Illinois public health officials reported 168 coronavirus-related deaths Thursday, the most in a single day since the height of the disease’s spring surge in mid-May.
With the latests fatalities, the state is now averaging 101 deaths per day over the past week, reaching a triple-digit average for the first time since May 20. Thursday’s death toll was the third-highest since the pandemic began, behind 192 fatalities reported May 13 and 176 on May 5.
In all, there have been 11,178 COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began.
Health officials also reported 14,612 new confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus, a huge spike from the 8,922 cases reported a day earlier and the second-highest daily count after the 15,415 reported last Friday. Over the past week, the state has averaged 12,120 daily cases. Overall, there have been 621,383 cases statewide.
An analysis of data by the Associated Press shows an exponential spread of the virus during the past 12 weeks and prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to say that too many people still consider the pandemic a “hoax.”
According to the analysis of Illinois Department of Public Health data, the virus infected 300,000 people within the first 212 days. To double that number to the current 606,771 took just 46 days, including eight days to jump from 500,000 to 600,000.
Similarly, the death toll is rising at rates seen in the worst days of spring. The most recent 1,000 deaths occurred over less than two weeks.
The nearly 6,000 people hospitalized was another record, and is more than at the worst point last spring when officials scurried to set up field units to handle potential overflow.
COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area
Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more
COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood
Chicago, Cook County COVID-19 stay-home advisories: Here’s what you need to know
New coronavirus restrictions: What will be open, closed, different in Illinois starting Nov. 20
Running list of Chicago-area closings and cancellations
Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:31 p.m.: Chicago Park District suspends in-person programming
The Chicago Park District is suspending in-person programming as the state enters Tier 3 of its COVID-19 mitigation plan.
Effective Friday, all in-person programming will be suspended until further notice, according to a news release from the Park District.
During summer, the Park District offered day camps and other park programming. Limited in-person programming was offered for fall.
Online offerings will continue and can be found on the Park District’s website. The Lakefront Trail and city parks, except those east of Lake Shore Drive, are open to the public. Fieldhouses will also remain open for restrooms or shelter during operating hours. The Park District is reminding users to “keep it moving” in outdoor spaces, whether alone or with members of the same household, and wear masks. — Morgan Greene
4:32 p.m.: More south suburban schools pause in-person classes, unable to maintain staffing levels with spike in COVID-19 cases, exposure
As he prepares to send his school district’s 3,300 students home for an extended period of learning remotely, Paul Enderle hopes for better news about COVID-19 in January.
The superintendent of Oak Lawn-Hometown School District 123 knows that doing so “puts a great deal of stress on families that need child care,” noting that many parents in his district work in health care and cannot work from home and supervise young children as they attend class virtually.
District 123 is joining the growing number of school districts in the south and southwest suburbs that have decided it’s unsafe to have students in classrooms amid rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and positivity rates.
His district, along with High School District 230 in Orland Park and New Lenox School District 122, have announced plans to, at least for the near term, keep students at home. That follows recent decisions by area districts such as Lincoln-Way 210 and Bremen 228 to hit the pause button on in-person learning.
District 123 students will be off next week for Thanksgiving break, and won’t have school Nov. 30 or Dec. 1 so teachers can prepare for teaching remotely. The district hopes to have students resume a hybrid model mixing in-person and remote learning by Jan. 19.
In what it terms an “adaptive pause,” District 230, which operates Andrew, Stagg and Sandburg high schools, will shift Monday to remote teaching and potentially return to its hybrid model Dec. 7, according to Superintendent James Gay.
In a message to families Tuesday, New Lenox School District 122 Superintendent Lori Motsch said it has become nearly impossible to maintain adequate staffing levels due to teachers having to quarantine. The district has just under 5,600 students and staff.
There is no school scheduled after Thursday, with students off Friday to allow for remote instruction training for staff, followed by no classes Monday or Tuesday for parent/teacher conferences then a three-day Thanksgiving break. Read more here. — Mike Nolan/Daily Southtown
4:08 p.m.: Citi Foundation gives $15 million in PPP proceeds to 30 lenders serving lower-income communities, including two in Chicago
Citigroup’s philanthropic arm is giving two Chicago-based lenders serving low-income communities $500,000 each from proceeds the bank collected through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
The funds are part of a $15 million donation from Citi Foundation to 30 community-based lenders in 10 states and D.C., and are drawn from proceeds on the origination fees New York-based Citibank collected processing PPP loans to small businesses early in the pandemic.
The groups receiving the money are Community Development Financial Institutions, which provide financing and assistance to small businesses owned by people of color and nonprofits that aren’t always able to access capital from traditional banks.
The two Chicago-based recipients are IFF, which lends to nonprofits planning to build child care centers, clinics or schools in low-income communities, and Chicago Community Loan Fund, which provides loans to organizations focused on affordable housing, social services and economic development projects in underserved neighborhoods. Read more here. — Abdel Jimenez
3:31 p.m.: ‘Make yourself happy.’ Christmas trees go up earlier than ever as Chicagoans seek a mood boost amid coronavirus restrictions.
Who gets to say when a Christmas tree is placed too early?
Typically, Jessica Cabe would decorate her tree in late November. A few roommates had politely requested she wait until Thanksgiving, so she agreed.
This year, she is in her own apartment for the first time. So she knew she could indulge herself and put it up as early as she wanted. She planned for the week before Thanksgiving.
But as the 2020 stress mounted, she caved. Read more here. — Alison Bowen
2:04 p.m.: CDC strongly urges Americans to avoid travel for Thanksgiving
As the United States struggles with surging coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday urged Americans not to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday and to consider canceling plans to spend time with relatives outside their households.
The new guidance states clearly that “the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people you live with,” and that gathering with friends and even family members who do not live with you increases the chances of becoming infected with COVID-19 or the flu or transmitting the virus.
Officials said they were strengthening their recommendations against travel because of a startling surge in infections in just the past week. As of Wednesday, the seven-day average of new cases across the country had surpassed more than 162,000 new cases, and more than 79,000 were hospitalized.
“Amid this critical phase, the CDC is recommending against travel during the Thanksgiving period,” said Dr. Henry Walke, COVID-19 incident manager at the agency, during a news briefing.
Read more here. —The New York Times
1:22 p.m.: Officials report 168 coronavirus deaths in Illinois, the highest one-day total since mid-May; daily case count of 14,612 is second highest of pandemic
Illinois public health officials reported 168 coronavirus-related deaths Thursday, the most in a single day since the height of the disease’s spring surge in mid-May.
With the latests fatalities, the state is now averaging 101 deaths per day over the past week, reaching a triple-digit average for the first time since May 20. Thursday’s death toll was the third-highest since the pandemic began, behind 192 fatalities reported May 13 and 176 on May 5.
In all, there have been 11,178 COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began.
Health officials also reported 14,612 new confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus, a huge spike from the 8,922 cases reported a day earlier and the second-highest daily count after the 15,415 reported last Friday. Over the past week, the state has averaged 12,120 daily cases. Overall, there have been 621,383 cases statewide.
The number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 surpassed 6,000 for the first time as of Wednesday night, just eight days after hospitalizations first exceeded 5,000. Of the 6,037 patients in the hospital Wednesday night, 1,192 were in intensive care and 587 were on ventilators. All three of those figures are on the upswing.
The high numbers come a day before new restrictions take effect statewide aimed at slowing the aggressive fall resurgence of the coronavirus.
—Dan Petrella
12:35 p.m.: Column: How did you get it? And what good are masks if they didn’t protect you? Answers to common reader questions about my COVID-19 ordeal.
On Monday I wrote about my October COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization, and hundreds of readers have reached out through email and social media with support, questions and a few criticisms.
Thank you sincerely to everyone who wrote. Here, I’m going to try to answer the questions and criticisms that have come up most frequently, in the spirit of us all being in this together.
I’m not sharing my story to apply for sainthood. I’m sure I’ve made mistakes along the way. I’m sharing it so others can possibly learn from my particular experience. We simply will not make it through this without looking out for one another.
Read the full column here. —Heidi Stevens
12:08 p.m.: 14,612 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 168 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 14,612 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 168 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 621,383 and the statewide death toll to 11,178 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 113,447 new tests in the last 24 hours.
The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 12% for the period ending Wednesday, up from 8% on Nov. 1.
—Chicago Tribune staff
Chicago Marathon is preparing for 2021 after last year’s race was canceled because of COVID-19. And registration for 2020 deferred runners starts today.
The Chicago Marathon is working on plans to return for 2021 after this year’s race was canceled because of COVID-19 concerns.
The race is scheduled to take place on Oct. 10 with a tiered entry process to ensure registered runners who deferred — as well as charity fundraising runners — would be prioritized.
Registration began Thursday, with a second application window planned in January for the general public.
An event spokesperson said the race will be similar in size to past Chicago Marathons, which usually welcome about 45,000 participants.
Read more here. —Shannon Ryan
11:37 a.m.: For Chicago’s movie theaters, particularly the Music Box Theatre, ‘the gloom and doom has returned.’ Welcome to the club.
Like so much else in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two-screen 1929 landmark Music Box Theatre, on North Southport Avenue not far from Wrigley Field, closed down March 17, aka “the first time.”
Theater owner William Schopf and general manager Ryan Oestreich reopened July 3, at a capacity of 50 maximum in the big house, which seats 748. The smaller screening venue reopened with an 18-person cap.
When the weather warmed up, in the Music Box’s adjoining outdoor beer garden, Oestreich and company added a 25-person screening option, with titles such as “Purple Rain” and “Best in Show.”
This fall, rather than canceling the annual Music Box of Horrors festival of thriller, horror and retro schlock delicacies, they took it outside. For 31 consecutive nights, at a 130-car capacity, the Halloween-themed festival drew faithful audiences with wheels to the most popular of Chicago’s 2020 pop-up drive-ins: the ChiTownMovies operation in Pilsen.
The ChiTownMovies outdoor venue remains open for business, by the way: You can catch a double feature of “Elf” and “Mean Girls” Friday night, Nov. 20. The website currently lists drive-in offerings through “The Santa Clause” on Dec. 1.
Read more here. —Michael Phillips
7 a.m.: Chicago will livestream lighting of Christmas tree in Millennium Park this evening
Citing COVID-19 safety concerns, the city of Chicago will livestream the lighting of the Christmas tree Thursday evening instead of staging the usual public event in Millennium Park.
The “virtual holiday program” will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be shown here as the Christmas tree is lit near Michigan Avenue and Washington Street. The 30-minute program will include remarks by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and music performances recorded at the Epiphany Center for the Arts featuring the Chicago Children’s Choir, Sones de México Ensemble and Percy Bady.
Under pandemic guidelines, the park is open every day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for groups of 10 or less “who practice physical distancing and wear face coverings,” the city said in a statement. The tree will remain on display until Jan. 7.
—Chicago Tribune staff
7 a.m.: Tighter restrictions begin overnight to curb spike in coronavirus cases. Theaters must close, stores must follow capacity limits and family urged to limit gatherings
Just after midnight tonight, Illinois will begin operating under tighter restrictions designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, museums, casinos and theaters must close, while retail stores must adhere to new capacity limits, according to mitigation measures developed by the state. Additionally, big-box stores must operate at 25% capacity, while grocery stores can operate at a maximum capacity of 50%.
Schools and child care facilities can continue to operate as long as they adhere to guidelines from the Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, according to the governor’s office.
Gatherings should be limited to household members, according to the restrictions, and officials have urged residents to celebrate Thanksgiving virtually.
Gyms can operate at 25% capacity but cannot use reservation systems, must close their locker rooms and stop hosting group classes. All indoor youth and adult recreational group sports must temporarily stop, but outdoor sports and recreation can continue as well as individual training. Personal care services that require the removal of masks, such as facials and beard trims, are prohibited.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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