Chicago ready to move to full reopening on June 11, Lightfoot says

Chicago’s downtown, as viewed from the 31st Street bridge over Lake Shore Drive. | Sun-Times file

The city of Chicago is ready for a full reopening, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.

Chatting with the city’s health commissioner. Dr. Allison Arwady, the mayor said that given the progress on vaccinations and on other metrics, “I think we are ready to move to Phase 5 with the state” on June 11 — a week from Friday, Lightfoot said.

“Now is the time to do this,” Arwady said. “These numbers are looking so good right now.”

Lightfoot did sound a cautionary note.

“COVID is still here. No doubt,” she said. “We’ve got a lot more work that we need to get done. So keep pushing vaccines, but we are on the right track.”

Both Arwady and the mayor said even with the encouraging news, and the intent to remove capacity limits June 11, it remains wise to continue to take the precautions that allowed the city to get to this point, such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

The city and state had been in the “bridge phase,” which loosened but did not remove capacity limits.

“I think the common view is that Illinois has weathered the storm well, that we’ve seen what’s happened in in Michigan, and that hasn’t happened in Illinois — thank God,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker had said in early May, right before the state moved to the bridge phase.

“This virus is sometimes unpredictable. We’ve seen new variants that arise. The UK variant is the one, of course, that is most prevalent.”

Check back for details on this developing story.