Illinois reaches over 250K coronavirus cases despite low single-day caseload on Labor Day (LIVE UPDATES)

Ashlee
Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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The Latest
Illinois surpasses 250K coronavirus cases
Ashlee
Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times Illinois reported another 1,381 positive
cases of COVID-19 statewide Monday, pushing the state’s total
number of positive tests past 250,000 amid a summertime resurgence.

Illinois reported another 1,381 positive cases of COVID-19
statewide Monday, pushing the state’s total number of positive
tests past 250,000 amid a summertime resurgence.

It’s among one of the lower caseloads in the past month, which
has seen only three other days with fewer than 1,400 new cases.

The new caseload is also a dramatic decrease from Friday, when
the Illinois Department of Public Health reported a
record-high 5,368 new cases of COVID-19. The massive caseload,
which blew away the previous May record of 4,014 cases, was
attributed to a three-day data backlog.

Monday’s new cases were among 28,975 tests submitted to the
state, health officials said. The state has processed more than 4.4
million total coronavirus tests.

Read the full story from David Struett here.

News 9:27 a.m. Chicago’s streetwear
boutiques weather COVID-19, social unrest

Even as Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot were giving
the go-ahead to reopen stores while adhering with social distancing
guidelines, the streetwear boutiques were grappling as well with
the ever-constant threat of burglary.

Some of them were looted during the protests in the aftermath of
the May police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the
Aug. 9 shooting of a 20-year-old in Englewood by Chicago police and
the protests over the police shooting of Kenosha, Wisconsin
resident Jacob Blake. Some were burglarized duirng the weeks in
between.

Brittany Stewart, owner of Chatham’s Sweats X Stew, had been
hit a few times before moving from her 75th Street location.
Stewart, 30 — the daughter of Diego Ross, co-owner of Leaders
1354 — said would-be burglars aren’t thinking of the collateral
damage looting does to Black business owners.

“This can be your sister or your brother’s store, or your
cousin’s store,” said Stewart. “It’s upsetting because
these are my peers. … After I got hit, I could’ve moved
downtown or to the North Side. I wanted to stay in my
community.”

The owners of Pillars, a boutique with locations in the West
Loop and Calumet Heights, discovered both stores had been hit as
co-owner Michael Willis went to check on the West Loop location,
while his business partner Andre Weaver drove to the South Side
store.

“You almost forgot about COVID [-19] because so much more is
going on,” said Willis, 31. “By the time I got to this store,
it was crazy. It seemed like the movie ‘The Purge.’ All this
from the front [of the store], all the way to the back door;
everything was basically gone.

“It’s very upsetting. You sit back and you’re like: ‘Why
me? Why us?’ At the end of the day, I understand the reason —
not particularly [the looters’] reasoning — with the looting
going on, but you never want something that’s yours being damaged
or taken away from you, especially when you busted your a- – to get
it. If it happens next time, we’re prepared.”

Read Evan F. Moore’s full story here.

New Cases

• Illinois surpasses
  250K coronavirus cases
• Tom Seaver, the Hall of Fame pitcher who was the heart of the
  Miracle Mets team, has
  died at 75 of lewy body dementia and COVID-19.
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, wife and two daughters
  tested positive for COVID-19.

Analysis & Commentary 9:31 a.m. This
Labor Day, let’s honor the workers who are beyond
essential

Labor Day is one of the most beloved holidays of the year, a
time for people of all backgrounds to take a moment to celebrate
the people who lace up their boots every day and go to work.
However, workers are not celebrating right now. Workers are doing
whatever they can to live their lives during an unimaginable public
health and economic catastrophe.

Our city, state and country are in the middle of multiple
intersecting crises. And while we are all learning to live with the
new normal, figuring out how to get our kids to school every day
and keep ourselves safe, we cannot lose sight of the lives and
livelihoods being lost every single day in our communities.

I think about Maria Lopez. Maria was a nurse in robotic surgery
at the University of Illinois hospital and a proud member of the
Illinois Nurses Association. Maria worked at the hospital for 20
years and was scheduled to retire on April 30. She had recently
undergone knee surgery when COVID-19 hit, and she could have used
vacation days to leave her job early, but she felt it was her duty
to stay at the hospital and help — because that’s what nurses
do. They help.

In her last month before retirement, Maria contracted COVID-19,
and she died on May 4.

Read the full column here.

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