizker outlined the metrics:

“First, a region must be at, or under a 20-percent test positivity rate and increasing by no more than 10 percentage points over a 14 day period,” he said. “And a region must have either not had an overall increase or must have maintained overall stability in hospital admissions for COVID like illness in the last 28 days.

“(The) region must maintain the availability of a surge threshold of 14-percent availability of ICU beds of medical and surgery beds and ventilators because May 1 marked the beginning of phase 2 in which we loosened and modified the number of mitigations. 

May 1 is the first day for the 14 and 28-day measurement periods to begin, meaning that the earliest that a region can move to Phase 3 is may 29.

The assessment period will reset once a region has reached a new phase. Data will be available through IDPH.

“Importantly, just as public health indicators will tell us when to move forward at any time. They could also signal that we need to move backward,” Pritzker said.

“If the virus begins to attack more people or the healthcare systems are heading towards becoming overwhelmed in any region swift action will need to be taken.”

The state, though, does not have the desire or capacity to police individual behavior of 13 million people, though. 

Pritzker said that the best option is to rely on Illinoisians to work through the pandemic together.

“But we are also working with local law enforcement, and I’ve asked for their assistance to monitor for violations and consider taking actions when necessary, but that is not the option that anyone prefers,” he added. 

Fielding questions from reporters, Pritzker said that the state is working with schools to come up with a plan for reopening prior to Phase 5. 

He also wouldn’t say if the future of summer festivals, weddings and gatherings should continue to be scheduled or not, but advised people to watch the models and the data provided by IDPH. 

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