Coronavirus live blog, Oct. 16, 2020: Illinois sees record positive cases for the second day in a row

Here’s Friday’s news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.

SHARE Coronavirus live blog, Oct. 16, 2020: Illinois sees record positive cases for the second day in a row

Illinois suffered a second straight record-shattering day with 4,554 new coronavirus cases reported Friday, a third of the state has reached a COVID-19 “warning level,” and testing positivity rates are darting up across the board.

“I am deeply concerned. Let me be clear: We are in a new wave here,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “Anybody that hasn’t noticed this, turn on the television. We’re in a new wave of COVID-19 — rising cases, rising positivity, all across the nation.”

Cases are going up. The pandemic’s not over yet. Here’s what else happened in coronavirus-related news in Chicago and around Illinois.


News

8:55 p.m. Illinois sees record positive cases for the second day in a row

A phlebotomist draws blood for a coronavirus antibody test in May in the parking lot of St. Rosalie Catholic Parish in Harwood Heights.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

For a second straight day, Illinois shattered its record for the most coronavirus infections confirmed in a single day throughout the pandemic with 4,554 newly diagnosed cases of the deadly disease. 

The gargantuan caseload was reported among a record-high 87,759 tests submitted to the Illinois Department of Public Health — but it was still enough to raise the state’s seven-day average testing positivity rate over the 5% mark for the first time since early June, when the state was easing down from its initial peak of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Mitchell Armentrout has the full report.


6:45 p.m. Pritzker to extend eviction moratorium another 30 days: ‘Nothing really has changed’

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday he plans to extend the state’s moratorium on evictions another month.

Pritzker said adjustments made to the order are still being worked out, and the Friday announcement served purely as a heads up that the extension was coming.

“Suffice to say though, there won’t be any major news, but we are looking at how we might make adjustments,” Prtizker said at an unrelated news conference. “Remember, nothing really has changed in terms of the effect of COVID-19 and its effect on the economy, its effect on people’s jobs and their ability, or inability, to pay their rent or mortgage.”

More details on the October extension of the moratorium will be rolled out along with the executive order, Pritzker said.

Reporter Mitch Armentrout has the full story.

4:15 p.m. CPS reopening to start with pre-K, special ed next month; more students could return in January

The largest enrollment drop in over two decades and difficulties remotely teaching students with disabilities spurred a plan to bring preschoolers and some special education students back to school next month, followed by the potential return of other students as soon as January, Chicago Public Schools officials said Friday.

In the meantime, all classes will continue to operate remotely at the start of the second academic quarter in early November with the school system’s youngest students and those in special education cluster programs returning soon after — if all goes according to plan.

Any decision to reopen schools during a pandemic, however, will come amid a concerning resurgence of COVID-19 in Chicago — Illinois recorded its highest single-day case total Friday — and the backdrop of Black and Latino families, who make up 90% of the district, suffering the hardest impact of the virus so far.

Reporter Nader Issa has the full story.

12:47 p.m. Chicago Public Schools reports ‘stunning’ single-year enrollment drop, largest in over 2 decades

Chicago Public Schools enrollment has plummeted by 15,000 students this fall, the largest single-year drop in more than two decades, according to records released by the school system Friday.

Officials called the decrease from 355,000 students to 340,000 a “crisis” that was largely driven by a significant drop in new families enrolling this fall in preschool programs and elementary school.

The district released the enrollment figures, calculated on the 20th day of the school year in late September, along with a news release confirming all CPS students will remain in remote learning at the start of the second quarter of the academic year next month. CPS’ “goal” is to phase in preschool and special education cluster programs soon after because of enrollment and remote learning concerns.

“While we’re seeing similar trends across the country, the stunning decline among Black children enrolled in pre-K casts a somber light on how the pandemic and remote learning negatively impact our youngest learners,” LaTanya McDade, CPS’ chief education officer, said in a statement.

Among the largest drops this school year were 8,000 fewer students at district-run elementary schools and 6,000 fewer children in pre-K programs. High school and charter school enrollment remained even.

Read Nader Issa’s full story here.

9:56 a.m. Absent debate, Trump, Biden square off in separate town halls

President Donald Trump was evasive Thursday night when pressed if he took a COVID-19 test before his first debate with Democrat Joe Biden as the two men squared off again, in a way, after their scuttled second showdown was replaced by dueling televised town halls several channels apart.

Biden, appearing nearly 1,200 miles away, denounced the White House’s handling of the virus that has claimed more than 215,000 American lives, declaring that it was at fault for closing a pandemic response office established by the Obama administration. Trump, meanwhile, was defensive and insisted that the nation was turning the corner on the virus, even as his own battle with the disease took center stage.

Trump, less than two weeks after being diagnosed with COVID-19, dodged directly answering whether he took a test the day of the Sept. 29 debate, only saying “possibly I did, possibly I didn’t.” Debate rules required that each candidate, using the honor system, had tested negative prior to the Cleveland event, but Trump spoke in circles when asked when he last tested negative.

It was his positive test two days later that created Thursday’s odd spectacle, which deprived most viewers of a simultaneous look at the candidates just 19 days before Election Day. The moment seemed fitting for a race unlike any other, as yet another campaign ritual was changed by the pandemic that has rewritten the norms of society.

Read the full Associated Press dispatch here.

8:11 a.m. Illinois’ largest ever daily COVID-19 caseload sparks fears worst is yet to come: ‘We’re headed for a new peak’

Public health officials Thursday announced 4,015 more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Illinois, the highest number of new cases ever reported by the state throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The staggering caseload is one greater than the 4,014 cases confirmed by the Illinois Department of Public Health on May 12, when the state was weathering the worst days of the crisis.

But the latest tally “makes it look like we’re headed for a new peak,” according to one of Chicago’s top experts who has been at the front lines of the COVID-19 fight — an apex that could end up being even more deadly if people don’t take health guidelines seriously.

“Instead of this being a new peak, where the number of cases comes up and then goes back down again, I think what we’re seeing is more like a mountain: you go up, you come down halfway, then you keep climbing up,” University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon said. “And this mountain looks even taller than the last one.”

Officials on Thursday also announced the virus has claimed 53 more lives across the state, topping the daily death toll of 49 from a day earlier that had marked the worst figure since late June.

Mitchell Armentrout has more details.

6:45 a.m. Open House Chicago 2020 moves online because of COVID, so pick a neighborhood — or two — and spend the day during

Open House Chicago, the annual event giving architecture enthusiasts a closer look at some of the area’s most treasured buildings, will go on this year despite the pandemic.

Still, the coronavirus has forced some changes.

The biggest change: people won’t be able to go inside the more than 100 sites featured this year. Instead, the festival has gone virtual, with a mobile app that the Chicago Architecture Center launched Wednesday.

Read the full story by Manny Ramos here.


New cases


Analysis & Commentary

8:12 a.m. You don’t need a sleeping bag to survive early voting lines, but a campstool — and a scarf — might come in handy

It took me two hours and seven minutes to early vote this week at Truman College in Uptown, only five minutes of which involved actually filling out the ballot.

The rest of the time was spent waiting outdoors in a long line that moved at a glacial pace, followed by a shorter wait indoors.

Yes, this is why I should have taken the advice to vote by mail, but I wasn’t ready to do that, and only my wife gets to say, ‘I told you so,’ because she really did tell me so, and the rest of you were just thinking it.

In my defense, I’m hardly alone.

At numerous early voting sites across the city on Wednesday, voters experienced similar delays as the first day of expanded early voting in all 50 wards coincided with warm, sunny fall weather.

If you’re going to vote in person in 2020, you’re going to need to bring your patience, your mask, some comfortable shoes and probably your mobile phone to keep you entertained.

And, oh yes, appropriate outerwear because you’re going to be waiting outdoors. The pandemic requires election officials to limit the number of people inside a polling place.

In certain extreme circumstances, I could even see a campstool and snacks coming in handy.

Read Mark Brown’s full column here.

7:30 a.m. A Cook County budget built to ‘weather the storm’ — but the rain had better be moving on

Since the pandemic first swept in, we have argued that it’s important for local governments to continue functioning as normally as possible.

That’s a tall order given how COVID-19 has driven up costs and decimated tax revenues. But a government that can’t provide essential services now — when those services are most needed — is failing in its basic responsibilities.

We’re encouraged, so far, by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed $6.9 billion county budget for 2021, presented to the public on Thursday.

Read the full editorial by the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board here.

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