EXCLUSIVE — Illinois Quad-Cities businesses have been notified by the state to begin preparing for a shutdown and covid mitigation procedures beginning Wednesday, multiple sources who asked not to be identified told QuadCities.com today.

The sources are all local small business owners, and were notified last night so they could begin preparing. An official announcement from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will be forthcoming Monday.

According to the sources, there will be a number of mitigation actions put in place, including no indoor dining, limits to the number of people

The Black Sheep in downtown Rock Island shut its doors this week due to business difficulties brought about by covid.

gathered in any one place to 25, restrictions placed on bars and taverns, and other restrictions similar to those put in place in March of this year.

Covid numbers have been spiking in Illinois and the Quad-Cities in recent weeks, with an all-time high of 8,519 cases on Oct. 30. Rock Island County has had 824 cases over the past two weeks, with 4,609 cases and 103 deaths so far during the pandemic.

Several businesses on the Illinois side have closed down in recent weeks already due to covid and the federal government’s complete ineptitude in regard to passing any sort of stimulus package to help small businesses.

Downtown Rock Island has been particularly hard hit, with huge clubs and restaurants Big Swing, Billy Bob’s and Black Sheep all closing their doors in just the last couple weeks. Big Swing has said their closing is temporary, but is uncertain when they’ll be opening, preferring to wait it out until the covid wave is over and things have normalized.

Billy Bob’s and Black Sheep both talked of opening on the Iowa side, but there’s been little movement in that direction, perhaps because Iowa has also been seeing their covid numbers spiking and appears likewise headed for some sort of shutdown.

Stay tuned to QuadCities.com for more information.

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Sean Leary Director of Digital Media

Sean Leary is an author, director, artist, musician, producer and entrepreneur who has been writing professionally since debuting at age 11 in the pages of the Comics Buyers Guide. An honors graduate of the University of Southern California masters program, he has written over 50 books including the best-sellers The Arimathean, Every Number is Lucky to Someone and We Are All Characters.