There have now been more than 1 million tests for COVID-19 conducted in Illinois since the outbreak began, a milestone reached as the state on Friday announced 1,156 new known cases of coronavirus.
The statewide known case count is now 125,915. State officials also announced 59 additional deaths Friday, raising the statewide death toll to 5,795 total deaths.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago expects to reopen the city’s Lakefront Trail “soon.” The mayor said she’s hoping to announce reopening the lakefront “relatively soon” with a plan meant to minimize crowding and having designated times for activities on the lakefront.
The day before, state health officials said anyone who wants to get tested for the new coronavirus in Illinois can, regardless of symptoms, at almost a dozen state-run testing sites.
The availability of on-demand testing was a key component of moving from phase three of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan, which began May 29, to phase four, although officials later reframed it as a goal rather than a requirement.
Here’s what happened June 5 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:08 p.m.: Chicago churches can meet up to 25% capacity or up to 50 people, Lightfoot says
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago churches can hold services with no more than 50 people, so long as they wear masks and maintain social distance.
The city will allow churches to have 25 percent capacity or a maximum of 50 people, she said, as Chicago continues easing its stay-at-home restrictions put in place for the coronavirus pandemic. Chicago enters its latest phase of reopening earlier this week.
“We’re going to start there, we’re going to give churches the ability to see how that goes and then we’ll be in constant (contact) to see if we need to make some modifications or adjustments along the way,” she said.
Lightfoot’s announcement caps a conflict that began last month, when Metro Praise International Church on the Northwest Side opened its doors for in-person services in an act church officials described as “passive resistance” to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order.
That defiance led Lightfoot to tweet, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. When you gather like this, you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger.”
The city ultimately fined three churches for violating the order, but businessman and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson vowed to pay their citations.
During the stay-at-home order, churches posed a thorny enforcement problem due to potential First Amendment questions and a political one, too, as no elected official wants to cross local ministers. —Gregory Pratt
5:20 p.m.: Horse racing without spectators set to begin at Hawthorne, but Arlington is stuck at the gate
The Chicago Bulls may be done for the season, but the horses are back.
The Illinois Racing Board on Friday approved a proposal to start harness racing at Hawthorne Race Course — without spectators — beginning this weekend. Fans won’t be able to attend the suburban Stickney facility, but they will be able to watch the races and place wagers at Chicago-area off track betting parlors.
Arlington International Racecourse, which is looking to resume thoroughbred racing this summer, also without spectators, was left at the starting gate — at least for the weekend. The board continued Arlington’s proposal until Monday, with hopes the track can resolve an ongoing contract dispute with the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
Tony Petrillo, Arlington’s president, said he was “distraught” over the delay in a racing season already cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Delaying the decision today pushes us back another two days,” Petrillo said. “It’s not as easy as turning on and off a switch.” Read more here. —Robert Channick
1:51 p.m.: Illinois tops 1 million total COVID-19 tests as officials report 1,156 new known cases and 59 more deaths
There have now been more than 1 million tests for COVID-19 conducted in Illinois since the outbreak began, a milestone reached as the state on Friday announced 1,156 new known cases of coronavirus.
The statewide known case count is now 125,915.
State officials also announced 59 additional deaths Friday, raising the statewide death toll to 5,795 total deaths.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the latest numbers Friday afternoon in Peoria, where he was touring a testing site.
As of midnight Friday, 2,911 people in the state were hospitalized with COVID-19, 817 of them were in the ICU and 500 were on ventilators.
Pritzker also urged anyone who has taken part in “mass gatherings,” including protest marches and other demonstrations in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, to get tested. Tests are now available to anyone, regardless of symptoms, at 11 state testing sites. Read more here. —Jamie Munks
1:43 p.m.: Lakefront drawing Chicagoans out — though it’s still closed
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expects the lakefront to open “soon,” but many locals are jumping the gun and acting as if it’s open already. Beachcombers, sunbathers, cyclists and even swimmers — despite the 54 degree water — have been observed along Lake Michigan the past few days.
Lightfoot made her comment at an unrelated news conference when asked when she will reopen the Chicago lakefront. The mayor said she’s hoping to announce reopening the lakefront “relatively soon” with a plan meant to minimize crowding and having designated times for activities on the lakefront.
An employee from Diversey Tennis, located just west of Lake Shore Drive, said in a phone call Thursday that workers had heard June 8 as a potential reopening date, but had not yet received any official communication or confirmation. Read more here. —Adam Lukach and Gregory Pratt
1:09 p.m.: Amid coronavirus and ‘recent horrific events,’ DePaul University is giving students a break
Citing the stress and anxiety caused by recent events as well as the coronavirus pandemic, Chicago’s DePaul University has announced it’s providing coursework relief to students.
That includes asking faculty to allow final exams to be optional, to forgo final coursework or allow students to drop classes as late as the last day of classes. Read more here. —Robert McCoppin
12:45 p.m.: Two huge COVID-19 studies are retracted after scientists sound alarms
The studies, published in renowned scientific journals, produced astounding results and altered the course of research into the coronavirus pandemic.
One undercut President Donald Trump’s claim that certain antimalarial drugs cure COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, concluding that the medications in fact were dangerous to patients. The other found that some blood pressure drugs did not increase the risk of COVID-19 and might even be protective.
Both studies were led by a professor at Harvard, and both depended on a huge international database of patient medical records that few experts had ever heard of.
But on Thursday, the studies were retracted by the scientific journals in which they had appeared, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet, because the authors could not verify the data on which the results depended. Read more here. —The New York News
11:23 a.m.: 112th Mackinac race canceled because of COVID-19, will be run in 2021, Chicago Yacht Club announces
The 2020 Race to Mackinac, scheduled for July 16-17, has been canceled because of coronavirus concerns and uncertainty, organizers announced.
Organizers feared state social distancing requirements for boaters would keep crews too small, the city of Chicago never released regulations for boaters and it remains uncertain when city harbors will reopen, race Chairman Martin Sandoval said in a news release.
The 333-mile race, run since 1898, usually is run in July between near Navy Pier and Mackinac Island, Michigan. The last time the race was canceled was 1920.
“It is with heavy hearts that we cancel this year’s race, but the ability to run a safe event with consideration of the health and well-being of all participants and volunteers needs to take precedence,” said Chicago Yacht Club Lou Sandoval in the release.
Organizers said they hope to run the 112th race in 2021. —Chicago Tribune staff
10:05 a.m.: Mayor Lori Lightfoot says city’s Lakefront Trail expected to reopen ‘soon’
In a boost for restive Chicagoans, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city expects to reopen the city’s Lakefront Trail “soon.”
Lightfoot made the comments at an unrelated news conference when asked how when she will reopen the Chicago lakefront. The mayor said she’s hoping to announce reopening the lakefront “relatively soon” with a plan meant to minimize crowding and having designated times for activities on the lakefront.
Shutting down the city’s lakefront was perhaps the signature anti-coronavirus move taken by Lightfoot after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker implemented a stay-at-home order. —Gregory Pratt
9:34 a.m.: Going back to work won’t be business as usual. A group of Chicago companies is creating a playbook to restart Chicago’s economy.
Aon is leading a coalition of major Chicago corporations to draw up safe standards for restarting the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, creating a model that the consulting and risk management giant plans to expand to cities throughout the world.
The company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Chicago, said the goal is to create best practices for companies and communities to function in a time when isolation measures are being eased yet a vaccine likely remains months — and possibly years — away.
The coalition includes some of the Chicago area’s biggest and best-known companies, such as McDonald’s, United Airlines, Walgreens, Allstate, Hyatt Hotels and Exelon.
Aon plans to roll out similar coalitions in New York, London, Dublin, Toronto and Singapore over the next 30 days, said Bridget Gainer, vice president of global affairs at Aon.
“There is zero playbook that exists,” Gainer said. “As the economy begins to open up, we have the opportunity as a business community to step up and work together. More information is going to make that recovery stronger and faster.” Read more here. —Ryan Ori
7 a.m.: Blues Fest online events, created because of COVID-19 cancellations, postponed because of George Floyd fallout
After in-person events were cancelled because of the coronavirus, city officials had planned to hold online concerts in place of this weekend’s planned Chicago Blues Festival, but the online concerts have been postponed.
The events were originally scheduled to start Friday.
But “In light of and out of respect for recent events, the Chicago blues edition of Millennium Park at Home Concerts has been postponed until July 31-August 2,” according to a tweet Thursday from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. “Save the dates and tune in to see these same, great artists on the DCASE Youtube channel.” —Chicago Tribune staff
5 a.m.: Latinos have the highest COVID-19 infection rate in Illinois; community leaders fear things will get worse as restrictions ease
Like so many Mexican immigrants, Melissa Martinez Zepeda’s parents don’t have the privilege of working from home. Both of their workplaces — a warehouse and factory — continued to operate even after the COVID-19 pandemic struck. And, unfortunately, both contracted the disease after dutifully showing up to their jobs.
Their symptoms were mild, and they are OK now, but the turn of events left their daughter with great anxiety.
“I just kept seeing all the worst-case scenarios in my head,” said Martinez Zepeda, 27, of the Jefferson Park neighborhood. “I did have a little breakdown, and there were so many uncertainties.”
Martinez Zepeda still frets about her parents’ health as they return to work. She also worries that other families will face the same anguish she did — or worse — after the city and state recently lifted many stay-at-home restrictions.
For many in Chicago’s Latino community, the prospect of more people getting out and about sows more anxiety than optimism. Although surges of coronavirus infections have also severely affected other communities, including African Americans, state data indicates that Latinos have a higher infection rate than any other racial or ethnic group in Illinois.
Read more here. —Hal Dardick and Cecilia Reyes
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Here are five things that happened Thursday in Illinois related to the coronavirus:
New federal data showed how COVID-19 is ripping through understaffed Illinois nursing homes, likely infected more than 7,000 nursing home workers in in the state, as 70 facilities experienced 10 or more deaths.
State officials said Illinois schools can reopen for in-person summer school, after a new executive order from Gov. J.B. Prizker.
Navy Pier, the state’s biggest tourist attraction, will open its outdoor areas, including restaurants, starting Wednesday.
Neary 1.9 million people applied for unemployment benefits nationwide last week, even as parts of the country continued to reopen.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it has ordered a Bensenville company to stop selling products with “impermissable claims” about their effectiveness in fighting the coronavirus.