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

Also on Friday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago Public Schools will move forward with plans to reopen schools on Monday, despite ongoing objections by the teachers union and a large group of aldermen. Further, CPS CEO Janice Jackson said staff members who don’t show up — as about half failed to do this week — will be deemed absent without leave “and ineligible for pay going forward.”

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union took issue with assertions that schools are adequately equipped and ready to open, with one calling Jackson’s comments about docking pay “heartless.”

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

Accompanied by an African American scientist at the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine development, the Rev. Jesse Jackson got his shot against the virus Friday at Roseland Community Hospital, as he praised the safety of the immunization and addressed vaccine hesitancy in minority communities.

After the injection, the civil rights leader and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition raised his fist in the air and appeared to smile behind his protective face mask. He received the Pfizer vaccine, the first one to get federal emergency use authorization last month.

“Take the vaccine,” Jackson said to the crowd of health care workers and reporters who watched him get vaccinated in a small tent outside the South Side hospital. “Take the vaccine now.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago Public Schools will move forward with plans to reopen schools on Monday, despite ongoing objections by the teachers union and a large group of aldermen.

Further, CPS CEO Janice Jackson said staff members who don’t show up — as about half failed to do this week — will be deemed absent without leave “and ineligible for pay going forward.”

“This is not a measure we take lightly,” Jackson added.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union took issue with assertions that schools are adequately equipped and ready to open, with one calling Jackson’s comments about docking pay “heartless.”

“The CEO does not care about my health and safety, and is making me decide between getting paid and supporting my family,” Lilly Freyer, third grade teacher at LaSalle Language Academy, said at an afternoon CTU news conference. “It seems like a pretty heartless comment during a worldwide pandemic.”

Union leaders on Friday offered little clarity for those wondering whether they should be preparing for another teachers strike, though the possibility remains on the table.

Chicago’s public COVID-19 testing sites for months have been using test kits that the Food and Drug Administration warned this week should not be used on people who don’t experience symptoms.

The Curative tests have been used since last spring at city testing sites, where Chicagoans who aren’t showing coronavirus symptoms can get tested.

On Monday, the FDA issued a directive “alerting patients and health care providers of the risk of false results, particularly false negative results, with the Curative SARS-CoV-2 test.”

”Risks to a patient of a false negative result include: delayed or lack of supportive treatment, lack of monitoring of infected individuals and their household or other close contacts for symptoms resulting in increased risk of spread of COVID-19 within the community, or other unintended adverse events,” the FDA directive reads in part.

The city has partnered with Curative since the spring to run testing sites around Chicago, with no requirement that people who come in for the tests be showing symptoms. People who are about to travel, who worry that they’ve been exposed to someone who has COVID-19 or who are planning to see at-risk family members often will get tested even if they aren’t showing symptoms.

The U.S. topped 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the first time, breaking a record set just one day earlier, with several Sun Belt states driving the surge.

The tally from Johns Hopkins University showed the nation had 4,085 deaths Thursday, along with nearly 275,000 new cases of the virus — evidence that the crisis is growing worse after family gatherings and travel over the holidays and the onset of winter, which is forcing people indoors.

Deaths have reached epic proportions. Since just Monday, the United States has recorded 13,500 deaths — more than Pearl Harbor, D-Day, 9/11 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake combined.

With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies.

“The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement. Biden “supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.”

Biden’s plan is not about cutting two-dose vaccines in half, a strategy that top government scientists recommend against. Instead, it would accelerate shipment of first doses and use the levers of government power to provide required second doses in a timely manner.

Illinois health officials on Friday announced 9,277 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 126 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,017,322 and the statewide death toll to 17,395 since the start of the pandemic.

Officials also reported 118,665 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 8.5% for the period ending Thursday.

Chicago residents 65 or older will be eligible for the vaccine in the next phase, but vaccination sites will prioritize the seniors by age and risk factors, Chicago officials said Friday.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said in a news conference that the city is “absolutely on the same page” with the state, whose Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that people 65 or older will be part of phase 1b, which includes the elderly and front-line essential workers, effectively lowering federal guidelines for the first group by 10 years. The city is currently in phase 1a, which includes health care workers and long-term care facility staff and residents, and the next stage may not start until February.

“The city and the state are not in opposition here,” Arwady said. “We are thinking here about how just as we’ve done in every phase so far, we’ll continue to do, how to further prioritize within that phase.”

How effectively Water Tower Place can fill its empty spaces — amid a pandemic that has devastated the retail industry and accelerated changes in how people shop, as well as looting incidents that have tested the city — will help determine the health of Chicago’s premier commercial street.

Macy’s exit is “not a surprise, but the fact that it’s happening is still a bucket of cold water in the face because of what it symbolizes,” said David Stone, founder of retail brokerage Stone Real Estate. “Michigan Avenue has been seemingly invincible, and this is telling us that it’s not invincible.”

Two additional inmates have died from coronavirus in Wisconsin’s prison system, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 25, according to corrections officials.

The additional deaths come as more than half of the state’s roughly 20,000 prisoners have been infected.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, so too do its dire effects in the city’s, state’s, and country’s arts community. Few are as hard hit as the city’s underground arts community, which continues to operate on the fringes. Lacking the sort of visibility or size of larger venues and entities, many within the DIY community have had to organize and fundraise on their own. Friday, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) will hold a benefit show in support of the DIYCHI Mutual Aid fund, which provides much-needed financial relief to members of the underground arts community.

For Zoey Victoria, a co-founder of the mutual aid fund and an organizer for Friday’s event, her love of the city’s DIY scene dates back to high school, when she took trips into the city to see underground shows. “I think what appeals to me about DIY and about underground arts and music spaces is just the freedom to grow and explore and to learn more about yourself and your community,” she said.

Now, years after moving here, she has become a firm fixture in the community and continues to advocate for its members. “I love the idea of creating intentional spaces and creating intentional communities for artistic exploration. I think art is a very central part to how our country and society evolves and grows,” she offered. “I think in order for art to prosper, communities need to be safe without influence from capitalism or just any sort of oppression. I think those are values of a good DIY community.”

In the latest round, businesses that received loans last year will be able to borrow up to $2 million as long as they have no more than 300 employees and suffered at least a 25% drop in quarterly revenue. First-time borrowers with no more than 500 workers will be able to borrow up to $10 million.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson were scheduled to give an update on CPS reopening plans, after the school district’s 350,000 students have been in remote learning since the beginning of the pandemic.

Lightfoot and Jackson were scheduled to speak Friday morning at CPS headquarters downtown.

The update comes after the Chicago Teachers Union proposed that the Chicago Board of Education delay in-person learning until all employees have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and for the union and school district to develop a mutually agreed-upon schedule for an extended school year.

In the meantime, the union proposes, CPS could allow in-person learning by pairing staff who opt in voluntarily with students who want to return.

Many driver’s license offices reopened again this week after being closed for nearly two months because of the coronavirus pandemic. But this time, those braving the long lines also had to deal with freezing temperatures.

Olivia Trojan, of the Dunning neighborhood, braced herself Thursday afternoon for the inevitable wait at the Chicago North Illinois Secretary of State’s facility on Elston Avenue. She donned tall winter boots, a puffer jacket and a beanie for the occasion.

“I just turned 21 and my passport also expired so I don’t want to get left on thin ice without a valid form of ID,” Trojan said, rubbing her hands together. “I get cold so easily.”

Wait times were expected to be near two hours, Trojan said. Lines weaved down the sidewalk of the Jefferson Park facility while customers stood feet apart.

The Illinois General Assembly returns to Springfield on Friday for a lame-duck session that gives embattled Speaker Michael Madigan a final opportunity to make his case to remain at the helm of the House, while the Black Caucus makes a push for its wide-ranging social justice agenda.

The session is the lead-up to Wednesday’s inauguration of the 102nd General Assembly, which will touch off the official process of choosing the next House speaker. For the first time, Madigan faces enough opposition from fellow Democrats to deny him another term in the post he’s held for all but two years since 1983.

While Madigan’s fate provides political intrigue, the Black Caucus’ agenda, which covers a range of education, criminal justice, economic and health care issues, figures to be the legislative centerpiece of the session.

Friday marks the first time lawmakers will convene in Springfield since a May special session, where they met for four days to pass a host of pandemic-related measures and a spending plan for the budget year that began July 1.

Since then, Madigan has been implicated in a federal bribery investigation in which Commonwealth Edison agreed to cooperate and pay a $200 million fine. Madigan has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

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