On Tuesday, Illinois documented seven straight days of 2,000-plus confirmed cases. The state’s seven-day positivity rate continued to rise, reaching 4.5% — a full percentage point higher than last week.
Also, Chicago added the state of Indiana to its travel advisory list. Though there is no formal enforcement of the quarantine, Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady urged residents to follow the order, especially those living near the Indiana border on the Southeast Side. She said Indiana’s loosening of “science-based” restrictions should concern everyone.
Here’s what happened today in the fight against the coronavirus in Chicago, the state and the nation.
News
9 p.m. Illinois records 2,851 new coronavirus cases, 29 deaths
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Illinois health officials reported 2,851 new confirmed coronavirus cases while the state’s average positivity rate has continued to grow over the last week.
Illinois also recorded 29 additional COVID-19 related deaths in 102 counties, pushing the state’s death tally past the 9,000. As of Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health was reporting 9.026 victims of COVID-19.
All 29 of the most recently recorded deaths were people over age 40. As of last night, 1,848 people in Illinois were in the hospital with COVID-19, 406 of those patients were in ICU and 160 patients were on ventilators.
The most recent confirmed cases were among 55,993 tests conducted over the last 24 hours. The state’s seven-day positivity rate continued to rise, reaching 4.5% — a full percentage point higher than last week.
The state has documented seven straight days of 2,000-plus confirmed cases.
“More than 9,000 Illinoisans — our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, family, friends, and neighbors — have had their lives cut short by COVID-19, leaving tens of thousands more to grieve loved ones lost too soon,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. “My heart breaks for all those who have lost a loved one in this battle we never asked to fight — may their memories be for a blessing.”
Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.
8:30 p.m. ‘It’s scary’ — Bears take precautions after COVID-19 case
Two days after practice-squad offensive lineman Badara Traore tested positive for the coronavirus, coach Matt Nagy said he’s trying to go “above and beyond” to ensure the Bears don’t become the NFL’s next outbreak epicenter.
By changing Monday’s practice to a walkthrough, Nagy was able to leave his entire 15-man practice squad — whose role is to mimic the upcoming opponent in full practices — at home. He expects the practice-squad players to return Wednesday, provided the team doesn’t have another positive test by then.
No Bear has tested positive since Traore, whose sample was collected Friday.
Read the full story by Patrick Finley here.
7:15 p.m. ‘Totally Under Control’: A no-nonsense look at how COVID-19 ran amok in the U.S.
The doctors and the science and the irrefutable timeline carry the day in Alex Gibney’s how-did-we-get-here pandemic documentary “Totally Under Control,” but the stories of the Mask Man and the Volunteer are equally valuable, equally infuriating, equally … ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
The Mask Man is Michael Bowen, a onetime Donald Trump supporter and the owner of Prestige Ameritech, a large medical supply company in Texas, who last January began sending out e-mails to top administrators offering to ramp up production on N95 masks in anticipation of demand that would occur with the inevitable spread of COVID-19. The response: crickets. Day after day, time after time, Bowen tried to find SOMEBODY at the Dept. of Health and Human Services to listen to him, but his overtures were ignored.
Read the full review by Richard Roeper here.
4:04 p.m. NFL not ready to add Week 18 or a bubble, vows to remain flexible
The NFL isn’t ready to add an 18th week to the regular season to account for coronavirus makeup games, nor is it ready to implement a bubble or move the Super Bowl back. But the league wouldn’t rule it out, either.
“I think if there was one consistent theme to our season it’s flexibility and adapting …” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday after the second day of virtual owners meetings. “Flexibility is going to be critical. …
“We will have flexibility to be able to complete our season for the Super Bowl. That’s the goal. We’re all focused on that. And to do it safely.”
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said his focus is on playing the complete season slate in 17 weeks — but he knows that an 18th week could still be an option.
2:03 p.m. Chicago COVID researchers get $7.4 million in private funding
A Skokie foundation pledged $7.4 million in funding to provide more widespread free COVID-19 testing, study risks among children, find ways to predict virus outbreaks and related research.
Eight programs, mostly led by researchers at some of Chicago’s leading teaching hospitals, are working in collaboration with state and local health departments with money provided by the 2-year-old Walder Foundation.
Findings are expected to inform public health policy on testing, prevention and racial health disparities, said Sandra Laney, Walder Foundation’s senior director of science innovation.
“We really landed on a portfolio of projects that were driven by health departments’ needs,” Laney said.
The one-year grants range from $300,000 to $1.25 million each. The winners were selected from more than 20 applications, Laney said.
12:35 p.m. 10 to see at the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival, now in its 56th year, makes a novel move online thanks to the novel coronavirus. The 11-day showcase of world cinema offers 39 dramas, 19 documentaries and 56 shorts via the internet. Seven features are world premieres. Audiences can interact with filmmakers in livestream Q&A sessions.
“We can reach new audiences,” says artistic director Mimi Plauché. “The festival is more accessible to people who live anywhere in the U.S.” Some titles, however, are limited to Chicago audiences; other films are limited to Midwesterners living in Illinois and five other states.
The global pandemic forced international festivals to go virtual, so Plauché and her programming team scouted this year’s entries through the internet. She says she is partial to “the films you watch and you can’t stop thinking about them.” Three are dramas in this year’s downsized lineup: “Any Crybabies Around?,” “Dear Comrades!” and “Memory House.”
12:27 p.m. Ford says problems solved in Chicago production
A year after admitting a botched rollout led to quality issues with new SUVs produced in Chicago, Ford executives said the problems are in the past and production lines here are working three shifts per day to meet increasing demand.
The Chicago Assembly Plant at 12600 S. Torrence Ave. and the Chicago Heights stamping plant now employ about 7,100 workers, the company said. That’s about 1,000 more than a year ago.
John Savona, Ford’s vice president of North American manufacturing, said the plants are busy around the clock fulfilling orders for the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator mid-size SUVs. The automaker’s sales summary for the third quarter said the Explorer registered a 74% gain compared with the prior quarter, while the Aviator, a lower volume but higher priced vehicle, saw a 222% increase in volume. Chicago also produces the Police Interceptor SUV.
Ford is expected to issue its third-quarter earnings Oct. 28.
“We’re really proud of the vehicles we are building in Chicago,” Savona said. “The quality by all available measures has been terrific.” He said the Chicago operations, which resumed May 18 after a two-month closure due to the coronavirus, are integral to Ford’s identity as the “most American” of domestic vehicle makers, although parts can be sourced anywhere.
11:39 a.m Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive for COVID-19
LISBON, Portugal — Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Portuguese soccer federation said Tuesday.
The federation said Ronaldo was doing well and had no symptoms. It did not say when he tested positive.
Ronaldo played in the 0-0 draw at France in the Nations League on Sunday, and also in the 0-0 draw against Spain in a friendly last week.
Ronaldo is in isolation and has been dropped from the country’s Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon.
On Monday, the Juventus forward posted a photo on Twitter showing him and the rest of the Portugal squad having a meal together. The players were all close to each other at a table, with Ronaldo apparently taking the photo himself at the front end.
Along with the tweet, Ronaldo wrote, in Portuguese, “United on and off the field!”
8:53 a.m. Confidential coronavirus outbreak data shows thousands of undisclosed incidents across Illinois
Like many Midwestern states, Illinois has struggled with rising coronavirus cases and death counts recently, surpassing 300,000 confirmed cases this month and recording its highest daily death count since late June on Friday.
Public health officials issued a “warning list” for 28 Illinois counties at risk for coronavirus surges and blamed, in part, businesses who were “blatantly disregarding mitigation measures, people not social distancing, gathering in large groups and not using face coverings.”
Now, confidential statewide coronavirus outbreak data, obtained by the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation as part of a collaboration with the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, shows workplace, school and prison outbreaks are driving the increases – and that many of these outbreaks have never been made public.
New cases
- Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate — the metric by which health experts measure the virus’ spread — increased Monday, this time to 4.3%, the highest it’s been in a month. On Oct. 3, the state’ positivity rate was 3.3%.
- State health officials announced Monday another 2,742 people in Illinois had tested positive for COVID-19, with 13 more dying of the virus.
Analysis & Commentary
7:10 p.m. Like illness, Mr. COVID Answer Man lingers
It might be hard to imagine, but I try to premeditate my columns, to consider possible ramifications before clicking on the “Submit for Approval” button. Is everything spelled right? Are my facts all in a row, quacking happily? Will I be frog-walked sobbing away from my career and into early retirement? But when I rolled out “Mr. Covid Answer Man” early this month, there was one response I never imagined: that readers actually would, as requested, send in questions. Sincere questions, some of them. So even though I like to flit nimbly from one topic to another, with this crisis reaching whatever nightmare crescendo we’re heading toward, I feel duty bound to address a few.
Dear Mr. COVID Answer Man: What is the polite way to say to your brother who you are very close to that his girlfriend is acting recklessly in regards to the virus and is putting his and anyone he sees lives at risk?
Read the more questions and answers by columnist Neil Steinberg here.
8:58 a.m. We young people have been devastated by COVID-19
Tova Kaplan of Lincoln Park writes:
It is no secret that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact. Young people have been especially crushed, since schools and youth programs were among the first places to close, and the last to reopen.
For our whole lives, young people have been told to look forward to certain experiences — prom, sports events, graduation, college — that we may now never get the chance to have. These are pivotal milestones. You are only a teen for so long, and then you never have the chance to be one again.
Young people have also had to deal with terrible mental health outcomes, social isolation, lost jobs, even lost parents, and heartbreaking pessimism as we realize that the adults we rely on have failed us.
Yet despite this disproportionate impact, young people have been sidelined in crucial conversations about the pandemic.
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