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* WGEM…
“People are going into stores with no masks on,” [Blessing Health System CEO and President Maureen Kahn] said. “As the states have opened up, people have been moving about the cabin going out and enjoying some time and forgetting about the most important things that we’ve been educating folks on. They need to be wearing a mask, washing their hands and social distancing.”
With the recent influx of cases ahead of plans for Illinois to move into Phase Four, Kahn said wearing a face covering can make all the difference.
“When you’re getting into those tight spaces, wearing a mask is a good way to protect yourself, your family and the people you love,” she said.
Adams County Health Department officials said they do expect to see more cases as the state reopens, but said that can be controlled if people follow the guidelines.
“As we go through the contact tracing and talk with you all, the main goal now is to reemphasize those simple measures that can be taken to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand,” Adams County Public Health Administrator Jerrod Welch said.
* Daily Herald…
But don’t toss your face mask, given that COVID-19 is spread mainly through droplets when people sneeze, said physician Michael Bauer.
“It is not all fine. It is not back to normal,” Bauer said. “Everyone wants it to be, but we are still in the midst of this pandemic.”
The Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital medical director, for one, doesn’t plan to watch a movie anytime soon, for example.
“To me, personally, I would have no desire to sit in an indoor space like that,” Bauer said.
* Sun-Times…
Lightfoot on Monday told reporters Chicago’s guidelines are sometimes different because the city is an air hub, its population density is higher and there are “lots of active infections here still.”
Caution is dictated because, the mayor said, a resurgence is “more than a risk. It’s a very real possibility.” Social distancing, hand hygiene and face masks remain essential, Lightfoot said.
“This approach — turning the dimmer switch cautiously — continues to cause economic harm and hardship. We recognize that. But my first responsibility as mayor is to save lives,” Lightfoot said.
“There are some who think we should just do nothing, have no restrictions, no capacity limits. But when you think of a gathering size of 100 and having a 30 percent chance of somebody in that 100 having a COVID virus — when you go up to 250 and that probability goes up to 60 percent — this is why we are being cautious and prudent.”
* WTTW…
But with COVID-19 cases on the rise in many states — 12 have reported a record number of cases since Friday — how can Illinois safely reopen while protecting residents against future outbreaks?
“The first thing I think we need to continue doing is what Gov. Pritzker has said all along, and that’s making sure we follow the science and the data and what the epidemiologists are advising us to do,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said during an interview Monday for “Chicago Tonight.” “When you see these 12 states where you see these record-breaking new cases and these spikes, part of it is because if you go too fast … you risk not having the hospital capacity but you also risk increasing the spread.”
Stratton said Illinois had taken a deliberately cautious approach and urged residents to continue to socially distance and follow health guidelines even as the state moves into the next phase of its reopening.
“COVID-19 is still out there but moving to phase four means we are at a place where we have a better handle on some of the things we can do to stop the spread — and it’s guided by the science,” Stratton said.
* Greg Hinz…
We can argue about the economic cost. But we got something for our money: a much, much healthier state and city relative to regions that responded differently. And an opportunity to carefully reopen our economy while other parts of the nation are contemplating a slowdown.
Now, of course, we’ll find out whether Chicago and Illinois folks can keep it up and be a little more sensible in reopening than appeared to be the case elsewhere, with scenes of packed bars and maskless shopping. I’ll be the optimist on that. We’ve come so far, I don’t think people will casually throw it all way.
Congratulations. You have part of your life back, Chicago. Now don’t blow it.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 10:30 am
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I can say in my neck of the woods that there are stores where the employees are wearing masks, there are customers that aren’t wearing masks at all.
Masks not fully covering the face is a pet peeve, no masks at all makes me apoplectic.
Comment by Hello Friend Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 10:39 am
The lack of mask wearing in the central Illinois is terrifying. I can’t tell you the number of places I’ve pulled up to and left because of no masks. Businesses need to be punished for not following mask guidelines. Hoping the Governor and General Assembly figure this out before cases start rising again.
Comment by MakePoliticsCoolAgain Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 10:45 am
Sitting in a theater or going to a gym is simply living in denial.
Those who think there is going to be a resumption in major sports are whistling past the graveyard as well.
Yeah, I know, NASCAR. Which doesn’t have near the amount of personnel needed to field an event.
Comment by efudd Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:00 am
The universities are all depending on returning students wearing masks at all times. It’s a joke. Even now there are students and faculty/staff walking around with no masks. And very, very few people off campus are wearing them. I can’t see us making it through the semester without reverting back to Phase 3 or even Phase 2.
Comment by MSIX Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:03 am
“We’ve come so far, I don’t think people will casually throw it all way.“
I sure hope not. So far we’ve avoided the levels of covidiocy shown in other states, from the president to the governors to the residents. The people who think their freedom is lost because of a required face covering in a pandemic, they don’t have much faith in or understanding of freedom.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:04 am
I went to the protest down in Effingham, then did some driving around afterwards.
Went into the IGA, to see if it had changed under the new owners (not really, and that’s good).
I would estimate at least half of the folks in the grocery store around 3 p.m. on a beautiful June Saturday did not have a mask on.
That’s frightening. And a disaster waiting to happen.
Later that afternoon, I stopped by one of the cemeteries and visited the graves of my great-great-grandmother and her 16 year old son. They died within 6 days of each other, right around Thanksgiving 1918, of the Spanish Flu.
One of my last stops was at the home of the family who lived just north of my family’s farm. I had a very brief visit with the 95 year old farmer and his 91 year old wife.
How?
They opened their garage door, and I stood at least 10 feet away with my mask on while we chatted for about 15 minutes.
We are all of the opinion that people who don’t wear masks have no idea of what might happen to them if they get ill. We all agree that this virus is nothing to mess around with.
Go over to the IDPH website and look at the statewide Corona virus map. Each of those orange dots is for a county that has had a Covid-19 death. When you start dividing the number of deaths into the number of Covid-19 cases, some of these counties have death rates approaching 10%.
Yet they’re howling wildly about the steps the governor is taking.
I’m curious to see how many people around them have to die before they find Jesus and come to their senses.
Comment by Lynn S. Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:05 am
=== Businesses need to be punished for not following mask guidelines.===
One punishment is to take business elsewhere; that is more effective when you let the owner know you did so and why. I’m surprised by all of the businesses that do not realize they could be in the news as a hotspot…what would that do for attracting customers?
Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:06 am
Mask wearing was maybe 50% for a while, but now people seem to think it’s back to normal and don’t need a mask. Our cases have nearly doubled in the past week after almost no movement for weeks.
Comment by Highland Il Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:07 am
I. Just. Do. Not. Get. It.
You don’t have to wear a mask in your own home, you don’t have to wear it in the car, you don’t have to wear a mask on a walk around your neighborhood (if there’s enough space for multiple people on sidewalk). You don’t even have to wear it at the table of whatever bar or tavern you’re at while you eat.
Heck, if you’re lucky enough to work from home the *absolute longest* you’re going to have to wear a mask is, say, 20 mins while you’re in a grocery store. Can’t we just continue to make that extremely small sacrifice for a few more months?
Comment by wow Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:15 am
=== Masks not fully covering the face is a pet peeve ===
I saw a Phlebotomist this morning that had her nose sticking out over the mask.
Come on people…it’s not that hard to do it right.
Comment by Stu Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:19 am
“Congratulations. You have part of your life back, Chicago. Now don’t blow it.”
Longman & Eagle — a high-quality, Michelin star-rated resturant — had been open for take-out and delivery for a month without incident.
They were only open for patio service for about 10 days when a worker tested positive for the virus.
tbh, Chicago may have already blown it.
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:21 am
===One punishment is to take business elsewhere===
The invisible hand of the market really shouldn’t be hoped for as a public health standard. I think we’ve gotten decades of evidence with the regulation of food production and restaurants that the invisible hand isn’t interested in how the sausage is made, and we probably shouldn’t expect it to be able to stop the invisible deadly pandemic causing virus, either.
The business community and the public would benefit from local officials actually stepping up to protect their communities by at least passively if not more actively enforcing use of masks instead of making public statements about how it’s up to the businesses.
We don’t leave it up to the businesses to decide whether or not there’s rat droppings in your food, and we shouldn’t leave it up to the businesses to decide whether or not patrons observe public health requirements.
Many of us have been failed by our elected officials and local law enforcement and there’s commenters on this niche state politics blog that sincerely believe concerns over a potential bad news story will somehow improve compliance — when Covidiots flocked to venues that announced they were opening in defiance of the Governor’s orders.
The amount of trust folks put in any idiot that can scrounge up enough money to operate a business for a while is outstanding.
Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:23 am
My family will remain basically locked down till a vaccine is deployed. Would be nice if others remained cautious. Don’t see that unless the dead pile up.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:24 am
Was at Walmart and Sam’s in Springfield this weekend. Estimate mask wearing at 80%.
Comment by Oldtimer Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:26 am
Everyone at my Chicago library is wearing a mask,but too many pull them down so their nose is uncovered.
Comment by Chicago J Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:35 am
very anxious to see how the Remdesiver inhaler works out.
Comment by Blue Dog Dem Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 11:43 am
Small town Central Illinois - had to go to the CVS in person (they’ve been mailing my mom’s medications for the most part but this one was liquid so it had to be picked up). Even the pharmacists weren’t wearing masks.
I’m actually going out even less than I was in April/May (and that was like once every two weeks at the most) because people are acting like everything is fine.
Comment by tea_and_honey Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 12:17 pm
Tea_and_honey,
In Champaign-Urbana, all the CVS stores require face masks.
I would urge you to call CVS corporate and let them know date/time you witnessed this behavior. Can’t imagine corporate will be pleased to hear that one of their stores is violating public health directive.
And I’m pretty darn sure that corporate doesn’t want one of their stores to become a Covid-19 hot spot. Tends to be bad for business…
Comment by Lynn S. Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 12:33 pm
During lunch today, I was at a credit union near the Capitol Complex to do banking.
Masks and social distancing, and other customer precautions existed. However, the all-younger employees weren’t wearing them during work, even while customers were required to.
Comment by Chatham Resident Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 1:03 pm
The wife and I are locked down within limits. We socialize with trusted friends only and in safe locations, and avoid any situation or establishment where lax mask discipline or poor distancing is evident. It’s going to be this way for a while because I check a lot of boxes that make me vulnerable to the virus.
But . . . .
My photography — a passion and almost way of life — has been painfully curtailed by the pandemic, with multiple shooting trips cancelled. It’s an increasingly difficult choice: Following a passion that gives one’s life meaning, albeit with risk, or continue just hunkering down? It’s taking an increasing emotional/mental toll, especially because my active shooting years are dwindling to a precious few. I’m good for the summer, but come fall I’ll find ways to minimize the risk (to others and self) and get into the field. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Comment by Flapdoodle Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 1:20 pm
I went to a restaurant in Springfield today, and I was the only one wearing a mask. Unbelievable.
Comment by Mama Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 2:33 pm
@”- Lynn S. - Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 12:33 pm:
Tea_and_honey,
In Champaign-Urbana, all the CVS stores require face masks.
I would urge you to call CVS corporate and let them know date/time you witnessed this behavior. Can’t imagine corporate will be pleased to hear that one of their stores is violating public health directive.
And I’m pretty darn sure that corporate doesn’t want one of their stores to become a Covid-19 hot spot. Tends to be bad for business…”
This. Take the time to call the owner or corporate office/web site to let them know when you see employees wearing masks, etc.
About a week ago, I went out to one of our favorite places for a pickup-order, and no one at the pickup window was wearing a mask.
When I got home, I went to the corporate feedback page, and within a few hours I got a personal phone call back from the local franchise owner/GM, who was furious — and not at me.
They profusely apologized and promised to read the riot act to their staff at that location and wholeheartedly thanked me for taking the time to let them know what was going on.
We had a frank and civil conversation, the upshot being that we both wanted their business to still be open when this is all over.
Comment by Hieronymus Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 4:18 pm
Not wearing masks.
Comment by Hieronymus Tuesday, Jun 23, 20 @ 4:19 pm