Days away from Lollapalooza, Lightfoot says she won’t hesitate to impose mask mandate, other safety measuresFran Spielmanon July 26, 2021 at 2:51 pm

With Lollapalooza just days away, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is saying she won’t hesitate to return to a mask mandate — and implement “other tools” she’s been “compelled to use” — if Chicago’s daily rate of coronavirus cases is “consistently going over” 200.

“If we get back into an area where we feel like we’re in a red zone, which we are working very hard to make sure that our daily case rate is below 200, if we start to see consistently going over that, we’re not only going to look at a mask mandate, but we’re going to look back at other tools that we’ve been compelled to use,” the mayor told Kara Swisher on the New York Times’ “Sway” podcast, posted online Monday.

“I hope we don’t get there. What we’re going to keep focusing on is pushing the vaccine. But my number one priority is to keep people safe.”

The current daily case rate in Chicago is 130 — that’s up 76% from the 74 cases a day just a week ago.

Throughout the pandemic, Lightfoot has alternately implemented mitigations even tougher than Gov. J.B. Pritzker and criticized the governor for going too far at times, particularly when it comes to closing schools and banning indoor dining at restaurants.

More recently, Lightfoot has sounded the alarm about the Delta variant and the rise in cases among the large number of unvaccinated Chicagoans, while also saying she has no regrets about green-lighting Lollapalooza’s return to Grant Park this weekend without hundreds of thousands of young people jammed together in front of multiple stages dancing, singing and swaying to the music.

They will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test before entering Grant Park.

Lightfoot told Swisher the Delta variant has her incredibly concerned. So does the fact that vaccine “uptake” in some South Side neighborhoods was “in the high-teens” not too long again and is still “under 40%.

“When I see statistics like 97% of the people that are getting sick or 97% of the people that are dying are folks who are unvaccinated, that is alarming. The southern part of our state is starting to really catch fire with new COVID infections. I’m worried about a surge there. So I’m concerned. We’re sounding the alarm. And we’re going to be looking closely at how the data progresses,” Lightfoot said.

Swisher noted that Los Angeles County has already restored an indoor mask mandate and that that county’s vaccination rate is “similar to” Chicago’s, with about 70% of eligible adults having received at least one dose. The mayor was asked whether she was considering reinstating a mask mandate.

“We’re not there yet, but I am very concerned about what we’re seeing in the uptick in our cases,” Lightfoot said. “We’re still in a good place as we are speaking. But we’re seeing an uptick in daily cases. We’re starting to see a slight uptick in hospitalizations. You know, the deaths are kind of a trailing indicator. That’s steady for now.”

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