tests administered. on november 11, in anticipation of thanksgiving, the idph issued new guidelines. despite governor pritzker's hinting, no formal stay-at-home order was issued, the idph recommended that, for the next three weeks, all illinois residents "stay home as much as possible, leaving only for necessary and essential activities, such as work that must be performed outside the home, covid-19 testing, visiting the pharmacy, and buying groceries." they also recommended that businesses allow employees to work from home and limit all non-essential gatherings. illinois regions 5, 7, and 8 restrictions were increased to tier 2. the regions encompass the southernmost portion of the state as well as will, kankakee, kane and dupage counties. these new restrictions, in addition to all of the restrictions already in place, include reducing the party size in bars and restaurants to six people, capping all social gatherings at 10 people, with the exception of schools and office & retail spaces, and limiting organized gatherings to 25 people or 25% room capacity, with the exception of fitness centers. on november 17, governor pritzker announced that, on november 20, all of illinois will enter tier 3 restrictions. in addition to the tier 2 restrictions, there will be no indoor dining, health and fitness centers are capped at 25% capacity, must require face coverings at all times, and locker rooms have to remain closed, hotels must limit capacity to registered guests. arcades, casinos, rec centers, theaters, and museums are all required to close. governor pritzker said that he hopes that these mitigations will bend the curve and prevent a stay at home order. on november 25, illinois surpassed 10 million total tests administered, with nearly 700,000 of them being positive. county government response mchenry county department of health on april 11, the mchenry county department of health (mcdh) issued a press release pertaining to a court order granting access to the personal health information for patients that had contracted covid-19 by multiple police agencies. these patient records are protected with the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 along with state of illinois' medical patient rights act. both acts restrict access to patient records from individuals that unless medically necessary. the mcdh determined that providing access to the addresses of the patients with confirmed cases of covid-19 would suffice both the request by police agencies and both patient privacy acts. however, the rationale by the police agencies "to protect their officers and deputies by allowing them to avoid contact or don protective equipment" and the mchenry county court issued a temporary order to release the names. the agencies which requested this information are police departments of city of mchenry, village of algonquin, city of woodstock, and the village of lake in the hills as stated within the court order from the 22nd judicial circuit court in mchenry county. municipal government response city of alton on april 3, alton mayor brant walker provided his weekly address regarding covid-19 via a video on the city of alton's facebook page. in the video he stated that he had directed the alton police department to use discretion towards those who did not comply with the state of illinois stay-at-home order. on april 6, alton police were investigating a large gathering at hiram's tavern located in downtown alton, which was in violation of the stay-at-home order. officers issued criminal complaints to all in attendance, including the mayor's wife whom also was in attendance at the establishment. each complaint is a class a misdemeanor charge that is punishable by up to 364 days in jail and/or a fine of $2,500. the mayor's statement regarding his wife was "i instructed the police chief to treat her as he would any citizen violating the 'stay at home' order and to ensure that she received no special treatment". city of carbondale on april 6, carbondale city council passed two ordinances with the first declaring a state of emergency and the second to provide guidance on how to enforce the stay-at-home order that was issued by the state of illinois. the first ordinance allows the city manager the abilities to close any city facility in order to ensure the health and safety of city employees and the community, to enter into temporary agreements with bargaining units to ensure continuation of city services and to adjust personnel policies, designate areas for carry-out and curbside pickup from restaurants in the downtown area of the city, and to extend deadlines for licenses issued under the city code. the ordinance also officially suspends the charging late fees for water and sewer, stopping the disconnection of water and sewer service for non-payment, extension of the payment deadline of the city's food and beverage tax along with the package liquor tax until may 20, extends the motor fuel taxes and hotel/motel taxes until april 30. an additional item that was added was the suspension of the enforcement of the tall grass and weed ordinance. the second ordinance allowed for a streamlined process of the enforcement of the multiple executive orders issued by governor pritzker. typically these orders would be sent through the jackson county health department and then to the illinois department of public health for review and then off to the county state's attorney for enforcement. instead these orders will be processed by the city of carbondale and enforced by the carbondale police department by way of fines up to $750 per day and alleviates a "minor violation from becoming a misdemeanor or felony charge". city of chicago on march 12, chicago mayor lori lightfoot announced that after meeting with comcast executives, the company would "double internet speeds to low income households nationally. also, 60 free days of internet for low income households" would be available starting march 16. on march 26, the city of chicago closed parks, beaches, the 606 trail network, and the lakefront due to too many people gathering, with violators facing fines and possible arrest. on april 8, mayor lightfoot placed a curfew on all liquor sales after 9:00 pm in the city of chicago. this curfew went into effect on april 9 and remained in place through the end of the state's stay-at-home order. on may 17, days after the city was sued by a romanian church that had been ordered not to hold church services even with social distancing, the mayor closed street parking for 9 blocks on sunday. on may 26, the city of chicago created the chicago ppe market, built on rheaply's asset exchange manager, to connect chicago's small businesses and nonprofits with city-approved personal protective equipment (ppe) suppliers. in preparation for the reopening of the city, small organizations can use the platform to access necessary protective supplies. on may 26, mayor lightfoot announced that the city would spend $56 million from federal and state funds on a contact tracing program, including $11 million marked for a contractor to oversee the program. several progressive activists and elected officials opposed the latter part of the proposal, arguing that the funds should be used to support the chicago department of public health rather than hiring a contractor. on september 14, mayor lightfoot announced the hiring of 500 contract tracers through 31 community organizations. on november 12, in anticipation of typical thanksgiving travel and gatherings, mayor lightfoot announced a "stay-at-home advisory" for the city, effective november 16, asking residents to "shake off covid fatigue" and avoid inviting over extended family. she said that, if the measures are ignored, the city would be "on track to lose 1,000 more chicagoans by the end of the year or even more." the announcement came as the covid-19 test positivity rate for the city reached 14.1%. city of rockford on march 30, the rockford city council passed an ordinance allowing for fines of $750 per day for businesses not adhering to the closure of nonessential businesses during the statewide executive order issued by governor pritzker. city of springfield on march 27, springfield mayor jim langfelder issued an emergency order that restricted public use of the municipal center complex. this order prohibits anyone other than city employees conducting public business from assembling, loitering or storing personal property at the municipal complex which included the city's public library, lincoln library and howarth plaza. both of these places are popular amongst the city's homeless population. on march 31, mayor langfelder issued a second order that halts all evictions and the repossession of vehicles within springfield and lasts the duration of governor pritzker's executive order that was declared on march 20. on april 8, mayor langfelder issued another emergency order allowing for the springfield police department to issue tickets and fine individuals who are "repeat offenders" who do not adhere to the prohibition of gatherings of more than 10 people and overall lack of compliance with the state's stay-at-home order. schools and universities on march 9, loyola academy in wilmette canceled classes due to potential exposure of a student to the virus. in the following days, several universities in illinois closed or cancelled classes. northwestern university extended its spring break by one week, after which classes would be held remotely rather than on campus. the university of illinois and northern illinois university took similar measures, adding that residence and dining halls would remain open. many more illinois schools, both public and private, announced closures in the following days, including the archdiocese of chicago. when chicago public schools did not announce a closure, the chicago teachers union demanded that the district close its schools immediately. on march 13 governor pritzker announced that all schools in the state would be closed between march 17 and 30, and later extended to at least april 8. on march 19 mayor lori e. lightfoot announced that chicago public schools will remain closed until tuesday, april 21, 2020. on march 31, governor pritzker extended the statewide school closures until april 30. on april 17, governor prizker announced that all schools in the state will stay closed for the remainder of the school year. university of illinois urbana-champaign response uiuc covid-19 responseformationmarch 2020 (2020-03)locationchampaign–urbana, illinoisparent organizationuiucwebsite covid19.illinois.edu shield testing data saliva test in april 2020, a team was formed to develop and deploy large-scale covid-19 testing for use on the uiuc campus. the possibilities of using a saliva test were explored; such a test may be a good indicator of how contagious a person is: it tests the fluid which is likely responsible for much of the transmission between people. the team, headed by paul hergenrother of the uiuc school of chemical sciences, included people in the university's institute for genomic biology, the carle illinois college of medicine, the beckman institute for advanced science and technology, the department of microbiology, and the college of veterinary medicine where a veterinary diagnostic lab was repurposed for handling the demands of analyzing thousands of samples per day. as this team began its work, reports of methods to detect the virus in swabs, without the time-consuming rna-extraction step, were appearing, and on april 10, 2020 rutgers university received fda emergency use authorization (eua) for a saliva test (which included rna extraction). within two months of the uiuc team's formation, a scientific paper documented the team's research on a rapid saliva test which replaces rna extraction by heat inactivation, with no need for laboratory personnel to open the vial after an individual provides a saliva sample. meanwhile, yale university developed a test which requires that proteinase k enzyme be inserted into the vial before the heat inactivation step. as a clia-certified lab, the campus's veterinary diagnostic lab was able to satisfy the food and drug administration's test requirements within the fda's ldt regulations. by early july, 2020 this lab was running the saliva procedure on samples provided by uiuc employees and students. safer illinois app starting in mid-march the university developed a smart-phone app to play an important role in the uiuc campus response to the covid-19 pandemic. the "safer illinois app," which had a soft launch on june 8, was built on the rokwire open-source smart-phone platform, established at uiuc in 2018. this was a natural platform to use, since rokwire was already serving the campus with its first product, the "illinois app." on august 13, 2020, days before students arrived for the fall semester, the safer illinois app was announced as operational. two