Chicago, like other major cities is taking steps which are undoubtedly bolting the barn door after the horses have fled. ABC 7 Chicago reports:
Governor Pritzker has laid out new guidelines when it comes to events with crowds. He is not ordering schools to close, but some are closing and even beginning spring break early.
Joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Pritzker announced that all events of 1,000 people or more are mandated to be canceled. Officials are also asking event organizers to cancel or postpone gatherings that would be 250 people or more together.
The crowd restrictions are in effect until May 1 and the governor made clear the sacrifices are urgent.
“I am not going to hesitate to take the most aggressive measures possible to protect the people of our state,” Pritzker said. “We need to reduce social contact in order to try and control the spread of the virus and prevent our medical infrastructure from dealing with too many cases at one time. We all have responsibilities to the most vulnerable among us and that means making sacrifices in the immediate term.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city will also enforce the ban against events exceeding 1,000 individuals.
“We have to continue practicing social distancing and if you do not feel well, for God’s sake stay home,” Mayor Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot said they changes are not intended to make people scared and the focus is on stopping the spread of COVID-19 for the general public’s safety.
The elderly and people with underlying conditions are believed to be the most vulnerable, but several schools have already closed their doors as a precaution.
Illinois presently has 32 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That’s of a population of nearly 13 million people. Increased testing will undoubtedly confirm many more cases than that but it won’t tell us how long we have had cases of COVID-19 here. It might have been for weeks, months, or years. If you test for it, you’ll find more of it than if you don’t.
The hope, as suggested above, is that the serious cases requiring hospitalization can be trafficked through the system at a rate that the system can accommodate.
I don’t think the reality of the situation has really sunk in with people yet. Just to provide one example, what does Chicago Public Schools do? If they remain open, they’re Petrie dishes. If they close, many of the kids have nowhere else to go and in some cases school provides their only meal of the day. If CPS closes it will mean a loss of federal funding and I doubt that they’re even aware of the procedures for handling that.
The situation is becoming surreal. As I type this I heard a TV spot for an event that will now not take place. Chicago’s Civic Theater, home to Chicago Lyric Opera, has a capacity of more than 3,000 people. Lyric sent out a blast email to subscribers last night that, essentially, said nothing. At the very least I strongly suspect they will need to cancel the balance of their 2020-2021 season.
It is not too late. Actions done now will save a lot of suffering.
“The hope, as suggested above, is that the serious cases requiring hospitalization can be trafficked through the system at a rate that the system can accommodate.”
I think this is perhaps the bottom line. We don’t know what the ultimate extent of infection will be, other than more. Attempts to retard the penetration rate seem warranted.
I still have seen no definitive assessment on what I think are key issues 1) can you get re-infected? (that’s a mess) and b) what is the real mortality rate by age. Maybe its because we just don’t know, if for no other reason that we haven’t been measuring the infection rate. But it might help to know if this is really a serious flu – the kind that kills 60,000+ every year – or something totally different altogether.
Just to throw gas on the fire. Media reaction has been shamefully cynical. I also understand Pelosi took the opportunity to throw in abortion funding along with corona virus related funding. A pox on her house. If you are Trump you do the deal because you have to, but Pelosi’s (or any similar) actions are press conference fodder. And lastly, if this doesn’t change the dynamic on globalism, I don’t know what will.
The CCPs’ threat to withhold medications produced only there, (and there are a lot), makes that a national security issue. THAT has to change
Recently we had the states 11th confirmed case. He flew from Minneapolis to Omaha with our first case on the same plane.
The Brazilian press secretary and President are positive after flying to Washington and back together.
I’m beginning to fear it is airborne.
Is there any question about that? I thought that it was commonly believed to be spread BOTH by contact with infected surfaces and via airborne contagion.
The reports I heard were if someone sneezed in your face. But I’m thinking it is light enough to remain airborne for several minutes at least.
I wish there was more consideration of what alternatives are likely when facilities and events are closed. In particular, if young people can’t do X, then what are the not-X that they will do instead? Which is preferable? I think closing down large events makes sense, but as we get to smaller and smaller events, the alternative is likely young people hanging out in groups somewhere else. With school closings, more parents will seek time off work. Is that preferable? The County health department has said no, at least to the extent the parents work in healthcare, which might be directly or indirectly a third of the workforce.
The info I have received is that the virus remains in the air for several minutes.
Spoke with a friend today who has contacts at Johns Hopkins. They have a home grown testing kit they’ve started using. Don’t know if it can be broadly commercialized. We will probably have plenty of testing soon. Vaccine is a different animal.