Coronavirus Illinois | Some rural areas with fewer COVID-19 cases, deaths seek to open businesses

since the coronavirus crisis began all 102 counties in illinois have been painted with the same brush by the pritzker administration from tiny hardin county in southern illinois with less than 5 thousand residents to cook county with more than 5 million tonight the i-team travels to lee county 100 miles west of chicago a place their leaders consider a separate piece of the state the rock river rushes right through picturesque lee county population 34 000 and through dixon the county seat since lockdown day in march the river has been the only thing running as normal we're operating like zero right now mike veneer talking about his family jewelry store started 75 years ago by his grandfather and uncle right after world war ii i pledge allegiance to the flag mike veneer is also on the dixon city council now dixon is mostly shut down by less than 50 coved cases in the entire county and no one has died we are striving to get back to some sense of new normal it's a different picture over here in rural america than in chicago dr pradeb nag is chief medical officer here at dixon's hospital standing ready for a coveted surge that hasn't come according to state health data analyzed tonight by the eye team it is metro chicago that accounts for 90 percent of the state's coronavirus cases and 90 percent of the state's covet deaths if you look at illinois and you just look at the idph map that of the number of cases that illinois has and you can actually clearly see what where the densities are dixon's best known tourist attraction is this house ronald reagan's boyhood home the reagan family moved in here 100 years ago this year reagan himself was nine years old at the time the family paid 15 dollars a month in rent it was also right after the world's worst health pandemic the so-called spanish flu here in dixon and everywhere else that was a time long before social distancing when there was still a corner drug store but also no drugs to treat the virus and more than 23 thousand illinois residents died a century later a different virus and even with better health care there are similar questions you think there should be a separate carve out in this kind of a matter for smaller towns that seems to be that's the direction that we're moving i think different areas could make recommendations to loosen both the restrictions on businesses and the restrictions on travel when we interviewed dixon republican tom demer on monday he was preparing to present governor j.

b pritzker with a joint plan by lee and ogle counties for an immediate several stage reopening the option of returning to normalcy doesn't exist but yesterday before receiving the lee ogle plan pritzker announced restore illinois that puts both counties in the same region as urban and more deeply infected rockford relief not possible for anyone in the state until at least next month it should be informed by the data that you find in your community and what common sense steps can you take to limit your own risk without having an across-the-board closure even before the governor's announcement some in lee county urged restraint we have neighboring counties with much larger numbers and they're our neighbors so that could impact us very easily if people don't heed the stay-at-home order but i wouldn't be in favor of doing anything at this very moment we've been through it a month and a half and we haven't been seeing the you know the rise like some other cities have been i feel like it feels a little unfair we went into this saying if we lose one business that's one too many do you have a feel for how many you're going to lose if this continues this way 30 percent of your small businesses could fail we just think it's time to start moving forward into the next phase of recovery tonight lee and ogle county leaders have finished this reopening plan of their own despite governor pritzker already having announced his their two-county plan would allow non-essential businesses to reopen faster there with what they call strict limitations on safety measures and occupancy their plan to be handed to the governor's office this week hey if you like that video be sure to subscribe to our abc7 chicago youtube channel.