Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened May 8-9 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

Offering the promise of a summer resembling something close to normal, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday that he will further ease COVID-19 restrictions May 14 as a precursor to a full reopening as soon as June 11.

Pritzker’s announcement puts the state on a more ambitious timeline than the city of Chicago, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot said this week is aiming for a full reopening by the Fourth of July. While she’s been critical of some of Pritzker’s rules throughout the pandemic, Lightfoot has repeatedly shown a willingness to keep tighter restrictions in place. A Lightfoot spokeswoman released a statement saying the city is on course to move to the bridge phase with the rest of the state next Friday.

The state already has met the vaccination thresholds established in the revised reopening plan Pritzker laid out in March, but he said the best way to stay on track is for more people to continue getting their shots, an effort that has slowed in recent weeks.

To spur more people to get vaccinated, particularly those who are hesitant, Pritzker said the state now is allowing individual doctors’ offices to sign up to receive doses, which experts say is a key step to getting more people immunized. With federal officials expected to give the OK as soon as next week for 12- to 15-year-olds to receive Pfizer’s vaccine, the state is including pediatricians in that process.

• How to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Chicago

• Illinois COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Here’s where the state stands

• COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area

• Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more

• COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

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

Sunday

80,843 administered vaccine doses, 1,741 new cases and 30 additional deaths reported

Illinois public health officials on Sunday reported 1,741 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, and 30 additional deaths. That brings the state’s totals to 1,354,967 cases and 22,223 deaths.

There were 65,930 tests reported in the previous 24 hours and the statewide positivity rate as a percent of total test is at 2.9%.

There were 80,843 doses of the vaccine administered Saturday and the seven-day rolling average of daily doses is 73,622.

Saturday

107,688 administered vaccine doses, 1,729 new cases and 22 additional deaths reported Saturday

Illinois public health officials on Saturday reported 1,729 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 22 new deaths. That brings the state’s totals to 1,353,226 cases and 22,193 deaths.

There were 77,312 tests reported in the previous 24 hours, and the seven-day statewide positivity rate as a percent of total test fell to 2.9% as of Friday.

There were 107,688 doses of the vaccine reported administered on Friday. The seven-day rolling average of daily doses is 68,455.

—Chicago Tribune staff

Chicago street vendor in ICU after contracting COVID-19 days before he was scheduled to get vaccine: ‘It’s the most vulnerable that keep getting infected’

All through 2020, Felipe Vallarta was hesitant to start selling his corn, tamales and churros at a busy intersection in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Though he needed the money, Vallarta feared that he and his wife, who helps sell the Mexican snacks, would contract the coronavirus.

The couple decided to finally set up shop again in their usual spot in early March, “when things started to get better,” said Zenaida Castillo, Vallarta’s wife.

But just days before Felipon, as many of his loyal customers know him, was scheduled to get his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, he contracted the coronavirus. He’s now in critical condition in the intensive care unit at a Glenview hospital.

“Siento pura tristeza,” I feel pure sadness, said Castillo as she peeled a mango to prepare a fruit cocktail for a customer.

Even as vaccines become more easily available and Chicago moves toward opening up further, COVID-19 cases continue to hit low-income Latino and Black communities, said Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner.

The two communities continue to be the hardest hit by COVID-19 and also have the lowest vaccination rates in the city, despite efforts to boost inoculation numbers.

Read more here. —Laura Rodríguez Presa and Joe Mahr

Despite sharp drop in demand for shots, wheels keep turning on Chicago’s CTA COVID-19 vaccination bus

Carrie Travis had about 40 minutes to find a human home for two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine and one shot of Johnson & Johnson.

Standing on West North Avenue outside the Chicago Public Library’s North Austin branch parking lot, Travis, a registered nurse with the Chicago Department of Public Health, struck out more than not toward the end of a Friday afternoon vaccination event. She introduced herself to one man who kept walking with no attention paid toward the Chicago Transit Authority bus behind him that served as a makeshift “Vaccination Station.” Another said he already got vaccinated back in February.

And a manager at the barber shop next door said he wouldn’t have sent his employees home early had he known the event had Pfizer and not just J&J, as they wanted the vaccine but were wary of the latter brand following an 11-day pause last month because of extremely rare cases of blood clotting.

But by 1:40 p.m., with 20 minutes to spare, Travis found someone for each of the three leftover doses, which needed to be used that day because the vials were punctured. “No waste under my watch,” she said.

The final triumph happened when Wanda Dean, a 52-year-old Austin resident, was walking by the splashy blue-and-red bus that had its LED sign blinking, “Chicago is my kind of town.” Dean told Travis she already got her shot but then continued, “What do you have left?” When she heard there was Pfizer, Dean responded, “I’ll go get two people.” Then she walked home.

Just before the Vaccination Station’s 2 p.m. closing, Dean and her 82-year-old mother were seen in the distance forging their way across the sidewalk. They joined Dean’s 34-year-old daughter, who Dean also lives with and had told to go on ahead for a Pfizer shot.

“It wasn’t hard at all,” Dean said. “I was just hoping we didn’t run out of time.”

Dean was guiding her mother, who leaned on a stroller, readjusting it when needed to skate over the cracks. When they turned into the parking lot with the bus, staffers rushed over to support the 82-year-old and pulled up a chair with a blanket so that she didn’t have to step onboard the vehicle for a shot.

“They’re here,” Travis said. “What they do to get their shot. Look at that.”

Dean’s family was part of a small group of people who participated in the city’s weekly walk-in vaccination bus event at the Austin CPL parking lot. CDPH has been parking a decorated CTA bus with a full inoculation setup inside throughout neighborhoods with lower uptake of the vaccine, starting with a March 31 kickoff in South Shore that inoculated 98 residents. CDPH did not immediately respond to a request for totals from later vaccination bus events, though Friday’s site appeared much less trafficked.

Read more here. —Alice Yin

Teachers look back on the year of pandemic educating, from virtual learning to fights over reopening schools

When Roberto Clemente High School English teacher Mueze Bawany received an email from Chicago Public Schools with a certificate for Teacher Appreciation Week attached, his first reaction was, “Is this from one of my students trying to prank me?”

The digital accolade was legit — a small gesture of gratitude for a teacher who, like his peers across the nation, has endured the unprecedented and inordinately grueling experience of trying to educate students during a pandemic.

Bawany said he doesn’t need any extra praise. He’d prefer the shout-outs be extended to his students at the West Town high school and their families.

“Every day, I hear from students who want to make it to my class but they couldn’t, because their dad has COVID, or they can’t get out of their shift at the grocery store and they need to work to help support their families,” Bawany said. “Every day, I wake up and think, this is a miracle, that I work at a job where I’m caring for people’s most prized possessions, their children.”

Of course, there were times during this most difficult of school years that some teachers didn’t feel enthusiastic or appreciated.

Forced to shift abruptly to remote instruction at the onset of the pandemic, teachers were bombarded with criticism about the inadequacies of virtual learning. While coping with their own fears about safety, they witnessed angry parents marching past school buildings and demanding the return of in-person instruction as the virus continued to rage. Some endured the decisions of ambitious administrators and school boards who insisted teachers provide remote lessons from empty classrooms, long before the return of students.

Now, with the end of the turbulent school year in sight, most Illinois schools having finally welcomed students back into the classroom at least part-time. And many teachers, while weary, are looking back on the year with a sense of pride and accomplishment, and a note of optimism.

Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta

Would you rent a car from a stranger? With rental prices sky high, car sharing companies get a boost.

A Memorial Day trip to hike and bike at Mississippi Palisades State Park seemed like an easy pandemic getaway — until Autumn Wolfer tried to book a rental car to drive there.

Including insurance, some rental car companies wanted as much as $900, she said.

So Wolfer, 43, of Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood, checked out Turo, a car sharing company that lets people rent from individuals rather than companies like Hertz and Avis. Renting a 2020 Chevrolet Equinox from someone in Wicker Park cost just $250, she said.

“We’re paying $50 for the campsite. Paying $900 for the car just seemed kind of silly,” she said.

Rental car companies that sold hundreds of thousands of vehicles when the COVID-19 pandemic kept people home are now struggling to bring in enough new cars, leading to higher-than-usual prices and, in some destinations, limited options. For travelers, that means planning ahead or considering alternative options, from renting a stranger’s vehicle through a car sharing service to driving a U-Haul.

Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach