Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday tightened regulations on Chicago bars, restaurants, gyms and personal services to prevent a spike of coronavirus among young people from turning into a dangerous surge.
Effective at 12:01 a.m. Friday:
• Bars, taverns breweries and other establishments without a retail food license that serve alcohol for on-site consumption will be prohibited from serving their customers indoors.
Restaurants will be permitted to continue to serve alcohol, so long as they strictly enforce the city’s regulations.
• The maximum party size and table occupancy at restaurants, bars, taverns and breweries will be reduced from 10 people to six.
• Indoor fitness classes will be limited to a maximum of 10 people, down from 50 under state guidelines.
• Facials, shaves and other personal services requiring the removal of face coverings will no longer be permitted.
• Residential property managers will be asked to limit guest entry to five-per-unit to avoid indoor gatherings and parties.
Pat Doerr, managing director of the 200-plus-member Hospitality Business Association of Chicago, said he wants to see the “science behind” the city’s rollback decision.
“The hospitality industry has lost half of its jobs since March in the state of Illinois. This brings none of them back to work. This will make it harder for these businesses to hang on. How hard depends on how long these restrictions last,” Doerr said.
“Very importantly, this reduces maximum table sizes from 10 to six for everyone outdoors. Basically a 33-to-40 percent occupancy reduction outdoors is going to be a death blow for way more than bars. That is effecting everyone. There might be data to support it. I just haven’t seen it.”
It was just over a month ago that the city allowed bars to reopen to serving customers in open-air settings. Then, on June 26, indoor customers were again allowed in restaurants and bars, with a limit on capacity.
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia said he’s not happy about the rollback. But, he’s willing to live with it if it means avoiding even more rigid restrictions that force restaurants to close their doors to indoor dining again.
“We do not want to go back to shelter-in-place. We see that cities like Miami and San Antonio, Phoenix and Los Angeles are really going way backwards,” Toia said.
“If we go into total lockdown like we were a few months ago, this will be the death of the hospitality industry in the city of Chicago. So, we’d rather work and have some of our outdoor dining still open and 25 percent capacity in the restaurant and six people-per-table than to go to total lockdown with no indoor dining at all.”
Last week, Lightfoot warned of a rollback unless young people who account for 30% of new COVID cases in the city get the message.
“Some of you have joked that I’m like the mom who will turn the car around when you’re acting up. No, friends. It’s actually worse. I won’t just turn the car around. I’m gonna shut it off. I’m gonna kick you out. And I’m gonna make you walk home. That’s who I am. That’s who I must be for you and everyone else in this city to make sure that we continue to be safe,” the mayor said on that day.
“I don’t want to be that person if I don’t have to. But I will if you make me. And right now, we are on the precipice. We are dangerously close to going back to a dangerous state of conditions.”
Throughout the pandemic, Lightfoot has not hesitated to do whatever she believes is necessary to keep the city safe; her arms-folded, stern-faced image inspired a hysterical stream of memes she cleverly embraced.
The mayor famously shut down the lakefront in late March because Chicagoans couldn’t be trusted to maintain social distance. She reopened it last month, but only for activities including walking, running and biking and with the admonition for those on the trail to “keep it moving.” Chicago’s beaches and Park District swimming pools remain closed.
She also cut off citywide liquor sales at 9 p.m. to prevent people from gathering outside those stores.
On Monday, the mayor made no apologies for following through on her threat of a rollback.
“We have made so much progress here in Chicago in containing the spread of the virus, protecting our health system and saving lives, and in general, the virus remains under control locally. But we are again seeing a steady increase in new cases,” the mayor was quoted as saying in a press release.
“While we aren’t near the peak of the pandemic from earlier this year, none of us wants to go back there, and we feel these restrictions will help limit further community spread.”
Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady noted Chicago has returned to what the Centers for Disease Control considers a “high incidence state” after its 7-day “rolling average” of coronavirus cases reached 233 on Sunday. The city’s “positivity rate” has also increased after “weeks of decline,” she said.
The troubling increase has been driven by a spike among young people ages 18 to 29, Arwady said, tying it to “more social activity and interactions in bars, restaurants, parks” and along the lakefront.
“No one relishes making this move but it’s the right thing to do as we work to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 similar to what we’re seeing in many states around the country,” Arwady was quoted as saying.
“This virus has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx individuals, many of whom are essential workers who have continued to go to work, and we can’t afford to see a resurgence that would mean more cases and more deaths.”
