On Monday, the Democratic-led House voted to boost the $600 payments to $2,000, sending a new bill to the Senate. There, Republicans have the majority but reject more spending and are likely to defeat the effort.
Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
5:07 p.m.: House approves Trump’s $2,000 relief checks, sending to GOP-led Senate
The House voted Monday to increase COVID-19 relief checks to $2,000, meeting President Donald Trump’s demand for bigger payments and sending the bill to the GOP-controlled Senate, where the outcome is uncertain.
Democrats led passage, 275-134, their majority favoring additional assistance. They had settled for smaller $600 payments in a compromise with Republicans over the big year-end relief bill Trump reluctantly signed into law.
The vote divides Republicans who mostly resist more spending. But many House Republicans joined in support, despite being wary of bucking the president. Senators are set to return to session Tuesday to consider the measure. Read more here. — Associated Press
2:42 p.m.: Chicago distributes COVID-19 vaccines to long-term medical care facilities, outpatient clinics
Chicago officials on Monday began distributing vaccines to long-term medical care facilities and outpatient clinics, marking another milestone in the city’s fight against COVID-19, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot and public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady announced the latest stage in vaccine distribution during a news conference at Esperanza Health Center on the Southwest Side. While highlighting the event’s significance, Lightfoot and Arwady also warned residents against becoming complacent or letting down their guard against the virus as widespread distribution of the vaccine remains months away.
And, they said, part of the city’s Latino community continues to struggle with higher case rates.
”We cannot afford to let more Chicagoans, our neighbors, get sick and die because of risky and irresponsible behavior,” Lightfoot said.
2:35 p.m.: Novavax starting final stage of testing for its COVID-19 vaccine
The Maryland biotech Novavax is starting a final, so-called Phase 3 clinical trial in the United States and Mexico for its experimental coronavirus vaccine, the company announced Monday.
The little-known firm, which has never brought a vaccine to market before, received up to $1.6 billion from the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed this summer to expedite development. The company reported robust results in earlier phases of its trial, showing that the vaccine prompted strong immune responses in monkeys and people.
12:05 p.m.: 4,453 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 105 additional deaths reported
Officials also reported 51,046 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 7.2% for the period ending Sunday.
11:26 a.m.: House Democrats to vote on $2,000 relief checks that Trump demanded
Trump appears to have accomplished little, if anything, from the days of drama over his refusal to accept the sweeping bipartisan deal. While the president’s demands for larger $2,000 pandemic relief checks seem destined to fail, his push served up a political opportunity for Democrats, who support the larger stipends and are forcing Trump’s Republican allies into a tough spot.
On Monday, the Democratic-led House is set to vote to boost the $600 payments to $2,000, sending a new bill to the Senate. There, Republicans have the majority but reject more spending and are likely to defeat the effort.
10:25 a.m.: As COVID-19 surges in US, gun violence, killings also see a spike in large and small cities
In Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and even smaller Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Milwaukee, 2020 has been deadly not only because of the pandemic, but because gun violence is spiking.
Authorities and some experts say there is no one clear-cut reason for the spike. They instead point to social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 virus, public sentiment toward police following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody and a historic shortage of jobs and resources in poorer communities as contributing factors. It’s happening in cities large and small, Democrat and Republican-led.
”I think the pandemic — COVID — has had a significant emotional impact on people across the country,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. “Individuals are not processing how they manage disputes. Whether domestics, arguments, disputes over drugs, there’s this quickness to use an illegally carried firearm.”
About 7,000 guns had been seized through mid-December in Detroit, with more than 5,500 arrests for illegal guns. There were 2,797 similar arrests last year.
”I’ve not seen a spike like this. But when it’s happening in other cities — some smaller — what do we all have in common?” Craig said of the slayings and shootings. “That’s when you start thinking about COVID.”
6 a.m.: A nightmare year for Chicago restaurants and food suppliers may have permanently altered how and what we eat
A bruising year in the food industry is giving way to optimism that the lessons learned will make for a stronger 2021. Farmers and other food producers that pivoted their business models to find new revenue streams are making some of those changes permanent. Grocery stores are adapting to consumers’ embrace of online food shopping. And restaurants that survive the wreckage of their industry are expected to come roaring back into the waiting arms of a public desperate to go out.
Purely Meat Co., a commercial butcher in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood that supplies mostly high-end restaurants, saw sales plummet 75% when the state banned indoor dining in March. It halted plans to expand into a 35,000-square-foot facility purchased late last year and more than double its current footprint, and let go of many of its 60 employees.
The company created a website to sell Purely Meat’s products directly to consumers, and soon it became a major part of the business. The company’s drivers deliver cases of vacuum-sealed, freezer-ready prime cuts to people’s suburban doorsteps rather than the city’s swank downtown restaurants. Going into 2021 it plans to help restaurants sell branded products to consumers as well.
Purely Meat plans to maintain its new consumer business even as it prepares for a midsummer restaurant rebound, owner Joseph Musillami said. The company also introduced seasoned meats, improved worker training and figured out how to run the business more efficiently. It has recaptured 70% of its usual sales and has 40 employees working.
Here are some recent stories related to COVID-19:
Source by www.chicagotribune.com