Metro East Sun

When Chicago was initially experiencing its COVID-19 outbreak, Gov. J.B. Pritzker shut down all activities in Southern Illinois even though there were no coronavirus cases, according to a Washington County state representative, and small businesses were among the hardest-hit casualties.

“I have a hotel in my hometown that's 152 years old,” Illinois state Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) told the Metro East Sun. “It's made its living off of mineral water and the people that believe the mineral water is a healthy thing come weekly or monthly to take their mineral bath and drink the mineral water to stay healthy. That was forced to close. It is open now but if it gets closed again, how can they stay open? 

“They have to pay their electric bill every month, and their heating bill,” he continued. “They can't let it freeze up during the winter or be so humid that things start to mold during the summer. They have that constant cost. It’s not cheap to maintain.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker | File photo

Meier made the comments in response to a Yelp study that found Illinois is among the top five states with the highest number of business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The other states in the top five include California, Texas, New York and Florida.

About 2,800 Illinois businesses have permanently shuttered and 2,300 more have closed temporarily as a result of the pandemic. 

“You can go down and look on Main Street at all these other businesses and start thinking about the ones that are closed,” Meier said. “Or maybe if the governor would be living in Springfield, he could go around there and see all the restaurants that are closed and that isn't ever opening back up. I hear every week there are more businesses closing in Springfield.”

Yelp’s quarterly report further found that 5,100 Illinois-based businesses listed on the review-based website have either temporarily closed or will permanently shutter due to COVID-19 governmental shutdown orders. About 4,400 of 5,100 of the endangered businesses were listed as Chicago-based, and the Illinois Policy Institute determined the state could potentially lose 94,200 service-sector jobs permanently if a surge in coronavirus cases leads to renewed governmental-closure orders.

“Chicago’s economic fallout, exacerbated by new COVID-19 restrictions, could very likely set the tone for the rest of the state,” Chief Economist Orphe Divounguy said. “Thousands of businesses previously banking on temporary closures and a slow but steady return to normal are quickly seeing these shutdowns become permanent.”

As of mid-August, there were 209,594 coronavirus cases overall in Illinois and 7,782 fatalities, according to the Illinois Department of Health.