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City will issue tickets for quarantine violations, ‘flagrant’ social activities spotted on social media
Ticketing is coming for Chicagoans who travel to any of the 20-plus states subject to Chicago’s 14-day travel quarantine, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said Tuesday. Previously the city has relied on voluntary compliance to the order.
Arwady told reporters on a conference call that tickets can be issued during course of an investigation into COVID spread. She also mentioned the possibility of fining city employees who may not have abided by quarantine.
Tickets also may result from “social media examples” where people are “flagrantly posting social activities,” Arwady said.
The additions to the order — Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota were all announced Tuesday — bring the tally to 22 states now covered. Under the order, people traveling or returning to Chicago from one of those states are required to isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
When the order, in effect indefinitely, was announced, the city had offered no details on exactly how it would be enforced. But under the order violators are subject to city fines of $100 to $500 per day, up to $7,000.
There are exemptions, such as travel for medical care, or for essential workers who are required to travel to Chicago from a covered state, or travel from Chicago to work in one of the covered states.
The rest of the list: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Read the full report here for more.
News
11:45 a.m. Andrea Bocelli recovered from COVID but says lockdown made him feel ‘humiliated’
ROME — Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who had COVID-19, said the pandemic lockdown made him feel “humiliated and offended” by depriving him of his freedom to come and go as he wanted.
Bocelli spoke at a panel Monday in an Italian Senate conference room, where he was introduced by right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini, who has railed against the government’s stringent measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
The singer’s announcement in May that he had recovered from the virus came weeks after his Easter Sunday performance in Milan’s empty cathedral. At the time, Bocelli said that when he learned on March 10 that he had tested positive, just as the nation was going into lockdown, “I jumped into the pool, I felt well” and had only a slight fever. He apparently was referring to a private pool at his residence, as public gym pools were closed by then.
Bocelli told the conference at the Senate that he resented not being able to leave his home even though he “committed no crime” and revealed, without providing details, that he violated that lockdown restriction.
Read the full story from the Associated Press here.
10:38 a.m. CPS parents — and teachers — bombard district officials with questions about classroom safety
The first of five community meetings hosted by Chicago Public Schools officials about a potential fall reopening featured hundreds of questions from parents and teachers, many of which were steeped in skepticism over whether in-classroom learning could be done safely in the middle of a pandemic.
Will there be more hand-washing stations at schools? What will happen when a student tests positive for COVID-19? Are teachers expected to move between “pods” of students? What type of instruction will students receive when they opt out of in-person learning?
Top CPS leadership, including CEO Janice Jackson, gave live answers to many questions — though they only got to a fraction in the 45 minutes set aside for a Q&A session, and there were many they couldn’t answer.
Responding to a question about potential cases at schools, CPS’ chief health officer Kenneth Fox said families will be expected to self-report to the district’s Office of Student Health and Wellness, providing their symptoms, noting when they first felt sick and other personal information.
The district would then gather information from that student’s school, such as which 15-student pod they were in, who else they had contact with and what part of the school they had been in. An entire pod would be sent home if one of its students tests positive, and anyone directly in contact with the positive case would be told to quarantine for 14 days.
Read the full story from Nader Issa here.
8:04 a.m. Lightfoot showcases $33 million in relief for renters and property owners
Three months after unveiling a non-binding “Housing Solidarity Pledge” that appeased no one, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday showcased $33 million in relief for renters and property owners bankrolled by federal stimulus funds and local philanthropies.
Shortly after the stay-at-home shutdown triggered by the coronavirus, Lightfoot offered 2,000 Chicagoans struggling to stay in their homes grants of $1,000 apiece. The $2 million was nowhere near enough to meet the demand from 83,000 applicants.
Now, those who struck out in Round One will be “automatically transferred” to a $25 million Round 2, “more than ten times” the initial investment made by the Chicago Department of Housing There is no need to re-apply.
Together with $8 million from the Department of Family and Support Services, Chicago is dedicating $33 million to “eviction and foreclosure prevention,” officials said.
“Thanks to this investment, more Chicagoans will be able to stave off foreclosure, eviction and homelessness and the pain and insecurity that comes with it,” Lightfoot told a City Hall news conference.
Reporter Fran Spielman has the full story.
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Analysis & Commentary
8:43 a.m. Marlins outbreak sobering, scary for NFL teams on eve of camp
On the eve of training camp, the NFL was visited Monday by its worst nightmare. Dressed in Marlins blue and black, the Ghost of Coronavirus Yet to Come showed the worst-case scenario: a season on the brink of cancellation before it really gets started.
At least 13 Marlins players and coaches have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to national reports. It’s a full-blown outbreak, after only three games.
Major League Baseball postponed the Marlins’ game Monday against the Orioles. The Phillies-Yankees game also was called off because the Phillies had hosted the Marlins for three games. Baseball will be play-the-Lotto lucky if that’s the only damage done. A growing crisis would lead to the cancellation of the season.
Even in the best of circumstances, the virus presents a new reality that baseball must cope with every day. White Sox manager Rick Renteria woke up with a cough and nasal congestion Monday, went to a Cleveland hospital for tests and, out of caution, stayed away from the ballpark. He reportedly tested negative for COVID-19 and is expected to be back with the team Tuesday.
