Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,056 new known COVID-19 cases and 25 more deaths reported; a look at Chicago’s economy and dining scene six months into the pandemic

Illinois public health officials Thursday announced 2,056 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and 25 more deaths. That raises the statewide known case tally to 268,207 throughout the course of the pandemic. The state reported death toll is now 8,392. The statewide seven-day rolling positivity rate stands at 3.6%.

The region that includes Will and Kankakee counties, which had harsher rules imposed by the state after it surpassed a positivity rate of 8% for three straight days, stood at 6.4% as of Wednesday, below the threshold that would restore rules in place statewide under the fourth phase of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten announced Wednesday that football will resume this fall, declaring a unanimous vote and a plan to play eight regular-season games in eight weeks beginning the weekend of Oct. 23-24.

However, Pritzker slammed the door on the possibility that Illinois' high school athletes might join their college counterparts, saying football and other contact sports are still too risky in the midst of the pandemic.

Additionally, some suburban schools have decided to reopen closed buildings for remote learning supervision to a limited number of elementary-age kids, but for a fee.

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

4:35 p.m.: Do you actually need to wipe down everything to protect yourself from COVID-19?

If you were wiping down every single Amazon package, can of chickpeas, and takeout container at the start of the pandemic, you certainly weren’t alone. Clorox, the world’s biggest maker of disinfectant cleaning materials, says it’s still recovering from high demand of its popular disinfectant wipes, not expected to return to shelves until 2021.

In the beginning, we were all encouraged to take every precaution that we could. But do we still need to sanitize everything in sight?

With months of research now behind us, experts say the answer is probably not. Yet, that doesn’t mean surfaces present zero risk.

Here’s how to approach things now. —The Philadelphia Inquirer

3:06 p.m.: Southport Lanes has been a speakeasy, brothel, gambling den and bowling alley. One thing the Lakeview institution is not: A COVID-19 survivor.

Southport Lanes has lasted nearly a century by evolving, at various times serving as a tavern, bowling alley, speakeasy, brothel and illegal off-track horse betting venue.

But the Lakeview institution, which opened not long after another pandemic, couldn’t survive COVID-19.

The bar, restaurant and bowling alley will close its doors for good Sept. 27, after 98 years in business at 3325 N. Southport Ave.

“It’s another COVID casualty,” said Steve Soble, who has owned the business since 1991 with Howard Natinsky. “It’s really, really bad out there.”

Read more here. —Ryan Ori

2:57 p.m.: When will you be able to get a coronavirus vaccine? Scientists say one thing, President Trump another. Here is what we know.

Americans are desperate to know when a coronavirus vaccine will be available to finally curb the pandemic that has already taken nearly 200,000 lives in the United States, and allow schools and the broader economy to reopen.

Scientists and vaccine makers have long said that a handful of vaccines could be available by the end of the year, if everything goes according to plan. But in recent weeks, President Donald Trump has insisted that a vaccine will be ready before the presidential election Nov. 3, raising fears that one could be rushed against the advice of scientists and regulators.

Testing and producing a vaccine is a complex process with a lot of uncertainties. But the best guess for now, experts say, is this: If every aspect of the vaccines' development and distribution goes exactly as planned — and history has shown that rarely happens — certain people in high-risk groups could get vaccinated this year. Most other Americans, however, will quite likely have to wait until well into next year.

Read more here. —The New York Times

2:19 p.m.: A snapshot of Chicago’s economy six months into the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic quickly inflicted damage on Chicago’s economy as government shutdowns and social distancing restrictions forced business slowdowns and closures.

During a six-month period, hundreds of thousands of area jobs were lost, consumer spending dropped 43%, and more than half of temporary business closures became permanent.

Despite hopes to “get back to normal,” the recovery has been slow, and it’s unclear what any long-lasting changes are, said Jose J. Vazquez-Cognet, an economics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“When a business person and a consumer don’t know what to expect, they can’t make decisions very well,” Vazquez-Cognet said. “That’s the worst thing for the economy.”

Here is a snapshot of the economic impact of the virus on the Chicago area over the past six months.

Read more here. —Katie Surma

1:50 p.m.: How the coronavirus pandemic has affected Chicago dining six months in

Six months ago Wednesday at 9 p.m., all Illinois restaurants and bars were shut down for on-premise dining or drinking. Since then, a gradual reopening has allowed some business to return to the struggling establishments.

As the entire city held its breath during the stay-at-home order this spring, summer offered a solution for many with the approval of serving at outdoor spaces. Then, tentatively, food and beverage establishments were allowed to open indoor spaces with limited capacity. But as coronavirus cases waxed and waned, restrictions changed, and the city walked back on its allowance for bars to host patrons inside. As winter approaches, these businesses now grapple with how to operate when the weather shifts.

Looking back at the past six months and to what the future holds, it’s helpful to consider some of the numbers that help tell the story of what restaurant owners, chefs, bartenders and servers have endured.

Read more here. —Grace Wong, Kori Rumore and Jonathon Berlin

1:45 p.m.: How Nick Kokonas pivoted hard at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, launching Tock to Go and other innovations

Nick Kokonas is not afraid of bluntly questioning restaurant conventions. Along with helping to create a series of successful projects with chef Grant Achatz as co-owner of the Alinea Group (Alinea, The Aviary, Next and Roister), he’s also the CEO of Tock, a online reservation system that has helped restaurateurs around the world manage guest bookings.

So it makes sense that during one of the most tumultuous years for restaurants in recent history, Kokonas was one of the first to adapt. In late February and early March, not only was he one of the few restaurateurs in Chicago talking about how the coronavirus pandemic could seriously challenge the restaurant industry, he was also attempting to come up with ways to survive.

Read more here. —Nick Kindelsperger

1:15 p.m.: After four years, during the worst health crisis in a century, the unkept promise of ‘a great health plan’ may be catching up to President Trump

When Donald Trump first ran for the White House, he promised to “come up with a great health plan,” one that would repeal the Affordable Care Act but replace it with something better, something that would maintain its biggest selling point: protecting people with preexisting medical conditions.

Once elected, he swore he had a “wonderful plan” and would be “putting it in fairly soon.”

After four years, during the worst health crisis in a century, the unkept promise may be catching up to Trump. There still does not seem to be any plan, because other than abolishing the Affordable Care Act — which requires insurers to cover preexisting conditions and which the White House is asking the Supreme Court to overturn — the Republican Party cannot agree on one.

And with tens of thousands of Americans losing their health insurance to a coronavirus-induced recession, fears of inadequate or nonexistent health care coverage have never been greater.

Read more here. —The New York Times

12:10 p.m.: 2,056 new known COVID-19 cases and 25 more deaths reported

Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 2,056 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional fatalities. The Illinois Department of Public Health is now reporting a total of 268,207 cases, including 8,392 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the start of the coronavirus' spread.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 57,800 new tests, according to the IDPH.

1,558 people in Illinois are in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 359 patients were in the ICU and 144 patients are on ventilators, according to state health officials.

—Chicago Tribune staff

10:49 a.m.: Lincoln Park ZooLights will go on, but with a new, $5 charge

Park Zoo’s holiday ZooLights festival will go on this year, but with a first-time-in-decades cover charge to help the zoo offset pandemic-year losses, the institution announced Thursday.

Tickets to the annual bedecking of zoo grounds with holiday lights will be $5 per person regardless of age or membership status, and they go on sale to zoo members Sept. 24 and to the general public Oct. 1.

Read more here. —Steve Johnson

10:27 a.m.: 42 Wisconsin football players and staff members — 29 since Sept. 1 — test positive for COVID-19 as the Big Ten prepares for its season

Forty-two players and staff with the Wisconsin football team have tested positive for COVID-19 as the Big Ten makes plans to get the season started.

Public Health Madison & Dane County says the 42 people tested positive since June when athletes and staff returned to campus. Twenty-nine of the positive tests were from Sept. 1 through Sept. 15.

Health officials in Madison and Dane County are urging fans not to gather to watch football games when the Badgers begin their season in October.

Read more here. —Associated Press

8:45 a.m.: Attorney general says coronavirus lockdown orders second only to slavery as government intrusion on liberty

Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery.

In remarks Wednesday night at conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery.

“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said to applause from the crowd.

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 House Democratic leader, told CNN that Barr’s remarks were “the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful things I’ve ever heard” because they wrongly equated human bondage with a measure aimed at saving lives.

“Slavery was not about saving lives. It was about devaluing lives,” Clyburn said. “This pandemic is a threat to human life.”

This is not the first occasion that Barr has condemned stay-at-home orders.

Read more here. —Associated Press

8:18 a.m.: COVID-19 danger continues to drive joblessness in US, even as unemployment claims fall

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to 860,000, a historically high figure that reflects economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak.

Before the pandemic hit the economy, the number signing up for jobless aid had never exceeded 700,000 in a week, even during the depths of the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. jobless claims fell by 33,000 form the previous week and that 12.6 million are collecting traditional unemployment benefits, compared with just 1.7 million a year ago.

In Illinois, first-time claims for unemployment benefits totaled 23,339 last week, down from 25,478 a week earlier.

Read more here. —Associated Press

7:10 a.m. As Black, Latino neighborhoods hard hit by COVID-19, Chicago launches plan to correct racial inequities in life expectancy

Chicago’s Health Department and community groups was scheduled to launch a plan to tackle racial inequities in health and “the life expectancy gap between the Black and white” communities in the city, according to a city release.

The five-year plan, Healthy Chicago 2025, “seeks to address social conditions that have been created by decades of segregation and systemic racism, the effects of which have been highlighted by COVID-19,” according to a release from the mayor’s office.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, city Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady and others will be part of the online launch of the program on the city Health Department’s Facebook page and the city’s website.

—Chicago Tribune staff

6 a.m.: Deerfield High School worker tests COVID-19 positive days after district extended remote learning

A Deerfield High School staff member has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a notification from Principal Kathryn Anderson emailed to parents, students and staff Tuesday night.

“The staff member is now in isolation. We are closely working with the Lake County Health Department on contact tracing. The health department will contact the staff member directly and any close contacts will be identified, contacted and provided guidance,” Anderson said in the notification.

Township High School District 113 spokeswoman Karen Warner said the staff member had been at the school recently. Anderson stated in the notification and Warner also said Wednesday that federal privacy laws prevent the district from releasing the individual’s identity or any additional information about the individual.

Read more here. —Alicia Fabbre

5 a.m.: Remote learning, in school? Some suburban public schools closed by COVID-19 have reopened for e-learning supervision — at a price to taxpaying parents.

After being inundated with emails and calls from frustrated parents who wanted their kids back in class this fall, Arlington Heights School District 25 officials sought a way to help.

Working with the Park District, they decided to reopen closed schools for moderately priced remote learning supervision to a limited number of elementary-age kids.

But as Arlington Heights resident Chuck Miller sees it, the flaw in the program comes down to a math problem his second grader could solve: At $50 per student per day, it would cost the Millers $1,000 a week to enroll their four children — a sum he said is unrealistic for many families, including his.

The irony isn’t lost on him that the program is taking place in schools that were deemed unsafe to fully open for in-person classes.

Read more here. — Karen Ann Cullotta

In case you missed it

Here are five things related to COVID-19 that happened Wednesday:

Citing the pandemic’s ‘unprecedented’ impact on November vote, Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked election officials to put federal funds behind drop boxes, election judge recruitment.

Chicago Public Schools reported it’s seen 258 coronavirus cases and eight deaths since March among staff and contractors.

Big Ten football is coming back in October with at least 8 games in 9 weeks — and ‘significant medical protocols.’

Wisconsin Dells' Tommy Bartlett water ski show, closed by coronavirus, is shutting down for good.

Chicago’s architectural biennial keeps the city at the forefront of design. But will it be held in 2021?