Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday said the city will require all restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues to check the vaccination status of patrons age 5 and older, the latest move taken by her administration to slow COVID-19 as the omicron variant of the virus sweeps the country.
Workers at those businesses do not need to prove they are fully vaccinated, but must wear masks when dealing with customers and provide proof of a weekly negative COVID-19 test. Customers of businesses covered by the order will need to have received two shots of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The new rules, which do not affect schools and day care facilities, go into effect Jan. 3, so businesses have time to update signage and train workers, Lightfoot said.
Underscoring the severity of the situation facing the city, Lightfoot said she hasn’t been this concerned since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.
“This new wave is seemingly more deadly than the last, spreading faster and causing profound harm,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also urged residents to persuade unvaccinated family members and friends to get the shot, while raising the prospect of a return to shutdowns if the situation worsens.
“The last thing in the world that I want to do is stand before you at a podium like this and announce that we’re shutting our city back down. That would be devastating,” Lightfoot said. “I don’t want to have to take that step. But again, it really depends on the unvaccinated.”
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, speaking at the same news conference, said the district plans to return for in-person learning on Jan. 3 as scheduled.
Martinez said he doesn’t see a shutdown as a “viable option.” Instead, he said, the district will take it case by case and classroom by classroom.
Lightfoot’s proof of vaccine order affect restaurants, bars, fast-food establishments, coffee shops, tasting rooms, cafeterias, food courts, dining areas of grocery stores, breweries, wineries, distilleries, banquet halls and hotel ballrooms, the city said.
The mandate also covers gyms, yoga, Pilates, cycling, barre and dance studios, hotel gyms, fitness boot camps and other facilities, the city said.
Also included: movie theaters, music and concert venues, live performance venues, adult entertainment venues, commercial event and party venues, sports arenas, performing arts theaters, bowling alleys, arcades and card rooms.
Not covered by the mandate are churches, airports and office buildings.
Businesses will not have to check individuals for proof of vaccination if those people are entering to order and carry out food, deliver goods or use the bathroom.
The new mandate also exempts some performing artists and professional athletes from the vaccine requirement. Individuals with religious exemptions are also exempt, but they will have to provide a negative COVID-19 test.
As far as enforcing the order, Lightfoot said it’s been her experience when traveling to cities with similar rules that businesses aren’t letting people in without showing their cards. She said the city will work with businesses, but those caught repeatedly not enforcing the rules will be shut down.
There is no statewide vaccine mandate for patrons of businesses, but under an order issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, public school employees, college and university workers and students, and health care workers had until Oct. 19 to be fully vaccinated or submit to regular testing.
A separate statewide order required day care workers to receive their first shot by Dec. 3 and to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 3, with a testing option for those who remain unvaccinated.
Pritzker has repeatedly dismissed the idea of requiring businesses statewide to check customers’ vaccination status but has said he supports local officials who want to set stricter rules to slow the spread in their communities.
“I do encourage local officials, based upon the transmission rate and the infection rate in their local area, to consider more stringent mitigations than what we have for the state, but we have some of the most stringent mitigations and that is wearing masks indoors,” Pritzker said last week at an unrelated news conference.
Illinois is one of eight states currently requiring people to wear masks in indoor public places regardless of vaccination status.
Other cities, like New York, implemented vaccine mandates similar to Lightfoot’s weeks or months ago, but the mayor had until now resisted the idea. In September, for instance, she dismissed a proposal for such a mandate from Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and other City Council members.
Over the last few weeks, however, Lightfoot has said she has been in discussions with local business interests about potential new rules against the virus.
Lightfoot’s action comes as Chicago records an average of 1,776 new COVID-19 cases a day — the highest in about a year — and a 7.3% positivity rate, both up from last week. Hospitalizations are averaging 62 a day, up 12% from the prior week, while deaths are at 10 a day.
Nationwide, the extremely contagious omicron variant now makes up 73% of new COVID-19 cases, pushing out delta as the dominant coronavirus variant in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statewide, health officials on Tuesday reported 10,264 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, raising the average number of new daily cases to 10,590 over the past week. That’s up from 7,199 per day a week earlier and 4,057 a month ago.
As of Monday night, 4,008 coronavirus patients were in hospitals across Illinois, the most in a single day since Dec. 30, 2020. Over the past week, the state has averaged 3,829 COVID-19 patients per day, the highest level since early January.
Deaths from COVID-19 also are on the rise, with 63 more fatalities reported Tuesday, bringing the average number of daily deaths to 51 over the past week. That’s the highest level since early February. In all, Illinois has recorded 27,291 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
The vast majority of cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among those who are not fully vaccinated, a point Lightfoot and Chicago public health director Dr. Allison Arwady reiterated at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the vaccine mandate.
As of Tuesday, nearly 68% of the state’s eligible population — those age 5 and older — have been fully vaccinated, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Cook County officials on Tuesday also gave what the suburban public health department’s senior medical officer Dr. Kiran Joshi said was “grim news” on the COVID-19 front.
Joshi said case counts and positivity rates have skyrocketed in the past week with no signs of abating, and hospitalizations have reached a point not seen since a year ago.
“We believe that these increases are due to the omicron variant,” Joshi said. “So it’s with great regret that I say this is beginning to look like 2020 all over again.”
Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, the county’s chief medical examiner, said 12,479 residents in Chicago and suburban Cook County have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. The county is seeing the highest death rate since mid-January, with last week being the third straight week with more than 100 COVID-19 deaths.
“We are alarmed,” Arunkumar said. “My team and I have spent multiple hours confirming COVID-19 infection deaths in people who did not think it would happen to them. They were parents, grandparents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbors. They all left behind grieving families. To our residents, I have this message: Please get vaccinated. Get your boosters.”
Also on Tuesday, the city added five states and Puerto Rico to its optional travel advisory. Now, every state and territory except Guam, Louisiana, South Carolina and the Virgin Islands are on the list of states from where unvaccinated travelers must take extra precautions.
The most updated guidance from the city advised that unvaccinated people get tested one to three days before leaving for their trip. Upon return, they should get a COVID-19 test within three to five days as well as quarantine for seven days. If they choose not to get tested, they should quarantine for 10 days.
The latest surge has hit Lightfoot’s office as well, with some workers testing positive after the mayor hosted a karaoke holiday party last week. Lightfoot on Tuesday said there was no way of telling if any workers caught the virus during the event and said staff took precautions.
The threat of omicron also appeared in a federal judge’s ruling that shot down a request to pause Lightfoot’s earlier vaccination mandate for city workers.
Judge John Lee denied a request from a group of more than 100 employees, most with the Chicago Fire Department, for an injunction, and said part of his reasoning was guided by recent news of omicron.
“Although little is known about whether Omicron presents a greater risk of transmission or reinfection than previous variants, its emergence prompted the CDC to ‘strengthen its recommendation’ on booster doses of the vaccine,” Lee wrote. “This uncertainty, combined with the upswing in cases, makes Defendants’ position regarding the balance of the equities and public interest factor even stronger.”
