CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lightfoot said she hopes to convince Governor Pritzker to rethink the new restrictions on bars and restaurants he plans to impose on Chicago on Friday to slow the rising spread of COVID-19.
During an interview Tuesday night on the “PBS NewsHour,” Mayor Lightfoot said the virus is spreading in Chicago more in homes and among people who know each other.
She said limiting city bars and restaurants to outdoor service and reducing how many people can be in other Chicago businesses to 25 percent capacity or 25 people, whichever is less, will make their financial hardships.
“If the governor’s order goes into effect, it’s really effectively shutting down a significant portion of our economy at a time when those same businesses are really hanging on by a thread,” Lightfoot said.
"So we are going to continue our engagement with the governor and his team, but it is not looking good. If we can't convince them that some other metrics should apply, then the shutdown unfortunately is going to take effect starting Friday by state order."
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The Mayor said the state should really look at COVID-19 hospitalizations in Chicago, which she said are lower than the city expected during a rise in cases.
“I think we have got to look at what our metrics are. No question we are seeing an uptick in cases. We are seeing percent positivity go up. But hospitalizations are not at the breaking point that we feared in the spring, and that’s an important metric that needs to have a significant rate” Lightfoot said. “We have to be surgical in the way we impose these new restrictions. The truth is that where we are seeing the greatest challenges is in people's homes, in social settings that are not public. That is harder to regulate to be sure, but that is at least in Chicago where we are seeing the challenges."
The Mayor said two-thirds of the people that are testing positive and are talking to our case investigators are telling us that they got it from someone that they knew; and that they got in in a home or other social setting that is not in public.
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An increase in hospitalizations was one of the factors state health officials cited in imposing the new restrictions.
“[Chicago] is now averaging more than twice as many COVID-related hospital admissions per day as it was a month ago, with a positivity rate that has almost doubled since the beginning of October,” Pritzker said in a statement.
The governor’s order came days after Mayor Lightfoot announced a two-week "business curfew" for all non-essential businesses; as well as imposing some restrictions on bars and restaurants.
The Mayor said "we are going to continue our engagement with the governor and his team, but it is not looking good. If we can't convince them that some other metrics should apply, then the shutdown unfortunately is going to take effect starting Friday by state order."