Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot say they have made their “last, best, and final offer” to the Chicago Teachers Union over a plan to reopen schools as the coronavirus pandemic continues. But the union has already indicated the offer isn’t good enough.
Chicago and Cook County met the state’s guidelines for the relaxed restrictions earlier this week, but officials chose to keep some rules in place more stringent than state guidelines, including tighter crowd limits for restaurants and social gatherings.
Also on Thursday, CVS said about 80,000 COVID-19 vaccines that will be redirected from long-term care facilities to CVS Health stores won’t be distributed in the Chicago area. Instead, the vaccines will be given to seniors and front-line essential workers downstate.
Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
2:56 p.m.: Illinois reports 74,965 daily COVID-19 vaccinations, a new high
A new daily high of 74,965 COVID-19 vaccinations was administered in Illinois on Thursday, bringing the state’s total number of vaccinations to 1,231,418, public health officials announced Friday.
After touring a Winnebago County vaccination site at Auburn High School in Rockford on Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker commended local public health departments and the state’s pharmacy partners for the recent increase in vaccinations.
The number of Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated — receiving both of the required shots — reached 272,444 Friday. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 49,082 doses. One week ago, that number was 41,045.
2:03 p.m.: After Tribune story, Kane County reverses decision and will now allow pregnant, lactating women to get COVID-19 vaccines
Kane County officials have reversed a policy that denied COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant and lactating women.
In a statement released Friday, the Kane County Health Department issued a clarification saying it would provide vaccines to pregnant and lactating women. The decision came after consultations with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(Updated) 1:56 p.m.: CTU signals it won’t accept CPS’s ‘final offer’ on reopening schools, pushing the district closer to another teachers strike
Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot say they have made their “last, best, and final offer” to the Chicago Teachers Union over a plan to reopen schools as the coronavirus pandemic continues. But the union has already indicated the offer isn’t good enough.
Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson Friday morning sent a joint statement announcing that after receiving the CTU’s latest counter proposal Thursday afternoon, they had responded with the last offer they will be making.
“We expect a response from CTU leadership today,” Jackson and Lightfoot said. “We will be making further statements later today about school on Monday.”
The latest developments appeared to diminish the chances that a deal to avoid a teachers strike is within reach.
12:15 p.m.: 3,660 new COVID-19 cases and 83 additional deaths reported as state sets new one-day vaccination record
Illinois health officials on Friday announced 3,660 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 83 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 1,141,219 and the statewide death toll to 19,526 since the start of the pandemic.
Officials also reported 105,085 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 3.3% for the period ending Thursday.
In addition, the state administered 74,965 vaccinations, a new one-day record. IDPH also says a total of 1,231,418 vaccines have now been administered.
11:49 a.m.: Moms, particularly Black moms, are bearing the brunt of job losses during the pandemic, setting back efforts to climb the economic ladder
Women have endured the brunt of the job losses during the pandemic as industries where they make up the bulk of the workforce, such as hospitality, struggle to recover, and continued school and day care closures make it difficult to juggle family with work. It has set back efforts by women, and particularly women of color, to work their way into higher-paying jobs.
Women, though 47% of the U.S. labor force last year, accounted for 55% of the 2020 job losses, according to the National Women’s Law Project. The imbalance continued in January.
While employment among men grew by 200,000 last month, it fell by 21,000 among women, according to federal data released Friday.
Women are not just losing jobs but dropping out of the labor force altogether at a higher rate than men. That’s especially pronounced among Black women, who historically are more likely to participate in the workforce than white women.
10:36 a.m.: Stimulus check updates: Senate OKs fast-track of coronavirus relief package; Biden meets with House Dems in push for $1.9 trillion plan
President Joe Biden met Friday with leading House Democrats who aim to put his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on a fast track to becoming law, drawing on new signs of strain in the economy to push for its approval.
“We can’t do too much here, we can do too little,” he told them. “Real, live people are hurting. And we can fix it. And we can fix it and the irony of all ironies is when we help them, we are also helping our competitive capacity, through the remainder of this decade.”
The Senate early Friday approved a measure that would let Democrats muscle the relief plan through the chamber without Republican support. Vice President Kamala Harris was in the chair to cast the tie-breaking vote, her first.
Senate Democrats applauded after Harris announced the 51-50 vote at around 5:30 a.m. The action came after a grueling all-night session, where senators voted on amendments that could define the contours of the eventual COVID-19 aid bill.
The budget now returns to the House, where it will likely be approved again Friday to reflect the changes made by the Senate. The measure can then work its way through committees so that additional relief can be finalized by mid-March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires. It’s an aggressive timeline that will test the ability of the new administration and Congress to deliver.
7:02 a.m.: Pritzker to tour Winnebago County vaccination site, day after 80 new vaccine locations open
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was scheduled to tour a coronavirus vaccination site in Rockford late Friday morning as the number of mass vaccination sites in the state approaches 400, according to his office.
Pritzker, whose administration this week ordered the diversion of COVID-19 vaccine doses away from a federal program to vaccinate people at long-term care facilities to make them available to others who are eligible, was scheduled to tour a facility at a local high school.
As of Thursday, the state had announce 390 vaccination locations throughout the state, including at more than 300 pharmacies, according to a Thursday release. Of those, 80 locations were added Thursday, 78 of them at local Walgreens locations, according to the state. Two of the sites opened Thursday are run by the Illinois National Guard, including one at Triton College in River Grove.
Check back for more information. —Chicago Tribune staff
5 a.m.: Naperville family blasts state’s plan to divert 97,000 vaccine doses from nursing homes: ‘The most endangered are languishing’
Barbara and Brian McCarthy were dismayed when they learned the governor had diverted COVID-19 vaccine doses away from the federal program managing vaccinations at long-term care facilities to make them available to other eligible seniors and front-line workers.
It has been nearly a year since they have seen Barbara McCarthy’s mother in person at the Naperville memory care facility where she lives, and they are already frustrated at the slow pace of long-term care vaccinations. They fear Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s announcement this week will mean more delays.
“Truly, I just want my mom vaccinated so we can get back in to be with her,” said McCarthy, who also lives in Naperville.
They learned of the state’s new vaccine plans after Illinois public health officials said Wednesday they would reallocate 97,000 doses from the federal partnership with CVS Health and Walgreens, which is handling vaccinations of residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
Pritzker and officials in other states have criticized the federal program for moving too slowly. As of Thursday, the federal government had allocated 496,100 of Illinois’ vaccine doses to the long-term care program, and 178,848 had been administered, state data shows.
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