Today marks the third day in a row for Regions 7 and 8 to report a rolling positivity average of 8% or above. That means that starting on Friday, four more counties will see the heightened resurgence mitigations already in place in Region 1 and coming Thursday to Region 5.

The new wave of the virus is disrupting small businesses in these regions, so they will receive priority consideration for the $220 million current round of Business Interruption Grants. To learn more or apply, visit http://DCEO.illinois.gov .

All regions of the state continue to show increases over last week. Of the 7 regions still operating under Phase 4 – that is, without additional resurgence mitigations – five are now at a rolling positivity average above 7%, with the other two above 6.5%.

As colder weather approaches and flu season is upon us, we’re going to see the rippling effects of these current unfortunate trends. The massive surge of cases in our neighboring states will continue to have a spillover effect.

There is no easy fix for the effects of this virus on our economy and our public health. But we can and will manage through this.

We’re Midwestern tough here in Illinois. We know how to deal with a crisis. And we know how to take care of each other.