EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — As COVID-19 cases and positivity rates continue to rise in the Metro East Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is considering a rollback of reopening policies if the trend continues.
Just when things were getting back to normal for businesses in East St. Louis and the rest of the Metro East another spike in COVID-19 cases hit.
Now business owners fear this will be a repeat of the quarantine we saw back in March.
"It would be tough, but I'd rather be safe than sorry you know what I mean," said Food Lovers Grill Owner Nehemiah Thurman.
Somebody that knows what Nehemiah means all to well is Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
"Right here in St. Clair County and Madison County it's extraordinarily important because these rates are too high and if it gets above eight percent we are going to have to step in and put mitigations in place," explained Pritzker.
RELATED: Metro East nearing COVID-19 positivity rate threshold that could result in stricter restrictions
He's talking about the positivity rate, which is a key metric in how things are going, showing how many tests come back positive for the virus.
Right now the three-day average positivity rate in the Metro East is 7.1%, up from 4.5% less than two weeks ago.
If the trend continues Pritzker said we will likely see more restrictions on businesses in the Metro East.
"It takes leadership in the city and the county in order to do that so it's very important for people to follow those mitigations, so when they don't well you've seen what happens COVID spikes," said Pritzker.
And if cases continue to spike it could cause business owners like Nehiemiah to close up shop.
"Only thing you can do is hope and pray," added Thurman.
