RESTAURANTS AND BRRRRS
City latest region to be hit with gov’s order banning indoor drinking, dining amid surging COVID cases and winter weather; Lightfoot criticizes move
Four months after reopening from the first devastating coronavirus shutdown, Chicago restaurateurs will be forced to close their dining rooms again beginning Friday as COVID-19 infections soar to spring-like highs statewide.
While Mayor Lori Lightfoot indicated she’d push Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reconsider his latest restrictions on indoor dining, the Democratic governor said skyrocketing case counts and testing positivity rates mean businesses and residents have to buckle down now with a potentially troubling winter looming.
“For a time, late in the summer, Chicago seemed to have this more under control than other regions of Illinois, but that’s no longer the case,” Pritzker said while announcing the restaurant rollback Tuesday. “We can’t ignore what is happening all around us, because without action, this could look worse than anything that we saw last spring.”
But Lightfoot, who announced last call for indoor bar service as the city’s coronavirus numbers shot up last week, criticized Pritzker’s new restrictions. She argued “the truth is that where we’re seeing the greatest challenges is in people’s homes, in social-sector settings that are not public. That’s harder to regulate.”
“If the governor’s order goes into effect, it’s really effectively shutting down a significant portion of our economy at a time when those same businesses are really hanging on by a thread,” Lightfoot said on PBS NewsHour. “So, we’re going to continue our engagement of the governor … but it’s not looking good.”
Pritzker first shut down restaurant seating in March before outdoor seating resumed near the beginning of June and indoor service was allowed toward the end of that month.
The new closure couldn’t come at a worse time as cold temperatures arrive, according to Reinier Nayor, owner of Sazón Cubano at 5422 W. Fullerton Ave. in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
“We aren’t getting help anymore, so another shutdown means a lot of places may close for good. I hope I’m not one of them,” Nayor said.
That group could eventually include more than 7,500 restaurants statewide, according to Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia, who said he raised his estimate to almost a third of the industry that could be sunk in part due to the governor’s “extreme” measures.
“At least let us try 25% capacity,” Toia said. “We know how to do this right — masking, social distancing and sanitizing. Any business doing it right should be kept open, and any one that isn’t should be shut down. We don’t understand why the restaurants are the only ones affected.”
The rules issued by Pritzker, who has cited studies suggesting bars and restaurants are “super spreading” sites, also mean other city gatherings will be limited to 25 people or 25% of room capacity.
Chicago’s seven- day average testing positivity rate is 7.8%, just shy of the 8% threshold set by the governor’s office that has more often triggered such state “mitigations” in other regions. But the city has weathered eight consecutive days of positivity increases and a full week of rising hospital admissions — the same metrics tripped a day earlier by the suburban Cook County region, where indoor restrictions go into effect Wednesday.
By the end of the week, reopenings will have been scaled back in seven of the state’s 11 regions, and the remaining regions — all at 7% positivity and rising — aren’t far behind.
“We are well into this second wave, and I assure you that this is a virus affecting all of Illinois,” Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the city’s rate of increase is now the same as during the first wave of coronavirus cases — and could soon surpass it.
Statewide, most key COVID-19 metrics have deteriorated to the worst points seen in almost five months. The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Tuesday that 4,000 more people tested positive for the virus, which claimed an additional 46 lives. The death toll has risen to 9,568 since March.
The statewide average testing positivity rate is at 6.4%, the highest it’s been since early June. Hospitals are treating the most coronavirus patients they’ve seen since then, too, with 2,758 beds taken up as of Monday night.
“The reality is we’re all trying very hard to get this right, all across the country,” a frustrated Pritzker told a reporter questioning some of his decisions. “Can you not see that COVID is rising everywhere? Let’s not try and find the loopholes here and there, but instead find ways that we can promote safety and health.”
Since March, about 7.4 million coronavirus tests have been administered in Illinois and at least 382,985 residents have carried the virus, about 3% of the population.
“WE AREN’T GETTING HELP ANYMORE, SO ANOTHER SHUTDOWN MEANS A LOT OF PLACES MAY CLOSE FOR GOOD. I HOPE I’M NOT ONE OF THEM.”
REINIER NAYOR, owner of Sazón Cubano in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood