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

Chicago Tribune staff, Chicago Tribune
·5 min read

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday said she plans for the city to be one of the first in the country to “fully and safely reopen,” by July 4.

Lightfoot announced her goal as she joined Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other officials to celebrate the return of the Chicago Auto Show to McCormick Place in July.

If current trends hold, the state could move to full reopening under the state’s revised plan by early-to-mid June.

But Pritzker said Tuesday that although he’s optimistic about where the state is in its efforts to slow COVID-19′s spread, “we can’t predict the future, and this virus has proven to be very challenging.”

As Illinois and Chicago reopen, you can check the rules for restaurants, gyms, concerts, conventions and more.

Meanwhile, unvaccinated travelers heading from Indiana to Chicago will have to quarantine or test negative for COVID-19 starting Friday under the city’s latest update to its emergency travel order.

In vaccine news, Walgreens, Walmart and Sam’s club are now offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations to people without appointments and the federal government said it will begin redistributing vaccine supply to states with higher demand.

Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area:

6 a.m.: Illinois’ COVID-19 vaccination pace is slowing, particularly downstate. Here’s what researchers say must be done to boost the effort and return to normalcy.

At first glance, there may not be a lot in common between the tiny downstate town of Arthur and Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.

Arthur is surrounded by flat farmland in the heart of Illinois’ Amish country, a largely white, solidly Republican area. Englewood helps anchor Chicago’s dense South Side, largely Black and reliably Democratic. But the unprecedented pandemic has spurred one similarity: low COVID-19 vaccination rates.

Such communities represent the new battlefield for Illinois to reach herd immunity — or, more likely, something closer to it — in the march toward normalcy.

Those who study and work in vaccinations say an already exhausted public health ecosystem must build and flex a different set of bureaucratic muscles. The goal? To lure the ambivalent or leery into their favorite doctors’ offices or clinics where they can easily get a shot, or at least talk through concerns.

A Tribune analysis of federal and state data shows that there is plenty of work to do, with millions of adults remaining unvaccinated, and some regions now vaccinating so slowly that — if the pace doesn’t change — it could take them a year or more to get close to herd immunity.

Read more here. —Joe Mahr and Alice Yin

6 a.m.: Grant Park Music Festival returns in 2021 with lawn pods, lithe ensembles, and a little season

This summer’s Grant Park Music Festival festivities won’t be Beethoven as usual.

From July 2 to Aug. 21, the festival orchestra and chorus will return to their home at Pritzker Pavilion, marking the unofficial opening of public summer events at the venue. Though safety protocols will transform the festival’s sound and duration, Grant Park’s core mission remains intact: The 2021 season includes a healthy offering of programmatic rarities, the chorus will sing its usual six programs, and, yes, lawn spots will remain free of charge.

The festival will run for eight weeks instead of its usual 10 — kicking off with its traditional July 4 concert, in a bold change of pace — and only a maximum of 65 instrumentalists and singers will perform on any given program. A dramatic change in stage configuration will bring the chorus out in front of the orchestra, with brass in the choir loft for some heftier works. In accordance with safety protocols negotiated with the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union representing Grant Park Festival Chorus members, choristers will sing masked and spaced six feet apart side-to-side and nine feet front-to-back.

“We wondered, how do we take a smaller contingent and still create a season that feels like a Grant Park Music Festival?” says festival president and CEO Paul Winberg. “This organization has always been committed to bringing live music back to Millennium Park for live audiences, no matter what barriers were thrown our way.”

Read more here. —Hannah Edgar

6 a.m.: Indian Prairie D204 and Naperville D203 joining forces to offer student COVID-19 vaccination clinics

COVID-19 vaccine clinics will be held at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville May 22 and June 12 as Indian Prairie School District 204 and Naperville School District 203 push for eligible students to get vaccinated.

The clinics are a partnership between the two Naperville-area districts and Osco Pharmacy, which will administer the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Six thousand vaccine doses will be on hand and available to anyone 16 or older who signs up.

Teens will receive the first dose May 22 and second three weeks later. The district is advising parents to not register their children for appointments if they cannot make both dates.

Patrick Nolten, District 203′s assistant superintendent for assessment and accountability, said eligible families have been sent an email invitation with an embedded registration link. Appointments also can be booked through the two districts’ websites.

Read more here. — Rafael Guerrero, Naperville Sun

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