CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a bite out of crime.
A Chicago Tribune analysis of crime numbers found that major crimes dropped 20 percent in mid-march.
Chicago has only seen two homicides since March 18.
The sudden drop puts the brakes on a trend that saw violent crime on the rise in the first two and a half months of 2020.
From March 16 through March 22, Chicago police saw a 17% overall drop from the prior seven days in its seven major crime categories, among them robberies, burglaries and aggravated batteries, the Tribune reported. That same period also was down from the same stretch in 2019, official city data shows — a 19% decrease.
Los Angeles and New York also saw a steep decline in crime during the coronavirus outbreak.