The number of new coronavirus cases in Illinois declined for the third straight day Tuesday, with state officials reporting 707 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19. Still, the seven-day average of new cases reached four digits for the first time in more than a month. The state also reported 25 more fatalities connected to the virus.
Meanwhile, Gov. J.B. Pritzker focused on bars as potential hot spots for transmission of the new coronavirus in response to questions Tuesday about whether he’s considering rolling back any portion of the state’s economic reopening as COVID-19 cases rise.
Also on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched a new initiative that will allow thousands of former City Colleges students to return to school, complete their degrees and clear their debt in an effort to boost Chicago’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery
Later in the day, Lightfoot added Iowa and Oklahoma to the list of states from which people entering Chicago need to quarantine themselves for two weeks because of rising coronavirus levels, and wouldn’t rule out eventually adding Wisconsin to the list as well if warranted.
Here’s what’s happening Tuesday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:12 p.m.: HHS Secretary Alex Azar says Dr. Fauci remains a ‘trusted adviser’ and blames spike in cases on personal behavior, particularly among younger people
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday that Americans should not be concerned that infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci will leave the Trump administration, saying he remains a “trusted adviser” of himself and the administration
Azar also said he believes there is a “credible” chance for tens of thousands of doses of coronavirus vaccine to be distributed as part of phased trials this fall, with hundreds of thousands of doses available by the start of the year.
Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive who had previous stints in the federal health care agency, said pandemic spikes in the South and West, and increased cases in 37 states were not a result of efforts to reopen economies too early but of a failure in personal behavior, particularly among younger people, to adhere to public health guidelines.
Azar was in Chicago to visit with health care professionals at Rush University Medical Center as well as Haymarket Center as part of an effort to encourage people to resume medical procedures, such as mammograms and colonoscopies. Azar said such procedures fell 90% during the recent peak of the pandemic in the Chicago area.
The Trump administration’s efforts in dealing with the pandemic have become a major issue in a presidential election season.
Read more here. —Rick Pearson
7:47 p.m.: Trump administration orders hospitals to bypass CDC and send all COVID-19 patient information to central database in Washington
The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.
The new instructions were posted in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the CDC — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.
Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on CDC data to make projections and crucial decisions.
Read more here. —The New York Times
6:42 p.m.: Manny’s Deli takes to social media to plead for support: ‘We are struggling. This isn’t a joke.’
The post on the Facebook page of Manny’s Coffee Shop & Deli was direct, blunt and a little scary.
“As of today we have no North Shore orders for Friday,” the post read. “We are counting on suburban deliveries because people are still hesitating to dine in. If you live in the Deerfield, Highland Park or Northbrook area, please tell your friends to order Manny’s for dinner Friday!”
The Twitter post, by definition, was more direct:
“We are struggling. This isn’t a joke. Support your fav deli for dinner tonight. Thx.”
“We’re being honest,” said third-generation owner Dan Raskin, in a telephone interview Tuesday evening. “Everybody’s hurting, but specifically us; we’re a big restaurant, 300 seats, we’re based on volume and we’re not coming close to where we need to be to keep our staff.”
The post had been retweeted nearly 300 times within an hour, with many commenters saying they would place orders.
Read more here. —Phil Vettel
5:34 p.m.: IHSA to defer to the state on further guidance for the return of high school sports
The Illinois High School Association announced Tuesday it will defer to the state on its Return to Play guidelines going forward.
The Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois State Board of Education and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office will take the lead on additional guidance for the upcoming school year, the IHSA said in a news release.
The IHSA had informed schools on Thursday that the current guidelines would be revised due to an increase in cases of COVID-19 among student-athletes. Among the changes, which await approval by the IDPH, are an increased use of masks and no scrimmages in sports requiring physical contact.
Read more here. —Daily Southtown staff
5:06 p.m.: Number of new COVID-19 deaths decline in 17 north and west suburbs
Cases of COVID-19 continued to rise among 17 north and west suburbs over the last week, though fewer new deaths were reported, according to data provided by the Cook County Department of Public Health and Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Between July 7 and July 14, there were eight new COVID-19-related deaths among the communities, compared to 17 new deaths the previous week, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Read more here. —Jennifer Johnson
4:26 p.m.: First COVID-19 vaccine tested in US is poised for final testing
The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday — as the shots are poised to begin key final testing.
“No matter how you slice this, this is good news,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.
The experimental vaccine, developed by Fauci’s colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will start its most important step around July 27: A 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.
But Tuesday, researchers reported anxiously awaited findings from the first 45 volunteers who rolled up their sleeves back in March. Sure enough, the vaccine provided a hoped-for immune boost.
Those early volunteers developed what are called neutralizing antibodies in their bloodstream — molecules key to blocking infection — at levels comparable to those found in people who survived COVID-19, the research team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“This is an essential building block that is needed to move forward with the trials that could actually determine whether the vaccine does protect against infection,” said Dr. Lisa Jackson of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle, who led the study.
There’s no guarantee but the government hopes to have results around the end of the year — record-setting speed for developing a vaccine.
The vaccine requires two doses, a month apart.
There were no serious side effects. But more than half the study participants reported flu-like reactions to the shots that aren’t uncommon with other vaccines — fatigue, headache, chills, fever and pain at the injection site. For three participants given the highest dose, those reactions were more severe; that dose isn’t being pursued.
Read more here. —Associated Press
3:38 p.m.: Lightfoot says final decision for CPS opening might not come till late August
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday said it’s too soon to decide whether to reopen Chicago public schools this fall in spite of the coronavirus, but promised the school district will shortly announce plans to begin talking with parents and others about the best way to proceed.
The final decision might not be coming until late August, she said.
“I believe that CPS will be announcing shortly a framework that will be the starting point of a discussion, a discussion that has to involve parents and teachers and other members of the school community, and obviously people speaking on behalf of students, to think about what the potential options are,” Lightfoot said.
Lots of parents are looking for guidance on whether schools will have their children perhaps only a couple days a week, as in some other cities, or not at all. The mayor said there’s time to figure it out.
“But the reality is, we’re here in mid-July. CPS typically doesn’t start school until right after Labor Day,” she said “A lot can happen between now and then. And that’s why, no matter what the framework and the discussions, we’re always going to be guided by what the public health metrics tell us at that time. We’ll be able to make that decision, I think definitively, closer in time. Late August.”
CPS CEO Janice Jackson told the school board last month that the district was preparing multiple scenarios for how and when schools would reopen in the fall.
Read more here. —John Byrne
3:35 p.m.: Daily coronavirus tally in Illinois declines again, but seven-day average creeps back over 1,000
The number of new coronavirus cases in Illinois declined for the third straight day Tuesday, with state officials reporting 707 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19.
There were more than 900 cases per day for a five-day stretch late last week and early this week, cresting at 1,317 cases on Friday. Officials reported 954 cases Sunday and 883 on Monday.
Still, the seven-day average of new cases, which officials look at to smooth out day-to-day fluctuations in the data, reached four digits for the first time in more than a month.
For the week ending Tuesday, that state averaged 1,008 new known cases per day, an increase of about 34% from a week earlier, according to an analysis of preliminary Illinois Department of Public Health data. That’s the highest seven-day average since June 8, when the state was averaging 1,026 cases per day.
Meanwhile, the percentage of COVID-19 tests returning positive results— known as the positivity rate — remained stable at 3% on a seven-day average as of Monday, according to the Department of Public Health. The statewide positivity rate is the same as it was a month ago, though it dipped as low as 2% for the three-day stretch in late June.
The state also reported 25 more fatalities connected to the virus Tuesday, bring the death toll to 7,218 statewide since the pandemic began. There have been 155,506 known cases across all 102 counties in the state.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other officials have pointed out that the recent increase in new cases has been accompanied by an increase in testing. The state is now regularly receiving results for more than 30,000 coronavirus screenings on a daily basis, a much larger number than when cases were peaking in May.
But Pritzker has expressed concern about the rise nonetheless, especially given spikes in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.
The Department of Public Health on Tuesday sent out a text alert urging the public the continue wearing masks in public and following other safety guidelines.
—Dan Petrella
3:31 p.m.: With a ‘baby step,’ Kohl Children’s Museum reopens — outdoors — next week
Dipping its toes into the reopening pool, the Kohl Children’s Museum next week will welcome back small groups of children, and only on the outdoor part of the Glenview institution’s campus.
Billed as “Kohl Kids Live!” the sessions for groups of no more than 10 people at a time, including kids and parents, begin July 23 for members and July 25 for the general public.
A session in the 2-acre outdoor park “is an approximately 100-minute imaginative journey through five interactive play stations, each with an activity led by a Museum educator,” the museum says, and the themes include “Be a Music Maker” and “Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!” Activities will be moved inside the museum building if the weather turns bad, the museum explains on its website.
“It’s going to be a great, very intimate, customized field trip,” said Donna Biernadski, vice president of marketing. “It’s still interactive. It’s still fun. It’s still educational. And it’s still a place to get out of the house.”
The new scenario, she added, represents a “baby step” on the road back to normalcy.
Read more here. —Steve Johnson
3:20 p.m.: Illinois Holocaust Museum reopening to public for first time since March
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie is planning to reopen to the public tomorrow for the first time since March 13, when the museum was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A release to the media from the museum listed among the expected attendees Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen and several state senators and state representatives.
According to the release, the museum has been deep-cleaned and the building has been treated with a “powerful anti-microbial spray.” Museum officials have also instituted one-way traffic flow, online-only ticketing and several guidelines.
Museum hours will be Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last admission taking place at 4 p.m.
—Pioneer Press staff
3:07 p.m.: Trump administration rescinds rule requiring foreign students to leave country during online classes
Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic.
The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said federal immigration authorities agreed to pull the July 6 directive and “return to the status quo.”
A lawyer representing the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said only that the judge’s characterization was correct.
The announcement brings relief to thousands of foreign students who had been at risk of being deported from the country, along with hundreds of universities that were scrambling to reassess their plans for the fall in light of the policy.
Under the policy, international students in the U.S. would have been forbidden from taking all their courses online this fall. New visas would not have been issued to students at schools planning to provide all classes online, which includes Harvard. Students already in the U.S. would have faced deportation if they didn’t transfer schools or leave the country voluntarily.
Immigration officials issued the policy last week, reversing earlier guidance from March 13 telling colleges that limits around online education would be suspended during the pandemic. University leaders believed the rule was part of President Donald Trump’s effort to pressure the nation’s schools and colleges to reopen this fall even as new virus cases rise.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2:46 p.m.: Eden restaurant popular with United Center fans closing due to economic impact of coronavirus
Eden, a Cal-Mediterranean restaurant popular with pre- and post-event United Center crowd (among others), is closing after a run of just over 3 1/2 years. Final service will be Saturday dinner.
“Eden has been our passion project, our baby,” said co-owners Jodi Fyfe and Devon Quinn, in a released statement. “We thank all of the guests who have joined us for dinner, indulged in our popular weekend brunch, celebrated a holiday or milestone or even taken a selfie in front of our beautiful mural. We are grateful to those who chose to spend their time with us, and to have contributed to each and every moment along the way.”
“While we recently reopened our doors to an immensely positive response, the larger economic impact resulting from the coronavirus pandemic has made it impossible for us to sustain operations,” the release read. The restaurant is the latest casualty to the economic challenges brought by the pandemic. Other recent closings have included Blackbird, Bad Hunter, Hot G Dog and Machu Picchu.
Read more here. —Phil Vettel
2:39 p.m.: Lightfoot adds Iowa to Chicago’s quarantine list, won’t rule out Wisconsin if needed
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday added Iowa and Oklahoma to the list of states from which people entering Chicago need to quarantine themselves for two weeks because of rising coronavirus levels, and wouldn’t rule out eventually adding Wisconsin to the list as well if warranted.
The quarantine order lacks teeth, as officials have hardly any ability to monitor the movements of Chicagoans or visitors.
The mayor acknowledged it’s largely an honor system proposition, but said she thinks people are adhering to the rules.
And she said it helps to let people know they’re traveling to states with serious outbreaks.
“A lot of this is about, also, raising awareness that if you’re coming from one of these areas where you’re seeing case rates explode or you’re seeing hospitalizations and ICU beds, see an increase in positivity rates, the percentage of people testing positive, it is, I think, an important thing to raise the consciousness of people that are living in or coming from those locations about what their obligations are if they want to travel,” she said.
As for the possible addition of Wisconsin, which has seen increasing cases in the past week, Lightfoot said her administration is keeping an eye on the neighbor to the north where many Chicagoans vacation.
“I don’t want to speculate about what might happen, but suffice to say we’re paying very close attention everywhere around us, and particularly states around the Midwest that border Chicago,” she said.
Starting on July 6, Lightfoot ordered people traveling into Chicago to spend 14 days quarantined if they were coming from spending more than 24 hours in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Iowa and Oklahoma will be added to the list effective this Friday, according to the city.
Read more here. —John Byrne
2:33 p.m.: 707 new COVID-19 cases and 25 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Tuesday announced 707 new known cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 155,506 and the statewide death toll to 7,218 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 28,446 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 3%.
2:20 p.m.: Lightfoot to get OK for Cubs weekend night games at Wrigley Field
The Cubs will play a handful of rare Friday and Saturday night home games this season, which isn’t expected to cause the usual hand-wringing and political fights because the COVID-19 pandemic will stop fans with tickets from flooding into Wrigleyville to snarl traffic around the historic ballpark.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has introduced an ordinance to allow the six Friday night games, starting with the July 24 home opener against the rival Milwaukee Brewers. There are six Saturday night home games on the schedule as well.
Still, even without fans in the stands, Wrigleyville has been in the news lately as maskless young people pack into bars there to drink. The Cubs playing will offer another reason for crowds to descend on the entertainment district even if they aren’t allowed into the stadium.
Read more here. —John Byrne
1:59 p.m.: A Chicago theater is coming back next weekend — yes, next weekend — with ‘Judy & Liza.’
Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater Center is coming back from its four-month shutdown with a show next weekend, claiming to be the first Chicago-area theater to return to indoor dramatic action since the arts shutdown caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Lincoln Park venue, once the home of the Victory Gardens Theatre, appears to be correct, although Zanies Comedy Clubs also have sputtered back to life. There also already have been several informal outdoor performances of music, comedy and puppetry in neighborhoods around the city and suburbs.
But this endeavor, clearly, is a much more drastic step and a decision that contrasts with the general trend in Chicago theater, which has been to push scheduled shows into the spring of 2021. In recent days, the Court Theatre, the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace and the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire have all told their audiences they won’t be producing any live shows until 2021.
The Greenhouse, in contrast, starts up July 24.
Read more here. —Chris Jones
1:37 p.m.: Pritzker focuses on bars as potential COVID-19 transmission hot spots when asked about possible rollback of reopening
Gov. J.B. Pritzker focused on bars as potential hot spots for transmission of the new coronavirus in response to questions Tuesday about whether he’s considering rolling back any portion of the state’s economic reopening as COVID-19 cases rise.
As he has since introducing his five-phase “Restore Illinois” plan in early May, Pritzker said he continues to monitor the data closely and consult with public health officials and epidemiologists.
“I will not hesitate to reimpose some mitigations if we see our numbers moving upward,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Chicago. “My concern, again, is all about the health and safety of the people of the state of Illinois.”
Pritzker said he and health officials are watching the Southern and Western states where the virus is surging “and wondering, where could we or should we … turn the dimmer switch, as they say, on some of these items?”
Asked whether he’d once again shut down indoor service at restaurants and bars, which resumed on a limited basis with the move to phase four of his plan on June 26, Pritzker said it wasn’t as clear early on in the pandemic how easily the coronavirus could be transmitted at indoor bars.
“We had an idea, we imposed restrictions, but we didn’t have really enough data,” Pritzker said. “Along the way, the data is now in. And so that’s one of the things we look at.”
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
1:05 p.m.: Chicago’s City Colleges will wipe out debt of former students who return, Lightfoot announces
Aiming to boost Chicago’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery, Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched a new initiative Tuesday that will allow thousands of former City Colleges students to return to school, complete their degrees and clear their debt.
The “Fresh Start” program will offer more than 21,000 students, who left school in the last 10 years in good standing, the opportunity to return and finish their degrees or certificates debt-free, as soon as this fall. The mayor’s office estimates this group of former students currently holds $17.7 million in debt.
“This exciting new initiative is the next big step to ensure all Chicagoans, no matter their circumstances, have equal access to the resources needed for upward mobility,” Lightfoot said in a press release.
Read more here. —Sophie Sherry
12:43 p.m.: Illinois House Republican leader says he won’t go to GOP convention in Florida
One of Illinois’ top Republican officials said Tuesday he’s skipping the GOP’s national convention celebration in Jacksonville, Florida, next month over concerns about the coronavirus.
“It’s not going to be a safe environment,” Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said during a videoconference with reporters.
Durkin is not a delegate to the convention, but high-ranking party officials often attend anyway. Durkin attended one day of the 2016 convention in Cleveland but was not a delegate, his spokeswoman said.
Durkin said he’s focused on trying to cut into the Democrats’ supermajority in the Illinois House in the November general election.
At the behest of President Donald Trump, Republicans moved most of the high-profile portions of their quadrennial gathering from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville after Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper refused to let the convention go on without having social distancing measures in place.
Trump has been insistent on an in-person convention, even as COVID-19 cases surge in Florida and several other states. Republican officials will meet in Charlotte to conduct party business, but Trump’s nomination acceptance speech and other large-scale events will take place in Jacksonville.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
12:08 p.m.: Naperville-area school districts offer parents a choice: send students back to class on part-time basis or do all remote learning
Families in Naperville District 203 and Indian Prairie District 204 will have the choice of sending their children to school on a part-time basis in the fall or having them learn at home through an online academy.
The neighboring schools districts — District 203 the ninth largest in the state and District 204 the third largest in the state — outlined their plans Monday for reopening schools in August.
Indian Prairie Deputy Superintendent Doug Eccarius said the district created its plan based on the results of a survey conducted the first week in July in which 10,611 parents and 2,836 staff responded. The option District 204 chose was the first or second choice for 75% of parents and 74% of staff, he said.
“As you have seen in the private sector, including professional sports, most places are not returning to normal operations in one fell swoop,” Eccarius said. “In schools we have to start in a place that keeps our staff and our students as safe as possible while we try to return to in-person learning. We want to try to do what’s best for our stakeholders.”
To reduce the number of students in the building at a time, both school districts are offering the option of a hybrid of in-person instruction and e-learning in which students would attend two days of school in the classroom and spend two days learning from home.
“The hybrid model allows our buildings to run at about a 50% capacity daily,” District 203 Superintendent Dan Bridges said.
Read more here. —Suzanne Baker
12:05 p.m.: How Chicago restaurants are adapting to draw you back in
Desperate times, creative measures. As Chicago and suburban restaurants continue to launch indoor and outdoor dining after months of the pandemic shutdown, the owners and chefs are reaching for creative ideas to lure diners back in.
We’re gathering the news of reopenings, plus altogether new restaurants, here. This roundup will continue to update as more spots open.
—Phil Vettel
11:36 a.m.: Evanston Township High School returning this fall with mix of in-person, remote learning for students
Evanston Township High School District 202 students will return to classes this fall with a blend of remote and in-person learning in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, administrators announced at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.
“This is not a minor discussion. We’re talking about life and death here. And I can’t state it any more strongly,” said Superintendent Eric Witherspoon.
According to the framework presented Monday, about one-quarter of ETHS’ nearly 4,000 students will attend school for one week at a time, Witherspoon said. The remaining students will participate in class remotely.
Those attending remotely will be in the classroom virtually with their teacher and peers, Witherspoon said, with classes changing online as they would in a normal school day. Classes will be graded.
The hybrid model will begin after Labor Day, Witherspoon said, so faculty and staff have time to get used to the new accommodations.
Students with health conditions or or who live with an elderly person will have an all-remote option for attending class, Witherspoon said, and will not be required to attend in person if it is not safe for them or their families.
Read more here. —Genevieve Bookwalter
11:34 a.m.: Live concerts are back on a Chicago venue stage — and fans bought tickets to the show, even if they couldn’t be physically present in the room
The coronavirus shutdown has emptied live-music spots, leaving bands, fans and venues sidelined.
But in the last couple of weeks, Lincoln Hall has been able to reopen its doors to welcome bands back on stage for live shows. The fans? Not so much — at least not in person.
Lincoln Hall has teamed up with parent company Audiotree to begin a concert series dubbed Staged, in which bands play a show from the stage just as it would have during pre-COVID times. The catch is that they’re playing for no one — at least not at the venue.
Fans can “attend” the show through a high-quality livestream from Audiotree. Think something more akin to the Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” concert film than the stripped-down performances many artists have been hosting on platforms like Instagram Live.
“We’re trying to bring that (stage) platform back. We can’t really replace the large gathering aspect of these shows, but we can replace the engagement and that connection for people,” said Shane Bradley, promotional director for Lincoln Hall. “The whole idea idea is that if we can make it a huge upgrade from the other livestreams you’re seeing right now, it will be something that people can really enjoy.”
Read more here. —Adam Lukach
9:28 a.m.: After Trump retweets game show host saying CDC and doctors are lying, coronavirus task force pushes back: ‘None of us lie’
A top member of the White House coronavirus task force said Tuesday that “none of us lie” to the public, an accusation President Donald Trump had retweeted, and that while kids need to be back in school as Trump insists, “we have to get the virus under control.”
Adm. Brett Giroir’s comment came a day after Trump shared a Twitter post from a former game show host who, without evidence, accused government medical experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, of “lying.”
Trump himself has at times disregarded the advice of his medical experts on the task force and continues to play down the threat from the virus as it spikes across the country, forcing some states to slow or reverse steps to reopen their economies.
Asked on NBC’s “Today,” whether the CDC and other doctors are lying, Giroir allowed that mistakes have been made and that public guidance is updated when more is learned about the virus, “but none of us lie. We are completely transparent with the American people.”
Trump has said on several occasions that the virus will “just disappear.” Giroir said that is unlikely “unless we take active steps to make it disappear.” He appealed to people to wear masks, practice social distancing and to avoid bars and other tightly packed areas.
Read more here. —Associated Press
9:14 a.m.: Surge in US infections hits Delta, with passenger traffic down 93%. A recovery will take more than two years, CEO predicts.
Delta Air Lines lost $5.7 billion during a brutal three-month stretch in which the coronavirus pandemic brought travel to a near standstill, and any hoped-for recovery has been smothered by a resurgence of infected Americans.
“Growth has stalled,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said. “It was growing at a pretty nice clip through June. The virus, unfortunately, was also growing.”
Bastian said it will take more than two years for the airline to make “a sustainable recovery” from the virus and the harm it is doing to the global economy.
Delta is the first U.S. airline to report financial results for the May-through-June quarter, and the numbers were ugly.
Passengers boarding Delta planes tumbled 93% from a year earlier, revenue plummeted 88%, and the company’s adjusted loss was worse than anticipated.
Airlines are expected to furlough thousands of workers when federal aid to help cover payroll expenses runs out on Oct 1. Bastian held out hope that Delta might avoid those cuts because 17,000 of its employees have accepted early retirement, and another 35,000 will be taking unpaid leave during July.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:50 a.m.: Most US parents see risk in their children returning to school
Most parents in the United States say it would be risky to send their children back to school in the fall — including a slim majority of Republicans and a staggering 9 in 10 Black Americans, according to the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have threatened to withhold federal funds from schools that don’t reopen. The new findings suggest that this pressure campaign could backfire with many of the voters to whom Trump is trying to appeal ahead of the election.
Week 16 of the Axios-Ipsos national poll finds that only 1 in 3 Americans trust the federal government to look out for their family’s interests — a new low — with people’s confidence also sliding (but still higher) in their state and local governments and the Federal Reserve.
And 62% of Americans — a record high — now say they’re wearing a face mask whenever they leave the house. That’s up nine percentage points from late June, with the biggest driver being the rising share of Republicans now wearing masks at all times.
Read more here. —Axios
6:40 a.m.: Whiting’s Whihala Beach to close starting Wednesday because of crowds
Whihala Beach will close Wednesday until further notice. Whiting Mayor Joe Stahura said the decision was made both because of crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic and beach erosion from high Lake Michigan water levels.
Whiting Lakefront Park will be closed to traffic, while bike and pedestrian trails will still be open, he said on the city’s website.
Read more here. —Meredith Colias-Pete
6:30 a.m.: 5.4 million Americans have lost health insurance in coronavirus-driven recession, analysis finds
The coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million American workers of their health insurance between February and May, a stretch in which more adults became uninsured because of job losses than have ever lost coverage in a single year, according to a new analysis.
The study, to be announced Tuesday by the nonpartisan consumer advocacy group Families USA, found that the estimated increase in uninsured workers from February to May was nearly 40% higher than the highest previous increase, which occurred during the recession of 2008 and 2009, when 3.9 million adults lost insurance.
“We knew these numbers would be big,” said Stan Dorn, who directs the group’s National Center for Coverage Innovation and wrote the study. “This is the worst economic downturn since World War II. It dwarfs the Great Recession. So it’s not surprising that we would also see the worst increase in the uninsured.”
Families USA is one of a number of groups trying to estimate the number of people who have lost insurance during the pandemic; definitive data will not become available until mid- to late 2021, when the federal government publishes health insurance estimates for 2020. The analyses vary, but all reach the same grim conclusion: More people lack insurance than ever before.
Read more here. —The New York Times
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