Two months after revamping the city’s emergency travel order, Chicago officials recalibrated the requirements again on Tuesday to give travelers from all states with certain COVID-19 rates the chance to opt out of a mandatory quarantine.
Also on Tuesday, state health officials announced 6,642 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 117 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,040,168 and the statewide death toll to 17,743 since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, teachers may be able to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the coming months, news that comes as the Chicago Teachers Union is fighting a return to physical classrooms as the district returned to school on Monday.
Because not everyone currently eligible to get the shots has taken them, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said those shots should be made available to the next round of 3.2 million eligible recipients in phase 1b — those 65 and older and those who are front-line essential workers. That category includes teachers and other school personnel.
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Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:20 p.m.: Illinois looks toward 2nd phase of COVID-19 vaccinations, though still weeks away for many. Data shows 1 in 45 have had at least 1 shot so far.
Though COVID-19 vaccines could be available soon for essential workers and older people throughout the state, most county health departments in the Chicago area are still working to vaccinate those included in the initial phase — health care workers, and those working and residing in long-term care facilities.
Data released on Tuesday shows that roughly 1 in 45 Illinoisans has gotten at least the first shot of a vaccine, with wide variations across the state.
The new batch of data — the state’s first broad release of COVID-19 vaccination numbers since vaccinations began about four weeks ago — comes a day after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said county health departments can begin vaccinating people in phase 1b if they have already run through people in the initial phase who want the inoculation, so as not to leave doses sitting on the shelf. The state as a whole remains in phase 1a.
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The data comes as Illinois grapples with how best to roll out the vaccine, including when and where to expand vaccinations to senior citizens and front-line essential workers. The state’s 1b phase includes people 65 and older, and workers such as first responders, teachers, grocery store workers and public transit workers.
Read more here. —Madeline Buckley and Joe Mahr
6p.m.: CPS makes good on promise to cut off pay and access to remote learning platform for educators who’ve refused to show up for in-person classes
In the 10 months Chicago schools were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, any semblance of normalcy for students primarily came from one consistent image: their teacher’s face on the computer screen of a Google Classroom.
And while Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union have remained at odds over the reopening plan — under which thousands of educators and students were supposed to have reported to schools Monday as phase one launched — for students in some classrooms, that continuity was disrupted Tuesday.
“Yesterday, I was locked out of my Google Classroom. This means today when my students log in, they will not have me there to teach them,” Linda Perales, a Southwest Side special education teacher at Corkery Elementary, said Tuesday morning. “CPS is causing chaos to our students because they are trying to force us back into unsafe conditions.”
She spoke during an online news conference, which also touched on a COVID-19 case causing concern among staff at McCutcheon Elementary on the North Side, as well as CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates’ assertion that there were “entire school buildings without the students (the district) thought were coming in” Monday.
Union President Jesse Sharkey also said there was an overall lack of procedural guidance for working amid this new normal, such as guidelines on how to identify when to close a classroom or school because of virus transmission.
Perales has spoken at other recent news conferences leading up to the first day of in-person classes Monday for preschool and some special education students whose families chose to return. Along with other staff, she was expected back to in-person work last week and refused to do so, citing safety concerns as the pandemic rages on, much more dangerous now than ever before, she and others maintain.
Though she was among the hundreds of CPS educators who didn’t show up on Jan. 4, Perales maintained that was not in defiance of the district because she was teaching remotely, as she said she’s done effectively since March.
But as the district began sending repeated letters to the holdouts, reminding them they could be disciplined up to and including termination, about 71% of teachers and 81% of paraprofessional staff expected back went to schools Monday. CPS and city leaders say they’ve made a $100 million investment in making schools safe from COVID-19 and point to local private schools that have mostly been open since the fall.
Still, more than 500 teachers were not in attendance Monday, and 235 employees failed health screens. CPS said it issued final notices last week to 210 employees who didn’t show in person last week. On Monday, 145 of them — who were again absent — faced the harshest consequences, Perales among them. The district warned it would lock those employees out of their Google Classroom and email accounts, and withhold pay starting Tuesday.
“I am worried for my students who will log in today and I won’t know who is there teaching them because I know that it won’t be me, the person that knows them and knows their routine and knows the work that they’re doing and can meet their needs. It’s going to be someone random,” Perales said.
Read more here. —Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
4:26 p.m.: Chicago still vaccinating health care workers, no immediate plans to expand to seniors, health commissioner says
Chicago has no immediate plans to start moving into the next phase of COVID-19 vaccination where older people and essential workers could start getting the shots.
Health care workers in the first phase of the vaccination plan are still snapping up doses as they become available, city Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday.
If the demand slows, the city would expand the parameters of those eligible, she said.
“Looking ahead, if we get to a point where we’re hearing from providers that there are vaccines that might not be used, we would probably be encouraging them to start using vaccine in their highest risk patients, the oldest patients with the most underlying conditions,” Arwady said at a news conference to discuss vaccine rollout. “But that cannot supplant the ongoing work of getting this (phase) 1A group done.”
Read more here. —John Byrne
3:15 p.m.: New Illinois vaccination data available online
The state’s first broad release of COVID-19 vaccination data shows that, four weeks into the program, roughly 1 in 45 Illinoisans has gotten at least the first shot of a vaccine, though there is wide variation across the state.
The data comes as Illinois grapples with how best to roll out the vaccine, including when and where to expand vaccination to senior citizens and front-line essential workers.
“Throughout the pandemic we have used data to guide our decisions and actions and we will continue to do so for vaccine administration,” IDPH’s director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said in a news release.
“Illinois is a very diverse state, geographically and in the make-up of its population. It is important to track where we are seeing both high and low vaccination rates. These data will help us understand what actions we can take to end this pandemic as quickly as possible.”
The new data shows shots ramping up from about 10,000 a day two weeks ago to approaching 25,000 a day now, based on a rolling seven-day average.
But those shots have been distributed differently across the state. In Sangamon County, the seat of the state capital, more than 4% of the population has gotten at least one dose. In Alexander County – on Illinois’ southwestern tip – just 0.3% have gotten a dose, or 16 people out of more than 6,000 residents.
The data – which is current as of Monday – also shows that more than 72,000 Illinois residents have gotten both shots, or about 1 in 175 Illinoisans.
Vaccinations began a month ago for healthcare workers and long-term care residents, and the data shows there is plenty more to dole out.
The state says it’s received nearly 870,000 doses in the past month and has administered roughly 350,000 of them. That’s about 41% of doses received. Similar CDC data shows the state’s rate of vaccination ranks 25th in the nation as of Monday, according to a Tribune analysis.
Some of the delay can be traced to a subset of the vaccination program – the shots for long-term care residents – in which the federal government is partnering with pharmacies to deliver the shots. The state data shows that less than 18% of those 230,000 doses have been administered.
State officials have said previously that they believe more shots have been delivered than recorded, because those giving the shots have 24 hours to input the data into computers. They’ve also said it can take time to ship the vaccine to places that are vaccinating people.
Illinois became one of the last states in the country to release vaccination data, and it’s not as complete as the data many other states are offering online to their citizens.
States including North Dakota and Mississippi already are releasing numbers based on race, age and ethnicity. That’s considered key information to ensure the vaccine gets spread fairly. Illinois’ data also does not contain detailed records of each place within the state that’s gotten vaccines, as Georgia and Pennsylvania have done, and what each place has done with their shipments, as in Michigan and South Carolina.
The state health department said in the news release that it would release more detailed data when it could.
—Joe Mahr
1:05 p.m.: Chicago travel order revamped again to allow travelers from all restricted states to avoid quarantine with negative COVID-19 test
Two months after revamping the city’s emergency travel order, Chicago officials recalibrated the requirements again on Tuesday to give travelers from all states with certain COVID-19 rates the chance to opt out of a mandatory quarantine.
In November, the order had been divided into three tiers to account for the fact that some states the city wants to restrict movement from are faring the same or better than Chicago in terms of coronavirus case numbers. The new requirements will no longer factor city metrics into account but will ease restrictions on people coming from the hardest-hit states.
The November revamp had said the order’s most severe “red” stage, which required a mandatory 10-day quarantine, included all states above Chicago’s seven-day rolling average of daily cases per 100,000 residents. The “orange” stage, which required a quarantine or a negative COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours before arrival, had states between 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents and Chicago’s daily cases per 100,000 residents. The “yellow” stage, which had no restrictions, included states under 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents.
Beginning Friday, the travel order will no longer have a red tier, as it will be combined with orange states to include all areas with a rolling average over 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents, according to a news release from the public health department. The new orange stage will have the same requirements — 10-day quarantine or a negative COVID-19 test — as it did before. That means states will either be in the orange stage and subject to those restrictions or in yellow with no restrictions.
Hawaii will be the only state in yellow, the news release said. All other states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., are in orange. But most of the country has been under some form of restriction under Chicago’s travel order for a while now, with the majority of the map colored red or orange even before Tuesday’s update.
Officials have said the order is meant to educate residents and have not strictly enforced it. And no matter where travelers are coming from, orange or yellow states, they should adhere to public health guidelines that have been in place since the pandemic started.
“Regardless of category, people are urged to avoid non-essential travel and to follow standard COVID-19 mitigation practices such as wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and social distancing,” the press release said.
Read more here. —Alice Yin
12:47 p.m.: Chicago-area restaurant owners hope for a better year, but brace for slow winter
Every step of the pandemic has felt unusual for restaurants, but unlike the uncertainty of most of last year, vaccines are being distributed, adding a glimmer of hope to 2021. Unfortunately, it’s unclear exactly when most of the public will get access to the vaccines. Adding to the stress is that it is winter, a season traditionally known as the slowest time of the year for restaurants. Plus, indoor dining is still banned in the Illinois, and since it’s cold, fewer people want to brave outdoor patios.
So how do people in the restaurant industry feel right now? We reached out to chefs and owners from across the city, and the responses were as mixed as you’d expect. Many noted the difficulties still ahead, from worrying about financial stability during the winter to concerns about vaccinations. But there was definitely an undercurrent of hope that things will turn around after a disastrous 2020.
“I feel optimistic; yes, I do,” says Greg Hudgins, owner of Tastee Rolls (130 E. 79th St.), which serves creative takes on egg rolls, including one filled with jerk chicken. He and his fiancee, Angel Williams, opened a second location of the restaurant in Chatham a few months ago.
Because the shop only does to-go service, they haven’t had to worry about the closing of dining rooms. In fact, not only has business been good for the past few months, they are even considering opening other locations in Atlanta, Las Vegas and maybe California.
But for restaurants that depend on their dining rooms to make money, the feeling is more restrained. “It’s like recovering from a major surgery,” says chef Dan Snowden of Pizza Lobo (3000 W. Fullerton Ave.) in Logan Square. “Finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but you know it’s not going to be easy.”
Read more here. —Nick Kindelsperger
12:10 p.m.: Illinois reports 6,642 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, 117 new deaths on Tuesday
State health officials on Tuesday announced 6,642 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 117 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,040,168 and the statewide death toll to 17,743 since the start of the pandemic.
There were 93,491 tests reported in the previous 24 hours. The preliminary statewide test positivity rate is 8.6%.
10:50 a.m.: Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider tests positive for COVID-19, blames maskless Republicans during Capitol riot lockdown
Illinois U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 after being confined with members of Congress who refused to wear masks during the violent pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.
In his statement, Schneider referenced a video from the new Washington-based news outlet, Punchbowl News, that showed Republican members of Congress refusing requests to wear a mask as a woman went around the room handing them out.
Schneider, a Democrat from north suburban Deerfield, is at least the third member of the House to test positive since the violent pro-Trump mob descended on the Capitol building. Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., also have tested positive for the coronavirus. Watson Coleman is a 75-year-old cancer survivor.
Read more here. —Bill Ruthhart
10:40 a.m.: Cicero educators refuse to show up at school: Staff members ‘genuinely afraid to return to unsafe buildings’
Despite a request from the Cicero School District 99 superintendent and school board, the vast majority of the district’s teachers refused to return to their classrooms on Monday, saying rising COVID-19 rates in the community make school buildings unsafe.
“By demanding that we return to classrooms in the midst of the pandemic, Superintendent Rodolfo Hernandez and the District 99 Board of Education are not prioritizing the safety of our teachers and school staff,” Rachel Esposito, president of the Cicero Council, the district’s teachers union, said.
Of the district roughly 11,000 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, less than 2,000 have indicated they would attend in-person classes once the district’s 17 buildings are re-opened, Esposito said.
Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta
9:20 a.m.: State education measure would create commission to address needs of students who have fallen behind during pandemic
Both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly on Monday passed the Legislative Black Caucus’ broad education proposal that makes changes to statewide education laws from early to higher education.
The education measure is one of four tenets of a the Black Caucus’ agenda, which lawmakers are considering during the five-day lame-duck session and also includes measures aimed at tackling racial disparities in criminal justice, health care and economic development.
The education legislation includes the creation of a standardized assessment for children entering kindergarten that measures literacy, language, mathematics, and social and emotional development, and also aims to expand access to computer science courses students.
The legislation charges a state education commission with making recommendations on how to address the needs of students who have fallen behind as a result of not being in the classroom during the pandemic.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks and Dan Petrella
7:20 a.m.: Don’t hold back second doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Trump administration tells states in bid to speed shots to vulnerable
The Trump administration is asking states to speed delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to people older than 65 and others at high risk by no longer holding back the second dose of the two-dose shots, officials said Tuesday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that “the administration in the states has been too narrowly focused.”
As a result, he said, the Trump administration is now asking states to vaccinate people aged 65 and over and those under 65 with underlying health conditions. He said the vaccine production is such that the second dose of the two-shot vaccine can be released without jeopardizing immunization for those who got the first shot.
Read more here. —Associated Press
7 a.m.: Older Cook County residents hit by coronavirus economic downturn can use loan program to offset taxes
Older Cook County residents with lower incomes can use a state loan program administered by the county treasurer’s office to offset the cost of their property taxes, according to a news release from the office.
Homeowners with household income of less than $55,000 a year who will be 65 or older by June 1 can receive a 6% loan of $5,000 or less per year and pay off the loan when a house is sold, according to the release. The deadline to apply is March 1.
More information and applications for what’s know as the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral Program are available at cookcountytreasurer.com. — Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Takeout 100 — the Tribune’s guide to Chicago’s best restaurants for pickup and delivery right now
Takeout, once an afterthought, something to grab on the way home from work, has become a lifeline to restaurants — and to us. With dining rooms closed since late October — and with no signs of opening soon — and outdoor seating limited by space, costs and winter, restaurants have stepped up their takeout game, and indeed have been doing so since March 2020. Full meals, DIY meal kits — complete with reheating directions and even playlists — and traditional a la carte, it’s all there, as close as your cellphone.
But sometimes, it’s hard to choose. Which is why the Tribune’s Food & Dining team has compiled a list of 100 Chicago-area restaurants and bars offering our favorite takeout dishes. Takeout 100 is searchable by ZIP code, address or town, and can be filtered for food type and price range.
Read more here. —Chicago Tribune dining staff
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