Coronavirus live blog, Aug. 17, 2020: Bears announce no fans at Soldier Field for start of 2020 season

It was a big day for students at Illinois State University.

Students and faculty took on the first day of class with a mix of hesitation and excitement. With about 80% of classes online this fall, according to university spokesman Eric Jome, far fewer students were in the quad and student center than on a typical first day. Professors led in-person classes with masks, and sometimes face shields; stickers marked seats to be left open for social distancing.

Here’s what else happened in and around Chicago as the coronavirus pandemic continued.

News

8:53 p.m. Bears announce no fans at Soldier Field for start of 2020 season

Sun-Times file

The Bears announced Monday evening they will indefinitely keep Soldier Field empty for home games.

The team’s statement came after conversations with the City of Chicago, health officials and the park district didn’t produce a consensus on a safe way to host a limited number of fans amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“After discussing a draft plan with city health officials, the Bears and the City of Chicago agreed the health metrics show that it is not the right time to welcome fans back to Soldier Field,” the team said. “The health and safety of the city’s residents and fans of the Bears will always take priority.

“The team and city will continue to monitor the environment and believe there can be a sound plan in place to bring fans back to Soldier Field once it is deemed safe and appropriate. Until then, Bears home games will not include in-person fans.”

Several NFL teams have announced similar plans, including the Packers deciding to play in an empty Lambeau Field for at least the first month of the season, but others are still hoping to have a limited-capacity crowd. The Chiefs expect to have Arrowhead Stadium a little over 20 percent full for the NFL kickoff game against the Texans on Sept. 10.

Reporter Jason Lieser has the full story.

7:34 p.m. State sees 1,773 new coronavirus cases, 12 additional deaths

Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo

State health officials on Monday announced 1,773 new coronavirus cases and 12 additional deaths.

Illinois is averaging more than 1,700 new cases each day this month — up sharply from July’s daily average of 1,150.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate from August 10 through August 16 is 4.2% — a slight uptick from a week ago when the positivity rate stood at 4.1%.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly warned people that if a region surpasses certain thresholds — including percentage of people testing positive, hospital capacity and rising hospital admissions — officials will tighten restrictions.

The first region to experience a roll back in its reopening is the Metro East region in southern Illinois, which has surpassed an 8% positivity rate for three consecutive days.

Starting Tuesday, the Metro East region — which includes Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair and Washington counties — will face tighter restrictions, mainly affecting bars, restaurants and social gatherings. Under the new mitigation requirements, bars and restaurants must close by 11 p.m.

Read the full story here.

6:56 p.m. Pizza Hut closing 300 stores to focus on smaller spaces better for COVID-safe pickups

Up to 300 Pizza Hut restaurants will be closed, most of them dine-in locations not well suited for carryout and delivery at a time when millions of people are sheltering and eating at home.

Pizza sales have exploded during the pandemic. Domino’s last month reported a 30% spike in quarterly profits. On Monday it said that it was hiring more than 20,000 people to handle surging orders.

Franchisee NPC International said Monday in documents filed in bankruptcy court that it had come to an agreement with Pizza Hut to close hundreds of locations. The Leawood, Kansas, company filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

NPC owns 1,225 Pizza Huts and 385 Wendy’s restaurants in 27 states. There are 6,700 Pizza Hut restaurants in the U.S.

In its filing, NPC said that closing stores not designed for pick-up or delivery will allow it to invest in smaller stores that can better handle online orders.

Read the full report here

5:25 p.m. CFD academy suspends operations after multiple COVID-19 cases reported

The Chicago Fire Department is suspending training at the Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy after multiple people tested positive for COVID-19.

Current recruits will continue training online as the facility is cleaned and disinfected, fire officials said in a statement.

Fire officials didn’t say how many people tested positive, but none of the cases required hospitalization. Everyone who has tested positive is self-isolating at home.

Cleaning would take about a week, but fire officials didn’t have an exact estimate of how long the facility would be closed.

“The health and safety of Chicago’s firefighters, paramedics and recruits are our utmost priority,” CFD spokesman Larry Langford said in a statement.

— Carly Behm

4:25 p.m. Illinois State return-to-classes met with excitement, hesitation

Lizzie O’Dwyer hadn’t seen anyone besides her boyfriend, whom she lives with, for five months.

But by noon on Monday, Illinois State University’s first day of classes, O’Dwyer had already attended two in-person classes, each with about a dozen students.

“I was definitely nervous last night, when I realized I’d have to go see people,” said O’Dwyer, a senior from Evergreen Park who’s studying music education. “I’ve lived here all summer and haven’t gone out at all.”

Students and faculty took on the first day of class at Illinois State with a mix of hesitation and excitement. With about 80% of classes online this fall, according to university spokesman Eric Jome, far fewer students were in the quad and student center than on a typical first day. Professors led in-person classes with masks, and sometimes face shields; stickers marked seats to be left open for social distancing.

Read the full story here.

2:30 p.m. Transit’s fate tied to trust — and probably federal cash

One great lure for Chicago hangs in the balance during the coronavirus pandemic: public transit. The systems are starved of ridership revenue and sales taxes because of the economic shutdowns, and we don’t know how soon people will board a crowded bus or train again. As work returns, will they all get into cars and worsen gridlock?

“No one is heading back to the office in droves. People are taking a sort of staged, phased approach to this,” said Leanne Redden, executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority.

The agency has been talking to the CTA, Metra and Pace, plus business groups such as the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, to develop campaigns to get people back on public transit. So far, that’s amounted to lots of signs about cleanliness, masks and social distancing.

Jack Lavin, CEO of the chamber, said about two-thirds of employers report their workers depend on public transit. “There are trust issues. That word ‘trust’ keeps coming up,” Lavin said.

Highway traffic has been picking up, but the ridership statistics are still bleak for the transit services, according to RTA data. Metra, tied to downtown commuters, is off 90% from last year’s pace, right where it was early in the pandemic. The CTA has seen an uptick but is still down about 70% on average with bus and rail factored together. Pace has lately improved to about a 50% drop.

Redden said the pandemic has cost the services $900 million this year, but they’ve been able to share $1.4 billion from the federal CARES Act. The money has allowed the CTA to maintain a regular schedule for those needing to get somewhere, at the cost of sending empty buses all over the city. Redden said the CARES money should last into early 2021 for the transit agencies, but more federal help will be needed if the pandemic doesn’t let up.

“2021 will be a tough year. We need transit in the next federal bill,” she said.

Read David Roeder’s full story here.

2:17 p.m. COVID-19 outbreaks emerge at US universities as semester begins

From the dorms at North Carolina to the halls of Notre Dame, officials at universities around the U.S. scrambled on Monday to deal with new COVID-19 clusters at the start of the fall semester, some of them linked to off-campus parties and packed clubs.

At Oklahoma State in Stillwater, where a widely circulated video over the weekend showed maskless students packed into a nightclub, officials confirmed 23 coronavirus cases at an off-campus sorority house. The university placed the students living there in isolation and prohibited them from leaving.

“As a student, I’m frustrated as hell,” said Ryan Novozinsky, a junior from Allentown, New Jersey, and editor of the student newspaper. “These are people I have to interact with.” And, he added, “there will be professors they interact with, starting today, that won’t be able to fight this off.”

OSU has a combination of in-person and online courses, and students, staff and faculty are required to wear masks indoors and outdoors where social distancing isn’t possible.

Read the full story here.

10:42 a.m. House will be called back into session to vote on USPS bill, Pelosi says

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the House back into session over the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.

Pelosi is cutting short lawmakers’ summer recess with a vote expected Saturday on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency as tensions mount. President Donald Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail to avoid polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump on Monday defended the agency’s embattled new leader, a major Republican donor, but also claimed that mail-in ballots would be “a disaster.”

“I want to make the post office great again,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” Later at the White House he denied asking for a mail-delivery slow down and said the Post Office is “running very well.”

The decision to recall the House, made after a weekend of high-level leadership discussions, carries a political punch. Voting in the House will highlight the issue after the weeklong Democratic National Convention nominating Joe Biden as the party’s presidential pick and pressure the Republican-held Senate to respond. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home for a summer recess.

“In a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central,” Pelosi wrote Sunday in a letter to colleagues, who had been expected to be out of session until September. “Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president.”

Read the full story here.

8:28 a.m. Illinois records 1,562 new COVID-19 cases, 18 additional deaths

Illinois continued its nearly month-long trend of four-digit caseloads Sunday as state health officials announced another 1,562 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Illinois is averaging roughly 1,702 new cases each day this month. That’s about 550 new infections per day compared to July, when an average of 1,150 new cases were being confirmed daily.

This increase has been a cause of concern for Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who have repeatedly said they’re worried the state is heading in the wrong direction.

State and public health officials have said the uptick in cases is due to outbreaks among young people, especially 20 to 29 year olds who account for nearly 19% of the state’s 206,081 total cases.

The vast majority of COVID-19 patients — about 95% — have recovered.

Read the full story here.

New Cases

• Illinois continued its nearly month-long trend of four-digit caseloads Sunday as state health officials announced another 1,562 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.
• Health officials on Sunday also announced 18 more Illinois residents have succumbed to the respiratory virus, raising the statewide death toll to 7,744.

Analysis & Commentary

8 a.m. Illinois Democrats kick off virtual convention: ‘These certainly are some strange circumstances’

Unprecedented.

At the Sunday afternoon Democratic convention welcome reception for the Illinois delegation, one of the speakers, Minnesota’s Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said peering into her screen, “It’s a little bit like Hollywood Squares.”

For the first time in the history of the nation, the spreading COVID-19 pandemic is forcing the Democratic and Republican 2020 presidential nominating conventions to be mainly virtual. Instead of a party on convention eve in Milwaukee, 116 Illinois Democrats huddled together on Zoom for almost 90 minutes.

The Democrats kick off their convention Monday night with Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama delivering the closing arguments after a string of speakers including Klobuchar; Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lightfoot in a prime-time convention role.

Biden will accept the Democratic nomination Thursday, with President Donald Trump doing the same a week later at the Republican convention. Biden’s VP pick, California’s Sen. Kamala Harris, speaks Wednesday.

The virtual conventions — in the case of Democrats, with segments prerecorded — come as the nation is convulsed with pandemic-triggered health and economic crises and a racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. The latest looming catastrophe — and you will hear about this at the Democratic convention — are post office delays with massive vote-by-mail balloting expected in the 2020 pandemic election.

Democratic convention planners will beam in people from all over the country, with Tuesday’s roll call to be a whirlwind tour of the nation’s states and territories. While the evening program will be two hours — with the networks only planning on televising the hour starting at 9 p.m. Chicago time, there will be events taking place virtually throughout the day.

Read Lynn Sweet’s full column ahead of tonight’s DNC official kickoff.