City of Chicago - City Hall

Lightfoot: Don’t Scapegoat Chicago Restaurants for COVID-19 Second Wave | Eater Chicago

"This municipal building was the site of a Monday morning media briefing where the mayor and the city health commissioner warned that the city is in a pandemic second wave — the scenario Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned about — and stressed that residents cannot afford “COVID-19 fatigue.” Officials presented data showing cases rising sharply (a seven-day rolling average of about 508 daily cases projected to reach 600 later in the week) and a current positivity rate of 5.4 percent, with plans to consider drastic measures if that rate nears 8 percent. They noted colder weather is driving people indoors, complicating containment, and said the surge is widespread across ages, races, and neighborhoods. While indoor dining capacity was recently raised from 25 to 40 percent, leaders said the data do not point to restaurants as the primary driver; instead, they expressed greater concern about private gatherings, card games and bar crawls where rules are harder to enforce. At the same time, officials acknowledged that restaurants have largely complied with strict local rules (masking, spaced tables, six-person limits), and emphasized the difficult balance between protecting public health and minimizing economic harm to small businesses, while leaving open the possibility of reverting to tougher Phase Three restrictions, including limiting indoor dining." - Ashok Selvam