City officials cut off vaccine supply to Innovative Express Care (LIVE UPDATES)

Here’s the lastest news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois. Follow here for live updates.

Latest

6,000 CPS vaccines misallocated by clinic, city says: ‘This is completely unacceptable behavior’

City officials are cutting off vaccine supply to a private clinic that was contracted to vaccinate Chicago Public Schools employees but “knowingly misallocated” 6,000 doses to people with no ties to the district, the Chicago Department of Public Health said Tuesday.

The leaders of Innovative Express Care took some of those vaccines that had been set aside for second doses for CPS employees and instead used them for first doses for non-CPS patients, officials alleged.

“This is completely unacceptable behavior,” the department said in a statement.

But the Lincoln Park-based clinic says it was following an “idealistic vision,” giving leftover doses to seniors, front-line essential workers and other qualified recipients.

“The decision by CDPH officials today leaves us bewildered, saddened, and frankly disappointed in our local government,” IEC leaders said in a statement. “CDPH officials never made it clear to us as a provider that we should be storing vaccines in a refrigerator for people awaiting second doses. Rather, we have been following the nation’s commitment to get as many vaccines in eligible patients’ arms, as quickly as possible.”

Idealistic or not, the city said it was “reclaiming all vaccine distributed and stored at IEC,” and is arranging new providers for the teachers and other CPS employees who were scheduled for first or second doses through the clinic.

Read more from Mitchell Armentrout and Nader Issa here.

News

10:43 a.m. Lightfoot proposes anti-retaliation ordinance for employees getting COVID-19 vaccine

Chicago employees who take time off to get the coronavirus vaccine would be shielded from retaliation — and employers who require it must compensate workers for up to two hours per dose — under a mayoral protection plan proposed Wednesday.

During the early days of the pandemic, the City Council moved to protect employees from retaliation for absences tied to the coronavirus.

The earlier anti-retaliation ordinance prevented employers from firing, suspending, transferring or reducing the pay of workers who stay home because they have COVID-19 symptoms, have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus, or their business is deemed nonessential by statewide stay-at-home order.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced a new anti-retaliation ordinance — this time aimed at employers who dare to penalize workers for taking time off to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The new ordinance would prohibit Chicago employers from taking “any adverse action — including termination demotion, layoff or punitive schedule changes” — against employees who take time off to get vaccinated.

If an employee has paid sick leave or time accrued, employers would be required to let them use that time to get vaccinated. And if the employer makes it a requirement for workers to get the coronavirus vaccine, employees must be compensated for the time taken “if it is during a shift, up to two hours per dose.”

Read the full story from Fran Spielman here.

9:19 a.m. Chicago Loop Alliance plans to increase pedestrian traffic with summer programs

As the weather has begun warming up and more Chicagoans get vaccinated for COVID-19, pedestrian traffic to the Loop has been on the rise.

To capitalize on this, the Chicago Loop Alliance announced in its annual meeting Tuesday that it would be introducing several events as part of their Back In The Loop program to accelerate the economic recovery of the Loop.

“Because of the pandemic, a lot of people are not visiting, for either business or leisure,“ CLA president and CEO Michael Edwards said. “Our arts and culture community has been devastated.”

In the meeting, which was held both remotely and in-person for a limited number of seats, CLA discussed its plans for three major cultural programs to bring foot traffic back downtown — a self-guided mural walk, a weekly event called Sundays on State and pop-up activations at retail locations that have become vacant since the pandemic.

The mural walk, which is being created by the Chicago Loop Alliance, will take pedestrians to over 20 murals in the Loop area in “reasonable” walking time, according to CLA planning director Kalindi Parikh.

The group is in the early stages of planning Sundays on State, an event that will shut off State Street traffic from Lake Street to Madison Street for outdoor performances and outdoor recreation to encourage pedestrians to shop in the Loop. Sundays on State will take place in July, August and September from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Parikh said plans were subject to change based on public health guidance as CLA gets closer to summer.

Read the full story from Zac Clingenpeel here.

New Cases & Vaccination Numbers

• The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that 1,832 new cases of the disease were diagnosed among 49,739 tests.
• Officials also reported 13 more coronavirus deaths on Tuesday.
• A total of 70,252 COVID-19 shots went into arms statewide Monday.