PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria St. Patrick’s Day parade was officially canceled this past Monday, marking the second year in a row that has happened.
It was a collaborative decision made in conjunction with the Peoria City/County Health Department, though the health department did not tell the society to flat out cancel.
“The St. Patrick’s Society did reach out to talk about plans,” said Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson.
“We’ve been advocating plans like the reverse parade, similar to what was done for the Santa Claus Parade.
“I think at this time, the society decided that wasn’t really working. They were getting low registration, and made the decision just to cancel the parade, in general.”
Even though the parade was canceled, the holiday, itself, is not, with many local establishments likely to hold festivities on the day.
Hendrickson said as opposed to Thanksgiving or Christmas, which mainly involve smaller gatherings at family homes, St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday based around going out to drinkeries, where patrons are unmasked because they’re partaking in alcohol, which worries health experts even more than some of the bigger holidays.
“There’s a lot of concerns for this. It’s similar to what we found during the Super Bowl time period, which was another large drinking event, and New Year’s Eve, but of course we were in those mitigation levels of the state [during New Year’s Eve],” she said.
“So this is the first time, really, we have a holiday, so to say, that is going to be really in the middle of [Restore Illinois] Phase Four without any mitigations, so I think there are definitely concerns for that.”
She said in that sense, she views the holiday as sort of a litmus test for patrons.
“One of the concerns we have here is patrons’ fully understanding the balance of a way to celebrate, but doing so in a public safety type of way,” she said.
“The vaccine is not fully through our entire population, I think we’re only estimating about 12% of our population is fully vaccinated, and even with the high efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer [vaccines] you can still get COVID. There are variants running around, as well.”
Hendrickson went on to praise the majority of area establishments she said have done “great work” in abiding by state health guidelines.
She said capacity is a key component to observe.
“A lot of our establishments are working really hard to make sure they are being able to have this type of event for the public and, with that, as patrons it’s our responsibility to help them out and do so by following guiding the principles they have,” she urged.
“If they ask us to mask, do so politely. Space out.
“Folow what they’re trying to do so they can host an event people can enjoy.”
On the topic of capacity, Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell warned his office would “continue to message [establishments] and ask for compliance, and if there are issues they will be documented, so the bars need to understand potential licensing issues.”
Full interview with Hendrickson:
