Illinois logs 2,145 new COVID-19 cases, slightly above the state’s two-week average (LIVE UPDATES)
Here’s the latest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.
Latest
DuPage County gets coronavirus ‘warning’ as Illinois logs 2,145 new cases: ‘We need everyone to take this seriously’
A broad swath of Chicago’s western suburbs hit a COVID-19 warning level Friday as public health officials announced 2,145 more people have tested positive for the deadly virus statewide.
The latest daily caseload was slightly above Illinois’ two-week average of about 2,022 new cases per day, and they were confirmed among 56,661 tests to raise the state’s rolling testing positivity rate to 3.9%.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also announced the virus killed 32 more people, the most in a single day since the beginning of the month. The state has averaged about 20 COVID-19 deaths per day over the last two weeks.
It was an increase in COVID-19 deaths that helped land DuPage County on the state’s updated list of counties considered to be at a viral “warning level.” Six deaths were reported in the west suburban county last week, up from four the previous week.
Read the full story from Mitchell Armentrout here.
News
1:40 p.m. Oxford, AstraZeneca resumes coronavirus vaccine trial
Oxford University announced Saturday it was resuming a trial for a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a move that comes days after the study was suspended following a reported side-effect in a U.K. patient.
In a statement, the university confirmed the restart across all of its U.K. clinical trial sites after regulators gave the go-ahead following the pause on Sunday.
“The independent review process has concluded and following the recommendations of both the independent safety review committee and the U.K. regulator, the MHRA, the trials will recommence in the U.K.,” it said.
11:25 a.m. Red Stars are back in action, though there are risks
The Red Stars return to game action Saturday, but the safety provided while playing in the NWSL Challenge Cup bubble is gone.
The team opens the NWSL Fall Series on the road against the Washington Spirit, which meant two commercial flights and a one-night hotel stay.
While players had flown in and out of their team’s cities at the beginning of the season and again after the Challenge Cup, travel is a concern for players and coach Rory Dames.
“I’m not sure the logic of ‘well, players are already flying on commercial flights, so it’s OK to do’ carries a lot of weight with me,” Dames said. “But I do understand the reality of the situation we’re in, and what teams can and cannot afford to do is real.”
Dames went on to say across the league no one is being forced to play in the four-game Fall Series. As someone who falls into the high-risk category, Dames, who has asthma, feels the organization would support him if he chose to opt out of traveling. But that’s not something he’s considering.
“As a coach, even if one of your players is going, you feel obligated to go,” Dames said.
Read the full story from Annie Costabile here.
10:08 a.m. Nurses launch seven-day strike at University of Illinois Hospital
University of Illinois at Chicago nurses followed through with a planned strike Saturday morning, demanding limits on the number of patients under each nurse’s care and better personal protection equipment.
More than 800 nurses walked off the job at 7 a.m., after the previous three-year contract between the Illinois Nurses Association members and the University of Illinois Hospital expired on Monday.
Downpour rain didn’t stop about 300 nurses from gathering outside the Near West Side hospital, where the medical professionals — all wearing blue T-shirts under rain ponchos and jackets — lined the sidewalks near the hospital’s emergency room entrance at 1740 W. Taylor St. Some carried signs that read “Safety in Numbers” and “Protect our Patients.”
Motorists — including several CTA train conductors — laid on their horns in a show of support for the striking nurses, who are planning to gather for seven consecutive days, or until their demands are met.
Read more from Madeline Kenney and Jermaine Nolen here.
8:47 a.m. 16-inch softball carries on in suburbs as pandemic shuts down park district leagues
In a city that proudly clutches to the staples of its culture, it’s going to take more than a global pandemic to cancel a 16-inch softball season.
The slow-pitch, gloveless game is synonymous with Chicago — up there in the cultural pantheon with house music, Malört and arguments over which Harold’s is best. And while the coronavirus forced the Chicago Park District to cancel the majority of their leagues, the top teams play on in nearby suburbs.
“It’s difficult, I’m not going to lie, but the people who love the game, we’re figuring it out little by little,” said George Bliss, a lifelong softball player who helps run the 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame. “If we have to play all the way to November or December when it’s snowing, we’re going to do it because we have to make up for lost time.”
The softball leagues operating in suburbs like Forest Park, Schaumburg, Cicero and Melrose Park are looking to the state for guidance as to whether it’s safe to play, Bliss said. Once Illinois entered Phase 4 of its coronavirus reopening plan, which allows for gatherings of 50 people or fewer, it was game on.
Read the full story from Sam Kelly here.
7:44 a.m. CPS students log on at much higher rates than the spring, but attendance down from previous years
About four of every five Chicago Public Schools students logged on for the first week of school, a markedly higher rate than in the spring despite first-day attendance still dipping from previous years in a sign of the continued challenges of remote learning, figures released Friday by the district show.
The early engagement levels are a promising start for a school system in which barely half of students attended online classes three or more days per week after the coronavirus pandemic forced buildings to close in the spring.
Yet the first week was a mixed bag, with dozens of schools drawing better attendance than previous years’ district-wide average, while a handful of schools still had less than half their students log on.
The results reflect a varying degree of success in bridging a stubborn technology gap and creating an online learning plan that is achievable for working-families who are juggling students’ classes with parents’ jobs.
Read the full story from Nader Issa here.
New Cases
- Public health officials announced on Friday that 2,145 more people have tested positive for the deadly virus statewide.
- Carolyn Capizzi and her husband Jerry Capizzi, who was one of the world’s best-known collectors of Ford automobiles, have died within three days of each other of complications from the coronavirus.
- Tom Seaver, the Hall of Fame pitcher who was the heart of the Miracle Mets team, has died at 75 of lewy body dementia and COVID-19.
Analysis & Commentary
7:47 a.m. No Big Ten? That’s just one of the big 10 storylines as college football gets cooking
Big Ten football is dead.
For a little while longer, anyway.
Someday, we’ll look back and laugh at the self-righteous fuss that was made — from Lincoln, Nebraska, to the Deep South; from Columbus, Ohio, to the White House — over the Big Ten’s “break” from college football during a pandemic. Or we’ll look back and cry. Either way, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 won’t have waited for the Big Ten and Pac-12 to arrive at the table before digging into the 2020 season.
Indeed, the fractured state of college football is storyline No. 1 this season.
Meanwhile, first-year commissioner Kevin Warren is under heavy fire as presidents and chancellors around the Big Ten prepare to vote on a new proposed plan for when games could start. Ohio State coach Ryan Day complained that communication from the league has been “disappointing and often unclear.” Penn State coach James Franklin publicly questioned Warren’s leadership.
So much — for now — for the league’s preseason rankings in the AP Top 25: Ohio State 2, Penn State 7, Wisconsin 12, Michigan 16, Minnesota 19 and Iowa 24.
But the show goes on without the Big Ten. And as national storylines go, here’s the rest of the big 10 (where 10 actually means 10):
Read Steve Greenberg’s top 10 college football storylines here.