Chicago’s public health commissioner has ordered anyone with the new coronavirus or who is exhibiting its symptoms to stay home in an effort to curb the virus’s spread, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced.
Sick residents will be allowed to seek “essential services, including necessary clinical care or evaluation, and life sustaining needs, such as obtaining medicine or food,” the mayor’s office said. People who violate the order could be fined by the Chicago Police Department or the Public Health Department, Lightfoot said.
“During this unprecedented crisis, we must move quickly and in the best interest of the public. Restricting the movements of those who have COVID-19 or who are symptomatic is the best way to prevent the virus from spreading further,” Lightfoot said. “We are implementing today’s order to ensure a precise and data-driven response to the trends of this illness and, following recommendations by our city’s public health experts, believe that these heightened measures are necessary to contain the virus and protect our residents.”
While the mayor’s order is a stricter step in the city’s move to control the spread of the virus, it’s not clear how police and health department officials will enforce it. Coronavirus symptoms are often not apparent or indistinguishable from a common cold.
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Public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, who signed the order at Lightfoot’s direction, said the move “may seem severe to some but in this highly evolving situation it’s absolutely what we need to do at this time as we work to contain this outbreak.”
“We’ve been working daily for well over two months now with our partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on tracking this virus and assessing its course, using data to inform our decisions and following the science,” Arwady said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do in this moment.”
Symptoms of COVID-19 include signs of acute respiratory disease, “including, but not limited to, new onset of fever, cough, shortness of breath, congestion in the nasal sinuses or lungs, sore throat, body aches, or unusual fatigue,” the city said.
A person will be considered to have the disease until they’re free of a fever or any other symptoms for at least 72 hours without using medications like cough suppressants and fever reducers, the city said.
Chicago Tribune’s John Byrne contributed.
