Health officials on Wednesday announced an additional 78 people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois and another 625 have tested positive statewide.
That’s the lowest number of new cases reported by the state in a single day since March 30, when the state reported 461 cases before the brunt of the pandemic gripped Illinois.
Here’s what else happened in Chicago and around the state and nation as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic continued.
News
8:59 p.m. Coachella, Stagecoach canceled for 2020
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The 2020 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and its country music counterpart Stagecoach are canceled, Riverside County public health officials have announced.
Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser signed an order Wednesday canceling the popular music festivals, citing concerns over a possible surge of coronavirus cases in the fall.
Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles-based company that produces the music festivals over three weekends in April, had previously announced the postponement of both festivals due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
“I am concerned as indications grow that COVID-19 could worsen in the fall,” Kaiser said in a statement. “In addition, events like Coachella and Stagecoach would fall under Governor Newsom’s Stage 4, which he has previously stated would require treatments or a vaccine to enter. Given the projected circumstances and potential, I would not be comfortable moving forward.
“These decisions are not taken lightly with the knowledge that many people will be impacted. My first priority is the health of the community.”
8:18 p.m. Indiana movie theaters, bars, playgrounds reopenings start Friday
INDIANAPOLIS — Movie theaters, bars, museums and amusement parks across Indiana will be allowed to reopen Friday for the first time in nearly three months, as the governor announced Wednesday that he was moving up by two days the next stage of easing the state’s coronavirus restrictions.
A new state order will allow social gatherings of up to 250 people and retail stores and malls to operate at full capacity, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said. Gatherings have been limited to 100 people and stores to 75% capacity for the past three weeks as such limits have been gradually lifted since early May.
Restaurants will be allowed 75% capacity in their dining rooms, while bars, nightclubs, movie theaters, bowling alleys, museums and amusement parks can open at half capacity. Casinos can resume operations starting Monday under safety plans submitted to the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Public playgrounds can reopen Friday, but festivals and parades ares still prohibited.
7:35 p.m. Officials report 625 new coronavirus cases, Illinois’ lowest daily count since late March
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Health officials on Wednesday announced an additional 78 people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois and another 625 have tested positive statewide.
That’s the lowest number of new cases reported by the state in a single day since March 30, when the state reported 461 cases before the brunt of the pandemic gripped Illinois.
The latest figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health raise the state’s coronavirus death toll to 6,095, and the overall case tally since late January to 129,837.
The toll now officially includes 9-month-old Chicagoan Joseph Myles, who died in late March. Final autopsy results released by the Cook County medical examiner’s office attributed his death to COVID-19, a tragic rarity for infants thus far in the pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read the full story by Mitchell Armentrout here.
6:54 p.m. Pre-flight health checklists are on the way for airline passengers
With travel slowly resuming as more states relax coronavirus restrictions, airlines are adding another health safety measure.
United Airlines and Alaska Airlines said this week that they will require passengers to fill out a preflight health checklist during check-in.
United’s new policy took effect Tuesday; Alaska’s begins June 30.
The checklists vary by airline. Alaska calls it a health and wellness agreement and says travelers must verify they haven’t had any COVID-19 symptoms in the past 72 hoursor come into contact with someone who is symptomatic.
5:41 p.m. Budget Committee OKs Lightfoot plan on how to spend $1.1 billion windfall from federal stimulus
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan for how to spend a $1.1 billion infusion of federal stimulus funds cleared a City Council committee Wednesday amid concern that not enough money was being set aside for housing, violence prevention or another spike in COVID-19 cases.
The plan advanced by the City Council’s Budget Committee after a marathon meeting would distribute the federal windfall to a string of pressing needs.
It includes: $376.7 million for O’Hare and Midway airports for operations and concession relief; $189.3 million for a “public health response” that includes contact tracing, lab testing and testing personnel; $39.6 million for homeless services; and $16.5 million for rental, mortgage and legal assistance for homeowners facing foreclosure.
Smaller amounts would go toward: violence prevention; workforce assistance; mental health and senior assistance ($10 million apiece); community health care infrastructure ($11 million); food assistance ($4.5 million); and broadband for students without internet access ($5 million).
Read the full story by City Hall reporter Fran Spielman here.
4 p.m. Northwestern students, faculty rally in support of campus service workers who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus
Northwestern University students and faculty rallied Wednesday in support of low-wage service workers who were laid off due to the coronavirus-related campus shutdown.
About 320 workers — most working in dining halls and in hospitality — lost their jobs in mid-March when Northwestern shut down and learning went online, rally organizers said. The workers earn an average of about $15 an hour.
The activists are calling for the workers to be compensated for the wages they’ve lost while campus has been on shutdown. They contend other universities, including the University of Chicago, have continued to pay subcontracted workers during the pandemic.
“Because of the low wages at this job, I didn’t have savings built up. After a few weeks of being laid off, I wasn’t even able to afford food,” Melvin Davis, a campus delivery driver, said in a statement. “I started getting food from a food pantry.”
Read the full story by Stefano Esposito here.
3:10 p.m. Chicago baby’s March death caused by COVID-19, investigation finds
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Wednesday that a Chicago infant’s death in March was caused by COVID-19 — marking a rare death of a baby from the deadly virus.
The medical examiner’s office said 9-month-old Joseph Myles died on March 23 at Mercy Hospital in Chicago as a result of viral pneumonia due to coronavirus NL-63 and COVID-19 infection. The death was ruled natural.
In first reporting the death on March 28, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was “shaken.” And Illinois Public Health Department Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said there had never been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant. She said a full death investigation was underway. Since then, however, other apparent cases of infants dying from COVID-19 have been reported in other states and parts of the world.
According to the medical examiners’ office, an autopsy found the infant’s lungs were congested, indicating an infection. Two swabs were taken on March 23 and 24 that revealed conflicting results. A first swab detected the virus, while a second didn’t.
Read the full story by Tina Sfondeles here.
1:32 p.m. Staff cuts loom as cultural institutions continue to suffer COVID-19 closures
Hoping to avoid the fate of several other major cash-strapped Chicago cultural institutions, workers at the Field Museum plan to rally Wednesday and demand museum management shoulder a greater portion of the financial burden to avoid layoffs.
“People are terrified. We don’t know who is going to still be around in a few days,” said Roger Tuan, a web developer at the Field and a co-organizer behind a petition seeking, among other things, a moratorium on job cuts.
Tuan said the staff have been told job cuts are coming, as well as pay cuts, possibly as soon as Friday. About half of the museum’s approximately 400 staff have signed the petition, Tuan said.
Museums across the city have been closed since mid-March as the coronavirus spread in Illinois. Both the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry have announced coronavirus-related layoffs in recent weeks.
Read the full story by Stefano Esposito here.
12:08 p.m. Pritzker signs ‘maintenance’ budget reliant on borrowing from feds to get through coronavirus crisis
Gov. J.B. Pritzker Wednesday signed a $42.9 billion “maintenance” budget that’s largely reliant on borrowing and the hope that the federal government will continue to help Illinois with COVID-19 assistance.
It’s a budget no one could have predicted, but one Democrats said would give the state a lifeline amid a world of uncertainty.
When Pritzker signed his first budget in June 2019, he called it a “new era of fiscal stability.” His plan even generated a $150 million surplus to help down the state’s bill backlog.
Then came 2020 — with 6,018 killed by the coronavirus, 1,361,036 unemployment claims processed by the state and businesses decimated by the deadly virus.
Read the full story by Tina Sfondeles here.
11:10 a.m. $5 million fund will help Chicagoans ineligible for federal stimulus help during pandemic
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday announced a $5 million cash assistance program for 300,000 Chicago residents excluded from receiving federal stimulus checks.
That includes undocumented residents and college students living in poverty and those who have been recently incarcerated, Lightfoot said, and she doesn’t want any of them to fall through the cracks.
Those Chicagoans will get $1,000 per eligible household, mayor said.
In Chicago, we will “always be a strong, welcoming community,” Lightfoot said. “Our diversity is our strength. We will never abandon our values.”
The federal CARES Act, while providing millions in assistance, “leaves behind thousands of residents,” many of whom are essential workers, Lightfoot said at a news conference.
Read the full story by City Hall reporter Fran Spielman here.
10:37 a.m. Senators call for investigation into Trump administration’s PPE sourcing
Three Senate Democrats are turning up the investigative heat on the Trump administration’s Project Air Bridge, which flew in — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — high demand medical gloves, gowns and masks plus other supplies distributed by six for-profit companies, including the Northfield-based Medline Industries.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Charles Schumer asked the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to conduct an independent investigation in a Monday letter.
The senators said in their letter, “Project Air Bridge—like the broader Trump Administration response to the pandemic—has been marked by delays, incompetence, confusion, and secrecy involving multiple Federal agencies and actors.” They are trying to determine “the precise role” played by President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in Project Air Bridge.
An issue for the senators is finding out why Kushner went to his connections in the business world to create Project Air Bridge rather “than using procurement and logistics experts” within the federal government.
Taxpayers paid at least $91 million for the flights, and no one knows if the goods were in fact delivered to the areas with the most need.
Read the full report by Lynn Sweet here.
9:33 a.m. MLB players offer proposal that includes an 89-game season
Baseball players moved toward the owners’ position but remained far apart economically in their latest proposal for starting the pandemic-delayed season, adamant they receive full prorated salaries while offering to cut the regular season to 89 games.
The proposal by the players’ association, given to Major League Baseball electronically Tuesday evening without a negotiating session, was detailed to The Associated Press by a pair of people familiar with the negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcements were authorized.
MLB did not appear to view the proposal as productive but made no comment. MLB has said that absent an agreement it could go ahead with a shorter schedule of perhaps 50 games.
Players made their move one day after management cut its proposed schedule from 82 games to 76. The union proposed the regular season start July 10 and end Oct. 11 — the day before a possible Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
8:29 a.m. 25th employee contracts COVID-19, 3 positive antibody test at Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s office
Another employee at the Cook County Circuit Court clerk’s office has tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the overall total to 25 and three workers have received positive antibody test results.
The latest employee to test positive was assigned to the Criminal Department, located on the 10th floor of the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St., and last reported for work more than two months ago, according to a statement from the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. The employee is self-quarantining at home.
The Clerk’s Office’s Department of Facilities Management is conducting routine cleaning of the area where the employee worked, the clerk’s office said.
Notification is being sent to all employees regarding the employee that tested positive.
6:53 a.m. Masks on, buffets off as Illinois gambling regulators set guidelines for casinos to reopen
Gamblers might be allowed back around the craps tables at Illinois casinos this summer for their shot at rolling a lucky seven — as long as they stay six feet apart.
But blowing on the dice for good luck? No dice, in the age of COVID-19.
And forget the buffet line.
A week after casinos beckoned gamblers back through their doors on the Las Vegas strip — and a week before they do likewise across the border in Indiana — Illinois gambling regulators issued a set of guidelines Tuesday for casinos to resume operations after the coronavirus forced them to fold for nearly three months and counting.
The Illinois Gaming Board’s plan doesn’t say exactly when the state’s 10 casinos will get the green light. Instead, each has to submit a plan outlining how operators will deep-clean their facilities, outfit employees with protective equipment and keep gamblers safely distanced, among other hurdles to get regulatory approval to reopen.
But a few customary industry perks are off the board from the get-go, per the Gaming Board.
Read the full report by Mitchell Armentrout here.
New cases
- The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 797 newly confirmed cases of the disease Tuesday along with 95 more deaths attributed to it. The state has now surpassed 6,000 total deaths.
- “Days of Our Lives” star Judi Evans has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and nearly lost her legs due to related blood clots, her publicist says.
- Another employee at the Cook County Circuit Court clerk’s office has tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the overall total to 25, and three workers have received positive antibody test results.
- Two more detainees and an employee at Cook County Juvenile detention center tested positive for COVID-19.
- Federal health authorities have received reports of nearly 26,000 nursing home residents dying from COVID-19 across the country.
Analysis & Commentary
2:51 p.m. The NFL can guard against COVID-19 all it wants, but players still have to tackle each other
The NFL really has this pandemic thing figured out, doesn’t it?
The latest science-driven protocols will be in place when players return to team facilities in the coming weeks. Testing for COVID-19 will be a regular occurrence. Proper social distancing will be observed. Masks will be mandatory at team meetings. Locker rooms will be cleansed and disinfected so often you might mistake them for operating rooms.
We expect that from a league that prides itself on military-like precision.
But there’s one little thing that keeps tugging at the sleeve: Eventually, the players are going to have to touch each other. Touching is sort of a necessity when it comes to huddling and blocking and — this is a biggie — hitting, which is the whole point of football.
Touching goes against the concept of keeping 6 feet away from the person closest to you. Tackling sneers at social distancing and, further, would blow it up like a defenseless receiver if it could. And what’s gang tackling but a renunciation of everything we’ve learned about keeping the coronavirus at bay?
A football game is a buffet table of germs. This virus will be on the menu. There are too many people involved in the NFL for it not to be.
Read the full commentary from sports columnist Rick Morrissey here.
6:56 a.m. Senators call for independent probe of ‘Project Air Bridge’ and role of Medline, other companies
Three Senate Democrats are turning up the investigative heat on the Trump administration’s “Project Air Bridge,” which flew in — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — high demand medical gloves, gowns and masks plus other supplies distributed by six for-profit companies, including the Northfield-based Medline Industries.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Charles Schumer asked the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to conduct an independent investigation in a Monday letter.
The senators said in their letter, “Project Air Bridge—like the broader Trump Administration response to the pandemic—has been marked by delays, incompetence, confusion, and secrecy involving multiple Federal agencies and actors.” They are trying to determine “the precise role” played by President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in Project Air Bridge.
An issue for the senators is finding out why Kushner went to his connections in the business world to create “Project Air Bridge” rather “than using procurement and logistics experts” within the federal government.
Taxpayers paid at least $91 million for the air flights and no one knows if the goods were in fact delivered to the areas with the most need.
