COVID-19 Business Updates

Evanston and Illinois have entered into “Phase 4” of the Governor's Restore Illinois plan beginning June 26. This allows additional businesses to reopen or expand services while still following strict health and safety guidelines established by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the City’s Health and Human Services Department.

 

Businesses and activities permitted to resume under these health and safety guidelines and additional industry-specific guidelines include:

• Meetings and events: Venues and meeting spaces can resume with the lesser of up to 50 people or 50 percent of overall room capacity.
• Recreation: Indoor recreation may operate at lesser of 50 customers or 50 percent of facility capacity, with outdoor recreation allowing group sizes of up to 50.
• Indoor dining: Indoor dining can reopen with parties of 10 or less, with tables spaced 6 feet apart in seated areas and with standing areas at no more than 25 percent of capacity.
• Museums: Can reopen with no more than 25 percent occupancy.
• Cinema and theatre: Indoor seated theaters, cinemas, and performing arts centers can allow admission of the lesser of up to 50 guests or 50 percent of overall theater or performance space capacity (applies to each screening room).
• Youth and recreational sports: Competitive games and tournaments are permitted; youth and recreational sports venues can operate at 50 percent of facility capacity, 20 percent seating capacity for spectators, and group sizes up to 50.
• Health and fitness centers: Gyms may open at 50 percent capacity and allow group fitness classes of up to 50 people with new safety guidelines for indoors.
• Education and child care: P-12 schools, all summer programs, and child care may open with IDPH-approved safety guidance.

Businesses should review and implement all IDPH guidelines prior to reopening.  The Evanston Business Task Force has put together the Evanston COVID-19 Recovery Playbook with suggestions, recommendations and resources for reopening. This document also contains links to the IDPH guidelines, which include recommended best practices for each industry and a toolkit with industry-specific signage and general signage.

 

Additional resources:

COVID-19 Business Resource Guide

Evanston Business COVID-19 Resource Checklist

 

The City of Evanston Economic Development Division is monitoring available resources and will do our best to distribute the latest updates via our Evanston Edge newsletter.