ROCK ISLAND, Illinois — The start of this week feels familiar at Cool Beanz Coffee House in Rock Island, as the coffee shop is closed to indoor service again.
All restaurants and bars in Region Two of Illinois will have to do the same starting Wednesday, November 4th, but owner Annette Hutto made the transition to only curbside pickup and carry-out orders early.
"I cannot put profits over people, so that's why we made the decisions that we have, for the safety of my staff and the community," she says.
Region Two covers the Illinois Quad Cities and extends down to Bloomington-Normal. The entire area will see similar restrictions on restaurants, bars and social gatherings from earlier this year because of an increased positivity rate in the region, which is nearly at 10 percent.
"(These mitigation efforts were) triggered by the positivity rate but hospitalizations are going up dramatically in Rock Island County," Rock Island County Health Department Chief Operating Officer Janet Hill says. "And I'm seeing the needle move regionally too."
Along with no more indoor service, casinos, bars and restaurants must close at 11:00 P.M., and social gatherings are limited to 25 people or 25 percent of room capacity.
"Our region is very large, and it includes several mid-sized metro areas and a lot of smaller counties with not a lot of population," Hill says. "The fact that this region went over an 8 percent positivity rate really speaks to people just not paying attention to what they should be doing."
Hutto says she knows this change will hurt her coffee shop, and other local businesses, and she hopes the community will come out and strongly support small businesses.
"We're suffering as a business, but I hate to use that word, because truly suffering is what's going on at the hospital in the ICU," she says.
These mitigation efforts in Region Two will be reevaluated in two weeks, and if the positivity rate declines, more restrictions could follow.