Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday he planned to sign an executive order effectively lifting the stay-at-home restrictions that had been imposed on the state's residents for more than two months amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The comments came on the same day most of Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago, entered Phase Three of Pritzker's statewide reopening plan.
Under Phase Three, restaurants are allowed to reopen for outdoor dining as are state parks, non-essential manufacturers and non-essential retailers.
The new executive order, called the Community Recovery Order, still requires limits of groups to 10 people or fewer and mandates other mitigation practices including social distancing and wearing face coverings in public.
Additionally, the governor was expected to extend the state's ban on residential evictions, moratorium on utility shut-offs and suspension on repossession of vehicles to protect people from the "financial challenges COVID-19 has brought on."
While explaining the changes and touting progress made by state health officials in terms of hospitalization and positivity rates, Pritzker acknowledged that the coronavirus is "still out there, and it's still dangerous."
"As we take our next step forward, and especially as we begin to safely
reopen meaningful swaths of our economy, we have to continue to
look out for each other," he said.
Local
On Friday, an additional 1,622 coronavirus cases were reported in Illinois, lifting the number of cases statewide to 117,455 since the pandemic began.
