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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Monday announced the city was easing coronavirus restrictions on bars and restaurants, as well as on barbershops, beauty salons and gyms. The changes are Lightfoot’s latest attempt to ease the financial burden on Chicago businesses by lifting frequently criticized restrictions.
Lightfoot also said she would love to let students back into Chicago public schools in November but wouldn’t commit to allow in-person learning this fall. While many parents would like to see their children back in classrooms, Lightfoot said the safety of teachers and staff at schools also must be considered.
Meanwhile, the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders' resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work.
Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:50 p.m.: Worldwide death toll from COVID-19 eclipses 1 million
The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders' resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work.
“It’s not just a number. It’s human beings. It’s people we love,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who has advised government officials on containing pandemics and lost his 84-year-old mother to COVID-19 in February.
“It’s our brothers, our sisters. It’s people we know,” he added. “And if you don’t have that human factor right in your face, it’s very easy to make it abstract.”
The bleak milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Jerusalem or Austin, Texas. It is 2 1/2 times the sea of humanity that was at Woodstock in 1969. It is more than four times the number killed in the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
Even then, the figure is almost certainly a vast undercount because of inadequate or inconsistent testing and reporting and suspected concealment by some countries.
And the number continues to mount. Nearly 5,000 deaths are reported each day on average. Parts of Europe are getting hit by a second wave, and experts fear the same fate may await the U.S., which accounts for about 205,000 deaths, or 1 out of 5 worldwide. That is far more than any other country, despite America’s wealth and medical resources.
6:55 p.m.: Notre Dame announces 39 football players are in isolation or quarantine as a result of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing
Notre Dame is undefeated on the football field but struggling with COVID-19 away from it.
The Irish postponed last Saturday’s game at Wake Forest, and on Monday the program reported some grim testing numbers: 25 players are in isolation as a result of 18 positive tests last week. Another 14 players are in quarantine due to contact tracing. Those 39 sidelined players represent about 34% of the 114 players listed on the roster.
Notre Dame, which had a scheduled open date this week and is scheduled to host Florida State on Oct. 10, is not practicing. The team has resumed “conditioning activities … in consultation with the St. Joseph County Department of Health,” the school said in a statement.
Notre Dame has not made any coaches or players available to the media since Sept. 21, when coach Brian Kelly called the team’s COVID-19 plan “an evolving situation.”
5 p.m. (update): Feds to distribute millions of rapid coronavirus tests in bid to reopen K-12 schools
President Donald Trump announced Monday that the federal government will begin distributing millions of rapid coronavirus tests to states this week and urged governors to use them to reopen schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The move to vastly expand U.S. testing comes as confirmed new COVID-19 cases remain elevated at more than 40,000 per day and experts warn of a likely surge in infections during the colder months ahead. It also comes just five weeks before the November election, with Trump facing continued criticism for his handling of the crisis.
The tests will go out to states based on their population and can be used as governors see fit, but the Trump administration is encouraging states to place a priority on schools. White House officials said at a Rose Garden event that 6.5 million tests will go out this week and that a total of 100 million tests will be distributed to governors over the next several weeks.
3:05 p.m.: Lightfoot: ‘We’re not there yet’ on in-person CPS learning
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday said she would love to let students back into Chicago public schools in November, but wouldn’t commit to allow in-person learning this fall.
When Chicago Public Schools set all-remote learning due to COVID-19 concerns at the beginning of the school year, officials said they would revisit the decision at the end of the first quarter in early November. The first quarter is scheduled to end Nov. 5, with the second quarter starting on Nov. 9.
The mayor said the decisions will come “in the next few weeks.”
1:50 p.m.: United pilots accept deal to avoid nearly 3,000 furloughs
United Airlines' pilots agreed to a deal that will spare almost 3,000 pilots from furloughs through at least June.
Pilots agreed to work fewer hours to avoid the furloughs, with the most junior pilots who were at greatest risk of furloughs facing the greatest reductions, according to the union representing United’s 3,000 pilots, the Air Line Pilots Association.
Chicago-based United warned it planned to furlough 2,850 of its 13,000 pilots earlier this month, along with 13,500 employees in other roles, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on air travel.
1 p.m.: Lightfoot easing Chicago restrictions on indoor bars, restaurants, fitness class sizes
Chicago bars that don’t serve food will be allowed to reopen for indoor service starting Thursday, and bars and restaurants will be allowed to serve alcohol until 1 a.m., Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Monday.
In addition, Lightfoot said the city will now allow shaves, facials, and other personal services that previously were banned because they required the removal of face masks. The city also will increase the maximum group size for health and fitness classes and after-school programming from 10 to 15 people, officials said.
The moves are Lightfoot’s latest attempt to ease the financial burden on Chicago businesses by lifting frequently criticized restrictions. But the moves also come as the city prepares for flu season and the number of new COVID-19 cases per day hovers around 300.
Lightfoot has been eager to showcase Chicago as America’s most open big city during the pandemic, while also pledging to heed scientific advice on how much leeway to give businesses and other public places where people congregate.
Monday’s announcement keeps the city in phase four of its reopening framework, but loosens several standards.
This is the second time during the pandemic that the mayor has let bars that don’t serve food welcome patrons inside. But they will be limited to 25% of capacity under the new rules.
Although Lightfoot is easing some rules, the city will still require patrons to wear face masks “except when actively eating or drinking.” They also will be required to order from their seats at indoor bars and taverns.
12:05 p.m.: Illinois reports 1,709 new known COVID-19 cases and 13 more deaths
Illinois health officials on Monday announced 1,709 new known cases of COVID-19 and 13 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 289,639 and the statewide death toll to 8,614 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 41,142 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 3.7%.
11:20 a.m.: One family’s COVID-19 journey, and how life changed in a weekend
When a Chicago Public Schools speech pathologist and her parents got sick back in March — presumably with COVID-19, though only her father was ever able to get tested — Illinois had recorded only a few dozen cases.
It was the same week that Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that he was shutting down schools statewide.
Since then, Beth Eysenbach and her mother have recovered, though her father did not. Now, in addition to planning his funeral, she’s getting used to how the pandemic has not just the world around her but her life, her family, and her job.
9:15 a.m.: Chef partnerships becoming more common during COVID-19 pandemic as pros adapt to survive
The COVID-19 shutdown forced a collective change of plans among the restaurant industry, putting workers in unexpected and often urgent situations. Every element of the dining experience had taken on a new or different importance: safety measures, kitchen space, outdoor areas, walk-up windows, even the type of cuisine.
In general, resources tightened more than ever, and thousands of employees were furloughed. As pros looked for ways to innovate and survive, collaborative efforts like shared kitchens, ghost kitchens, joint pop-ups and more have seen a new lift in recent months, particularly among independent restaurants or fledgling entrepreneurs. Ghost kitchen is a term for a commercial kitchen shared among culinary entrepreneurs without offering dine-in service.
Considering the pandemic’s widespread effects, such arrangements have inevitably spawned a variety of forms, but almost all of these operations allow chefs and owners to share certain costs and resources while maintaining more of their own autonomy. In most cases, it’s a situation of friendly colleagues and/or co-workers capitalizing on existing trust to support each other.
7:19 a.m.: Pandemic-related canning supply shortages real in Illinois, but there are solutions
The pandemic-related trend that saw more people trying their hand at home gardening this summer may have led to a bountiful harvest of fresh produce, but it’s left some scrambling to find canning supplies as they try to save the last of their colorful crops to enjoy during the grayer days of winter.
“Canning supplies are in short supply everywhere,” said Brandon Pennell, manager at Midland Farm & Home Supply in Jacksonville. “We have people ask for lids all the time. ... Everybody grew a garden this year.”
When canning, clean Mason jars free of nicks can be reused. But seals and lids should to be new to provide the seal necessary to keep food safe for longer-term storage. It’s also not a good idea to buy more than you expect to need for one year, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, meaning stockpiling doesn’t work.
6 a.m.: For Chicago’s theaters, an opportunity for more racial diversity also comes at a time of crisis
For Jackie Taylor, the founder of the Black Ensemble Theater and a woman who has seen calls for greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the Chicago theater come and go over the years, this moment seems different.
“This has been a fight for more than 400 years,” Taylor said. “So it’s not exactly new. And we had all the demonstrations and the marches and the same conversations in the 1960s. But there has been a change in the wind. And I think, in terms of things clicking in people’s minds about racism, it is suddenly now happening on a deeper level.”
“Young people,” Taylor said. “Young people, including young white people, are saying they do not want a world of white privilege, but one of inclusion. They are bringing a different essence to the fight. So there is new hope.”
That hope, though, is tempered by a contemporaneous pandemic that has shuttered Chicago theaters, possibly for many months to come, and turned the later half of 2020 into a struggle for financial survival both on institutional and individual levels. Jobs have disappeared. The talent that makes up the sector is being forced to seek employment elsewhere, prompting worries over when, or if, they will return. Governmental help of adequate scope has not been forthcoming and many hands from many sectors are outstretched.
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