It was two years ago today, March 16, that 61-year old Patricia Frieson died of COVID-19. She was the first Chicagoan and Illinoisan to die in the pandemic.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is looking back on the past two year and looking ahead. She says that while COVID numbers are low now if there’s a surge she would not hesitate to re-impose things like mask and proof-of-vaccine requirements but she says her goal is to never again have to shutdown the city.
"That was devastating to do that and the resulting economic crisis that it caused. We needed to do it to save people’s lives," Mayor Lightfoot said.
There have been nearly 7,600 Chicagoans who’ve died of COVID since Patricia Frieson died. Mayor Lightfoot says the past two years have changed people’s thinking.
"Some people are going to be comfortable, you know, walking into large crowds. Some people are not going to be comfortable walking into large crowds. Some people are going to wear masks because they’re walking into a large crowd," said Mayor Lightfoot.
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While the COVID situation in Chicago looks good now, City Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady says that if the city ever had to go back to vaccination and mask mandates it would only be temporary for a surge in cases.
"We’re not going to hesitate, if necessary, to re-impose some kinds of mitigations if the data tells us that we need to do that but my goal, and you heard it from Dr. Arwady, is to never shut our city down again," noted Mayor Lightfoot.
In all, Chicago has had more than 560,000 cases of COVID.