This is different than a normal story I would write up. I find a lot of this information pretty confusing right now, so I wanted to try and break it down to where it makes more sense—I hope so anyway—-Todd Stapleton
First off, all of our area counties are in the Tier 3 Mitigation at this time, expect for Marion County. Regions 6, 3, and 4 remain in Tier 3. Region 5 (the southern Illinois region) moved to Tier 2 on Friday. In order for our region (Fayette County is in Region 6) to move to Tier 2 we need:
Test positivity rate below 12% for 3 straight days (7 day average), staffed hospitals and ICU beds at better than 20% for 3 straight days (3 day average) and sustained decline in COVID-19 patients in hospitals (7 day average over 7 of 10 days). It is expected our region could move to Tier 2 in the coming days, just not yet.
Once you move to Tier 2, lower risk sports are allowed to have intra-conference play, medium risk sports are allowed to have team scrimmages and higher risk sports are allowed to have no contact training.
After Tier 2, there is Tier 1. To get to that level we need:
Test positivity rate of below 8% for 3 straight days (7 day average), staffed hospital and ICU beds at better than 20% for 3 straight days (3 day average) and no sustained increase in COVID-19 patients in hospital (7 day average over 7 of 10 days)
Once you move to Tier 1, lower risk sports are allowed to have tournaments, out of conference play, out of state play and championship games would be allowed, medium risk sports would allowed intra-conference play and higher risk sports would be allowed to have team scrimmages.
Then, you look to move from Tier 1 to Phase 4. To get there you need:
Test positivity rate of less than 6.5% for 3 consecutive days (7 day average), staff hospital and ICU beds at less than 20% for 3 consecutive days (3 day average) and no sustained increase in COVID-19 patients in the hospital (7 day average over 7 of 10 days)
Once you move to Phase 4, both lower and medium risk sports are open to all competition. Getting to Phase 4 would seem to be the opening for any type of competition for the higher risk sports. That would require further decisions from the state.
By the way, lower risk sports include baseball, softball, bowling, track and field. Medium risk are volleyball and soccer. High risk sports are basketball, football and wrestling.
You can get more information on the levels for sports on this link:
https://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/community-guidance/sports-safety-guidance
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