Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

State health officials on Monday announced 4,729 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the seven-day average for new daily cases to 4,546. It’s the first time since the pandemic began the seven-day average has exceeded 4,500. The seven-day statewide positivity rate jumped to 6.3% from 6.1%.

Officials also reported 17 more confirmed fatalities Monday, bringing the death toll to 9,522. While the daily total was relatively low compared with recent days, Illinois has been averaging 41 deaths per day over the past week, up from 23 per day at the beginning of the month. Based on the current trajectory, the state is on pace to exceed 11,000 deaths by the end of the year, officials said.

The numbers came as Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that suburban Cook County and the Metro East region outside St. Louis will come under stricter rules Wednesday meant to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, including a shuttering of indoor dining and bar service.

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Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:

6:54 a.m.: Elmwood Park District 401 makes plans to bring students back to school in hybrid learning model

Elmwood Park School District 401 students could be returning to the classroom this winter, with pre-K through second-graders, English language learners and those in special education returning as soon as Nov. 30.

District administrators presented plans for hybrid learning to the Board of Education at last week’s meeting, saying the details are still tentative.

With COVID-19 cases rising in suburban Cook County and new restrictions announced Monday by the state Department of Public Health, their plans could be delayed. However, administrators said they wanted to make sure a plan was in place. They also said they wanted an accurate count of students who would be returning in person, in order to better prepare for an eventual return to school.

“The goal for tonight is to have an open conversation about the hybrid plan, and to leave here tonight with what our plan can be when it’s safe to bring our students back into the building,” Superintendent Leah Gauthier told board members at the Wednesday, Oct. 21 meeting. Read the full story here. — Anna Kim

5 a.m.: Chicago jazz master Howard Levy forges through pandemic by ‘Looking Inward’ with piano improvisations

Everyone in jazz knows that Chicagoan Howard Levy commands a global reputation as a harmonica virtuoso.

Fewer realize that he’s also an uncommonly fluid jazz pianist. But even those familiar with his pianism may be surprised by “Looking Inward,” his new album of solo piano improvisations born of the pandemic.

“What was going on with the pandemic influenced the way I played – I felt really isolated and scared about what was going on,” says Levy, who recorded the music between April 20 and May 20, when the world was realizing the gravity of a still-escalating crisis.

“I actually had a great-grandmother who died in the 1918-19 pandemic, which was a story in our family, but I never really thought of it. It was a tragedy that happened, and it deeply affected my grandmother. She was traumatized by it forever, probably.”

But Levy – like most of us – never expected such a scenario to roil our lives in the high-tech 21st century. With Levy’s schedule of constant global touring suddenly canceled, he found himself not only living through a pandemic of the kind that had scarred his family but also bearing the weight of too much time on his hands.

Read the full story here. — Howard Reich

In case you missed it

Here are six stories from Monday related to COVID-19:

DuPage COVID-19 numbers are too high for Indian Prairie students to return to school, the school superintendent said.

The mood of restaurant and bar owners is dismal as COVID-19 rules are rolled back in suburban Cook County.

CPS has reported 228 coronavirus cases since March. Can the numbers stay low if schools reopen?

Cook County is starting to give direct payments to suburban residents hurt by COVID-19 pandemic.

WeatherTech, maker of car floor mats, has switched gears to make COVID-19 face shields.

Want farm-fresh produce delivered to your door? Because of COVID-19, a growing number of services are offering just that.

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