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

Chicago Tribune staff, Chicago Tribune
·13 min read

The Illinois State Board of Education has unanimously adopted a resolution requiring daily in-person learning next school year with limited exceptions for remote learning.

The vote came after several parents asked the board to reject the proposal in consideration of children who may still be too young in the fall to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the latest addition of 117,381 coronavirus vaccinations reported in Illinois includes doses missing from the count on several previous days due to delays in reporting from pharmacies, state public health officials said Wednesday. A total of 10,551,158 doses have now been administered in the state, and over the last seven days an average of 62,884 vaccines were administered daily.

Officials also reported 1,633 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, resulting from 67,166 tests. The statewide seven-day positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests is 2.3% as of Tuesday. There were also 28 additional fatalities announced, bringing the statewide death toll to 22,494.

On Tuesday, public health officials announced that Chicago will follow the state of Illinois in allowing fully vaccinated people to go maskless in most settings — but some businesses will be strongly advised to keep a requirement in place. The city’s announcement came a day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker loosened his mask mandate to match the latest federal guidance.

Under Tuesday’s update to the city’s mask guidance, those who are two weeks after their final vaccination dose can take off the mask except in hospitals, public transportation, jails and schools, public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. She cited strong evidence of the vaccine’s effectiveness before adding the caveat that many businesses do not have the ability or “desire” to regulate who is vaccinated and who isn’t.

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

7:05 p.m.: Metra to restore full Saturday schedule

Metra will restore Saturday service to pre-pandemic levels on seven lines beginning Memorial Day weekend.

On May 29, full Saturday service will resume on the BNSF, Milwaukee North, Milwaukee West, Rock Island District, Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest and Union Pacific West lines, the agency said in a statement.

Metra plans to resume full Saturday service on the Metra Electric line over the summer.

Read more here. —Sarah Freishtat

3:50 p.m.: Amtrak resuming most service from Chicago’s Union Station

Amtrak’s Illinois train service to Milwaukee and several other cities will return to full schedules in the coming weeks, after more than a year of reduced service because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passengers still will be required to wear masks, following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state officials said.

The Hiawatha train between Chicago and Milwaukee will be the first line to return to full service, beginning Monday.

Trains between Chicago and destinations in central and southern Illinois will return to full schedules July 19. That includes trains to St. Louis on the Lincoln service, which had been reduced to two round-trips daily; to Carbondale on the Illini and Saluki lines, which had been reduced to one round-trip daily; and to Macomb and Quincy on the Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandberg lines, which had been reduced to one daily round-trip.

Long-distance trains running through Chicago also will return to full schedules, after they were cut to three days a week. Three routes running from Chicago to San Francisco, Seattle/Portland and Los Angeles will return to daily schedules beginning Monday, and on May 31, service will resume on four lines, between Chicago and Washington, D.C., New York/Boston, New Orleans and Los Angeles, Amtrak said.

Read more here. —Sarah Freishtat

1:55 p.m.: Latest daily Illinois COVID-19 vaccination report include backlog from pharmacies

The latest addition of 117,381 coronavirus vaccinations reported in Illinois includes doses missing from the count on several previous days due to delays in reporting from pharmacies, state public health officials said.

A total of 10,551,158 doses have now been administered in the state, and over the last seven days an average of 62,884 vaccines were administered daily.

As of Wednesday, 58.43% of those 16 and up have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The number of residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required shots, or Johnson & Johnson’s single shot — reached 4,888,879, or 38.37% of the total population.

Officials reported 1,633 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, resulting from 67,166 tests. The statewide seven-day positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests is 2.3% as of Tuesday.

As of Tuesday night, 1,518 people in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 405 patients in intensive care units and 224 patients on ventilators.

Total hospitalizations and new cases statewide continue to fall. Wednesday’s numbers account for a seven-day average of 1,595 hospitalizations, the lowest since an average of 1,586 was recorded the week ending April 7. The seven-day average of new cases is 1,513, the lowest since March 13.

Officials also reported 28 additional fatalities, bringing the statewide death toll to 22,494. The total number of known infections in Illinois since the start of the pandemic reached 1,370,342.

—Jenny Whidden

12:17 a.m.: Illinois adopts requirement for schools to be full-time in person in the fall, despite pleas from parents to exempt non-vaccinated students

The Illinois State Board of Education has unanimously adopted a resolution requiring daily in-person learning next school year with limited exceptions for remote learning.

The vote came after several parents asked the board to reject the proposal in consideration of children who may still be too young in the fall to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

A draft of the resolution states that “all schools must resume fully in-person learning for all student attendance days, provided that ... remote instruction be made available for students who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine and are under a quarantine order by a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health.”

ISBE spokeswoman Jackie Matthews said the resolution was “based on feedback from the field” and supports a declaration by State Superintendent Carmen Ayala which is enforceable. She also pointed to a state law that gives the superintendent the authority to “declare a requirement to use remote learning days or blended remote learning days for a school district, multiple school districts, a region, or the entire State” during a gubernatorial disaster proclamation.

Read more here. —Hannah Leone

12:15 p.m.: 1,633 new COVID-19 cases, 28 deaths reported Wednesday

Illinois public health officials reported 1,633 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 28 deaths. That brings the state’s totals to 1,370,342 cases and 22,494 deaths.

There were 67,166 tests reported in the previous 24 hours and the seven-day statewide positivity rate as a percent of total test is 2.3%.

There were 117,381 doses of the vaccine reported administered Tuesday, which includes data that was delayed yesterday, and the seven-day rolling average of daily doses is 62,884.

—Chicago Tribune staff

10:30 a.m.: Lollapalooza 2021 lineup released: Megan Thee Stallion, Post Malone, Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, DaBaby, Journey and more to headline

Post Malone, Tyler the Creator, Miley Cyrus and The Foo Fighters will be among the headliners when Lollapalooza returns to Grant Park for its 30th anniversary July 29-August 1. The festival returns at full capacity after a year away due to the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Attendees at this year’s festival must be fully vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test obtained within 24 hours of each festival day.

Organizers said they will detail the festival entry process in early July.

Additional headliners for the festival include Dababy, Marshmello, Illenium, Journey, Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch.

Read more here. —Britt Julious

7:30 a.m.: Lollapalooza is a ‘game changer’ but Chicago hotel industry wants $75M in aid; two big downtown hotels plan to reopen in June

Two of the largest Chicago hotels that closed early in the COVID-19 pandemic are preparing to reopen next month, a sign of hope for the battered downtown hospitality industry.

The 1,641-room Palmer House Hilton and the 1,214-room Sheraton Grand Chicago are the second- and fifth-largest hotels downtown, by number of rooms. The Sheraton, along the Chicago River between the Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier, says it will welcome back guests starting June 7.

The sprawling Palmer House in the Loop is accepting reservations beginning June 17 through Hilton’s website, which also includes a message that mentions the reopening date. In an email to the Tribune the hotel declined to confirm the reopening date, saying only: “Hilton is committed to working toward welcoming guest back to Palmer House, subject to business levels and applicable government regulations.”

Hotels are ramping up after Tuesday’s announcement that Chicago’s largest music festival, Lollapalooza, will return to Grant Park in full capacity July 29-Aug. 1.

That followed a recent announcement that several major conventions will return to McCormick Place this year, starting with a scaled-down version of the Chicago Auto Show, July 15-19. Also this week, Chicago and the state loosened the mask requirements for fully vaccinated people, following new rules from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“With the wide distribution of vaccines, we’re in the position to safely resume how summers typically look in Chicago,” said Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, on Tuesday. “We could not have afforded to lose another summer.”

The return of large events has given hotels confidence, but it comes with the grim prospect that a full hotel recovery isn’t expected until 2024, he said.

Read more here. —Ryan Ori

7:16 a.m.: Exchange Club of Naperville’s Ribfest, scheduled to be held in Romeoville, canceled for second year in a row

The Exchange Club of Naperville has canceled Ribfest, which was scheduled to be held in Romeoville July 1-4 for the first time.

“In consideration of the ongoing COVID-19 conditions and recently mandated capacity restrictions, the Club has concluded that it cannot reasonably guarantee health, safety, and success for such a large-scale public event that occurs in the early portion of the summer festival schedule and is thus susceptible to the instability of COVID-related conditions like capacity restrictions,” the Exchange Club said in a press release.

Read more here. —Wendy Fox Weber, Naperville Sun

6 a.m.: ‘Sense of duty’: As the military nationwide battles vaccine hesitancy, sailors at Great Lakes are lining up to get their shots

The sailor removed the green-and-brown camouflage shirt of his uniform and smiled a little as the needle quickly jabbed his left bicep at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic held recently at Naval Station Great Lakes.

It was Seaman Peter Muscott’s second dose of the Moderna vaccine, and the 19-year-old from Gratiot County, Michigan, said he was grateful to finally be fully vaccinated.

“Not everyone in the world gets this opportunity,” he said. “I feel I can be part of the solution, getting vaccinated.”

Muscott was one of hundreds of sailors getting immunized on a recent weekday at the roughly 1,600-acre naval station in Lake County, about 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The vaccines were administered in a red brick building typically used for technical training, and the line of uniformed men and women awaiting their shots snaked outside and spilled out onto the manicured lawn of the naval station, with Lake Michigan in the backdrop.

Yet not everyone serving in the military has been so eager to get vaccinated. As the Defense Department tackles the arduous mission of getting shots in the arms of some 2.2 million troops across the globe, a major battle is vaccine hesitancy, with early indications that service members are turning down the shots in droves.

Roughly a third of military personnel were declining the vaccine as of February, according to congressional testimony by Defense Department officials. A December report from the nonprofit organization Blue Star Families found 40% of military personnel surveyed planned to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, while 49% said they were not and 11% were undecided.

Read more here. —Angie Leventis Lourgos

6 a.m.: Demand slowdown may change health departments’ COVID testing plans

As the demand for COVID-19 testing declines, some health departments will consider changing their testing procedures to maximize resources while still meeting the community’s needs.

The departments in Scott and Morgan counties now offer COVID-19 testing, though changes have been made as demand decreased.

In Scott County, the department still is offering testing, but by appointment rather than in a clinic.

“Every once in a while we’ll have a busy day, but we’ve seen a big decline in our testing,” COVID-19 nurse Meghan VanDeVelde said. “It’s been a steady decrease, but we still have a bit of demand and interest to still offer testing.”

The department asks that those who need to be tested call ahead to see if a nurse will be available to perform the test, VanDeVelde said.

“We still plan to do testing until our kits expire or we are unable to do it,” VanDeVelde said. “Being in a remote or rural area, we’d hate to have to send (patients) elsewhere.”

The Morgan County department has decreased the hours at its drive-through testing site behind the department from three days a week to two, though that also could change.

Dale Bainter, administrator for the Morgan County department, said final decisions on testing through the department haven’t been made, but it’s not as in-demand as it once was.

“We were once doing 200 tests a day; now were are down to single-digit numbers,” Bainter said. “We continually assess the needs of our community, how we can meet those needs, while also managing our resources effectively.”

—Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree, Jacksonville Journal-Courier

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