chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Actor Sean Penn joins Mayor Lori Lightfoot on tour of Chicago coronavirus testing site

The others largely will be aimed at the city ’ s black and Latino communities , including sites at Maria @ @ @ @ @ Village , Kennedy-King College in Englewood , Senka Park in Gage Park and Gately Park @ @ @ @ @ been chosen because they ’ re near public transportation , easily accessible by vehicle and @ @ @ @ @ social distancing , city officials said .

Actor Sean Penn and Mayor Lori Lightfoot greet each other with an elbow bump upon their arrival at the city's COVID-19 testing site in the parking lot of Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy on May 18, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and actor Sean Penn toured one of the coronavirus testing sites she set up with support from his charity on Monday, drawing attention to expanded testing aimed at black and brown communities and lower-income residents.
Last week, the city announced it would ramp up Chicago’s COVID-19 testing capacity ahead of a potential reopening by adding six sites in mostly black and brown communities with an assist from Community Organized Relief Effort, a charity Penn co-founded with Ann Lee.
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Standing behind a lectern outside Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science school on the Northwest Side with Penn behind her, Lightfoot emphasized that the tests are free and officials won’t ask about immigration status.
"Please, please come out of the shadows,” Lightfoot said.
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Penn, who’s known for his humanitarian work, said his organization exists to help governments and other organizations address public health issues.
“We like to think of ourselves as a quick unbureaucratic weapon in the arsenal of bureaucracies,” Penn said.
One of the sites will open in the parking lot at the White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate Field in Bridgeport for asymptomatic first responders and health care and other essential workers, the city said.
Actor Sean Penn and Mayor Lori Lightfoot speak to members of CORE, Community Organized Relief Effort, at the city's COVID-19 testing site in the parking lot of Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy in Chicago on May 18, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Members of CORE assist drivers arriving for coronavirus testing in the parking lot of Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy in Chicago on May 18, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The others largely will be aimed at the city’s black and Latino communities, including sites at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy in Little Village, Kennedy-King College in Englewood, Senka Park in Gage Park and Gately Park in Pullman. Locations have been chosen because they’re near public transportation, easily accessible by vehicle and have large spaces for proper social distancing, city officials said.
So far, the sites at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Prieto Math and Science Academy are open and have performed 800 combined tests in less than a week, Lightfoot said.
Officials also announced Monday that celebrity chef Jose Andres, who famously feuded with President Donald Trump, will be providing meals for workers at the new testing facilities.
Symptomatic residents from throughout the city can visit the sites, and while they’re encouraged to preregister, they can register on-site after answering basic questions about their symptoms.
CORE, Penn’s charity, is running seven sites in Los Angeles and testing 7,000 people per day, according to company representative Piet DeVries. The charity has expanded into Northern California and Atlanta, and now Chicago.
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Ultimately, Lightfoot’s administration wants to be able to perform 10,000 tests per day, though the city’s goal for potentially beginning to ease stay-at-home restrictions is 4,500.
The city’s latest move addresses two long-term goals amid the pandemic: helping black and brown residents who have been hit especially hard by the disease while also getting closer to testing goals that will allow the city to begin partially reopening.
Late last month, Lightfoot noted the city’s African American community continues to be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus compared with other populations in the city.
Lightfoot also has created teams to address a “breathtaking” spike in coronavirus cases among the city’s Latino population.
In response to the ongoing problem, Lightfoot’s administration has teamed with community groups to target the Austin, Auburn Gresham and South Shore neighborhoods, which the city said have been particularly hard hit.
Lightfoot also unveiled several measures to address COVID-19 in Latino communities, including a plan to host virtual town halls to raise awareness, expanding the city’s so-called Rapid Response Racial Equity Team to further target areas with high case rates and working with unions to reach Latino workers in hard-hit industries.
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--With a new, stricter grading system — plus warmer weather — Cook County is now getting a D on social

With a new, stricter grading system — plus warmer weather — Cook County is now getting a D on social distancing

“ As a city , we have slipped , compared to where we were in the middle of April , @ @ @ @ @ am concerned about that , because we want to get to the next phase , @ @ @ @ @ We want to reopen as soon as possible , and the best way we do @ @ @ @ @ more opportunities for infection .
And that means having people try to hang in there @ @ @ @ @ ”

Chicago still has work to do when it comes to staying at home, according to one assessment.
Residents of Chicago and the surrounding Cook County suburbs are now getting a D in social distancing from a New York City data firm that’s been grading the country on compliance with stay-at-home orders.
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That’s a significant drop from late March, when the area got an A, but the difference is more about revisions to the grading system than a huge change in behavior. Unacast, the firm drawing the measurements from a sampling of cellphone data, toughened its criteria based on input from public health experts.
Grades also fell in many other locales across the country, including Chicago’s collar counties and Illinois as a whole. Some areas, however, fared better than the Chicago region. New York City, perhaps hit harder by COVID-19 than anywhere else in the United States, scored a B as of Monday.
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“To compare your score from the previous iteration of the (Social Distancing) Scoreboard to the current one would be misleading,” Madeline Ngo, who leads the product and insights team at Unacast, wrote in a blog post.
Nevertheless, the Unacast data does show that on some days in April and May when the temperature rose into the 60s, total distances traveled in Cook County rose by as much as 10 percentage points. Data for Chicago, supplied by a firm called BlueDot that like Unacast tracks cellphones, also indicated that city residents are not staying home as much on nice days, noted Dr. Alison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.
People fish and walk along Diversey Harbor in Lincoln Park during the warm spring weather May 13, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
In early April, people in the city were staying home as much as 82% of the time. By the end of April, that figure had dropped to about 74%. Before the stay-at-home order, folks stayed home about 60% of the time, BlueDot data shows.
“As a city, we have slipped, compared to where we were in the middle of April, for sure, and I am concerned about that, because we want to get to the next phase," Arwady said. "We want to reopen as soon as possible, and the best way we do that is to not have more opportunities for infection. And that means having people try to hang in there with us through May.”
Grading change
Back in March, just days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his stay-at-home order for Illinois, Unacast was measuring counties’ reductions in travel against the U.S. county that had achieved the biggest decrease.
Based on that standard, Cook County got an A for its 44% reduction in total distances traveled, while the state, with a 40% decrease, fared almost equally as well.
But Unacast noted that public health experts felt further travel reductions were necessary to better limit the spread of the disease. Indeed, Arwady at the time said she would like to see a 75% reduction in travel. “I need Chicago at an A+. Maybe an A++," Arwady said then.
So Unacast decided to start measuring counties and states against what happened in Italy during the height of that country’s lockdown — “because it is ahead of the curve compared to the U.S. and strict in its policy measures," Ngo wrote.
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Now Unacast is giving out A’s only to areas in the U.S. where travel has been curtailed by more than 70%. In Italy, travel dropped by between 70% and 80% during its lockdown.
Over recent weeks, Cook County travel reductions measured in the 25% to 40% range, as measured against the amount of travel that was occurring before Pritzker’s order. That earns a D under the new, tougher grading scale. Illinois earned the same grade.
All the collar counties also had a D as of Monday: DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will and Kendall.
New York, by contrast, saw travel reductions of 55% to 70%, which earned that city a B. San Francisco had a C as of Monday, with travel reductions between 40% and 55%. Los Angeles earned a D, as did Michigan’s Wayne County, where Detroit is located.
The Italian lockdown was especially strict, with essential workers needing approval to travel, only grocery stores and pharmacies allowed to open, and a curfew after 6 p.m. Italy’s lockdown — which Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called “I stay home” — was also imposed nationwide, while stay-at-home orders in the United States were issued state by state and sometimes region by region.
For its grading system, Unacast also added two other measuring standards — reductions in visits to nonessential businesses and reductions in “human encounters." The latter is defined as being within 50 meters of someone else for an hour or longer.
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Cook County was given a C in reduction of trips to essential businesses, because those went down between 60% and 65%, but an F on human encounters, with reductions of less than 40%. The overall composite grade for Cook was a D as of Monday.
DuPage County got a composite grade of D-minus; Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry and Kendall counties each got an F, because of lesser declines in visits to essential businesses and in human encounters.
One caveat: The grades can go up or down slightly on a given day, because the data is adjusted as time progresses. For example, earlier last week New York County was earning an A for its reductions in travel, because they generally exceeded 70%.
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Arwady said the city is using BlueDot data because it can be broken down by city. And, she said, “I’m interested in how Chicago has changed as compared to Chicago, more than I am about how we compare to the national average for this.”
But she noted that both BlueDot and Unacast indicate that people are going out more in the warmer weather. “My guess is that ... our BlueDot data is going to be even worse” in coming days, she said, noting forecasts for much warmer temperatures. “When we get down to a point where we’re starting to have all of those interactions, it just pushes this longer and longer. We want people to hang in there.”
Arwady said she knows that staying at home has been difficult for some people, but “the No. 1 factor in terms of how we do as a city is about how well people continue to have social distancing, continue to have the cloth face coverings, continue to not have unnecessary interactions.”
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The BlueDot data appears to back that up. In areas of the city where people stayed home more during a given period of time, the rate of infection two weeks later was for the most part lower than in areas where people went out more.
Arwady said that statistic shouldn’t be used to cast blame. She noted that in less affluent areas of the city, where stay-at-home compliance was lower, residents may be working in essential jobs that involve travel.
Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer of the Cook County Department of Public Health, added that ordering food and other essential products online can be too expensive for some folks.
“I can imagine that, just based on the economics of the situation, people can’t afford to order online,” she said, noting that the data doesn’t factor in those economic disparities. “People cannot afford to stay home because they won’t get paid if they don’t go to work.”
But Rubin, like Arwady, urged people to stay the course, whenever possible, because it’s preventing an even more devastating outbreak.
“I think it has definitely helped," Rubin said. "I think especially in the state of Illinois we would have seen a much steeper curve. We would have had many more cases and deaths without the level of social distancing that we have been able to maintain.
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“I think that most people are trying to do their best. Do I think we could be doing better? Sure. Do I think everybody is adhering to these guidelines? Absolutely not.”
Rubin urged people who want to visit others to do it wisely, by maintaining social distancing in a large, open, outdoor space. She noted that students at Lane Tech College Prep have been sitting in the trunks of parked cars spread 10 or more feet apart. “I think that’s a great idea,” she said.
But for now, the secret weapon against COVID-19 looks to be wielded by Mother Nature.
“I’m secretly happy right now when we see a cold, rainy day, like we had on Mother’s Day," Arwady said. “I thought, ‘This is such a depressing day, but it’s so good, because people will finally stay in.’"
This story has been updated to state that, according to BlueDot data, people in Chicago were staying home about 74% of the time at the end of April, not at the end of May.
hdardick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says city will fine churches that violated social distancing rules

That defiance led Lightfoot to tweet , “ It doesn ’ t matter who you are or what you ’ @ @ @ @ @ gather like this , you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger @ @

Pastor Joseph Wyrostek, 43, holds his 1-year-old son Titus while standing next to his wife Nancy and their daughters Bethany, 11, Joy, 3, and Hannah, 10, during a service at the Metro Praise International Church on Sunday. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
The city will be fining churches that had more people than allowed under the statewide stay-at-home order, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday.
Which ones specifically will be determined later today, Lightfoot said.
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Over the past week, Lightfoot had been asking churches to abide by social distancing rules and warning that she would take action against churches that refused.
But on Sunday, hundreds of people defied Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order to attend church anyway and the mayor’s office warned that violators may be cited after review.
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At an unrelated news conference to highlight coronavirus testing sites aimed at black and brown communities, Lightfoot said the city would be fining those churches that didn’t comply with her directives, though she didn’t specify which.
The dispute kicked off a week ago after Metro Praise International Church on the Northwest Side opened its doors for in-person services in an act that church officials described as “passive resistance” to Pritzker’s ongoing stay-at-home order.
That defiance led Lightfoot to tweet, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. When you gather like this, you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger.”
Another church, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, hosted Sunday services in Albany Park despite the stay-at-home order.
Both those churches criticized Lightfoot and Pritzker after her warning, and both held services over the weekend.
Metro Praise church in Belmont Cragin opened and had 100 members show up, according to the pastor.
The pastor of Elim Romanian church in Albany Park said that nearly 115 people attended the church’s morning service and the same number was expected for the evening service.
Churches pose a thorny enforcement problem due to potential First Amendment questions and a political one, too, as no elected official wants to cross local ministers.
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Lightfoot has attempted to work with critical churches. In a letter to faith leaders Thursday, she noted that the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected Chicago’s black and brown communities and many churchgoers are vulnerable
“When you look across your congregations, do you see the elderly, or people with underlying medical conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease or upper respiratory ailments — the kinds of underlying conditions that make each individual, old or young, significantly more vulnerable to COVID-19?”
Check back for updates.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Fire leaves Aurora home uninhabitable

Fire leaves Aurora home uninhabitable

Smoke was showing from the front door of the one-story house and firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within @ @ @ @ @ .

A home on Aurora’s East Side was deemed uninhabitable after a structure fire Saturday, Aurora Fire Department officials said.
Firefighters responded to the fire around 7:03 p.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of Grove Street, officials said in a news release Monday.
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Smoke was showing from the front door of the one-story house and firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within 20 minutes, officials said.
The fire caused $45,000 in damage and there were no injuries, according to officials.
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mejones@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Coronavirus at Illinois long-term care facilities, more than 13,000 confirmed cases and 1,975 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois .
The @ @ @ @ @ long-term care facilities in 37 counties reporting at least one case .
In all , @ @ @ @ @ tied to these facilities , with 1,975 deaths as of May 15 .

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois. The data shows outbreaks have occurred at long-term care facilities in 94 counties. Of those, 1,003 facilities have an “active” outbreak, defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days. In all, 71,103 confirmed cases can be tied to long-term care facilities, with 9,263 deaths, as of Jan. 22.


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Column: With apple pies and meals for doctors and nurses, Chicagoan is one example of light in the d

Column: With apple pies and meals for doctors and nurses, Chicagoan is one example of light in the darkness

Schmid ’ s friend , Karen Fenske , recalled learning about the baking initiative : “ We were texting one @ @ @ @ @ ‘ I was at the store this morning and I bought 10 pounds of green @ @ @ @ @ ‘ I donated a pie .
I ’ m baking pies and I want to @ @ @ @ @ are helping everyone get through this , whether they be first responders or people on @ @ @ @ @ and nurses , the hospitals , the children ’ s hospitals .
’ ”

Kavita Schmid, left, and Grace Cheng, general manager of Benihana restaurant and chef Raymundo Mendez, deliver 15 lunch meals to ER doctors and nurses at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on May 16, 2020. When the lockdown started, Schmid looking for a way to help, started baking apple pies for Northwestern ER, friends and neighbors. When she approached Benihana, the restaurant immediately agreed to help. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)
It began, as all good things should, with an apple pie.
Apple pies take work. They require thought. They’re a labor of love.
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As the coronavirus knocked the world off-kilter and ground life to a unsettling halt, Kavita Schmid sat in her home in Streeterville and wondered, along with many Americans: “What can I do to help people?”
Her answer was to bake a pie. Then sample it to make sure it was good. (That is a crucial step, in my opinion.) Then bake another pie and deliver it to a neighbor, a psychiatrist who was still treating patients, working the front lines of a pandemic that was growing deadlier by the day.
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Other isolated friends and neighbors soon received pies. And before long, Schmid, who lives near Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was baking pies for the doctors and nurses and interns working the emergency room.
“I worship the people who are working out there right now,” Schmid said. “They’re risking their lives and I just wanted to do something.”
If there’s a widely shared feeling in this moment of national tragedy and distress, it’s wanting to do something. We read about it and see it on the news every day: People are finding ways to help others or give something back to those putting themselves in harm’s way.
It comes in gestures big and small. Putting up signs to thank delivery people. Teachers driving by the homes of their students to show their connection isn’t lost. Workers raising money for a sick colleague. Celebrities raising money for relief efforts.
If there’s a light that breaks through this darkness, it bursts from the kindness of strangers. There’s no positive takeaway that balances out the horrid death toll, but there’s also nothing wrong with finding the good when the bad seems unbearable.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital ER personnel listen to Kavita Schmid, left, and Grace Cheng, right, general manager of Benihana restaurant as the restaurant prepared and delivered 15 lunch bags to them on May 16, 2020. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)
So we have people such as Schmid, who commit acts of kindness with a firm declaration: “It’s not about me.”
And it’s not. It’s about the people who need help, or a lift, or something as comforting as a slice of apple pie.
Schmid’s friend, Karen Fenske, recalled learning about the baking initiative: “We were texting one day and she said, ‘I was at the store this morning and I bought 10 pounds of green apples.’ She said, ‘I donated a pie. I’m baking pies and I want to give them to people who are helping everyone get through this, whether they be first responders or people on the front lines, doctors and nurses, the hospitals, the children’s hospitals.’”
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Pies were great, but Schmid started thinking bigger. She reached out to the manager of a nearby Benihana restaurant and asked if a meal delivery could be coordinated. Soon, Northwestern’s ER staff received Japanese lunches, courtesy of the restaurant.
Schmid asked the local Do-Rite Donuts to help. And doctors and nurses got doughnuts.
"She has been like a one-woman Tasmanian devil around here,” said Paige Croom, unit administrative secretary in Northwestern hospital’s emergency department. “She has been spreading the word as much as she can. I’ve been hearing from places all over who say, ‘We’d like to donate some food, we spoke with Kavita.’ ”
And Schmid is just one of many.
“The generosity has been a little bit overwhelming,” Croom said. “Outside of the lunch and dinner offerings of Kavita, there have been so many acts of kindness shown to the ER, the doctors and residents. One doctor told me that she’s been thanked more in the last few months that she has her whole career.”
It matters. Croom said: “The appreciation that has been shown has really boosted the morale and let everyone know that what they’re doing, it’s for a purpose and it’s recognized.”
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The kindness, too, is recognized. It’s recognized by the parents who see teachers going an extra mile for their kids. It’s recognized by seniors under lockdown who have friends and family calling them more often.
It matters, this good in the midst of bad.
Schmid told me about her late father, an immigrant from India who brought his family to Chicago in the 1970s: “He always did something, whether it was helping a neighbor or friends, sending money back to India for education for his sibling. He would give back and not expect a reward.”
Not long after she started on her apple pie mission, Schmid was walking home from a delivery at a medical clinic and found a $100 bill on the sidewalk. She took it as a sign that she was doing the right thing. Then she went to the store and spent it on ingredients for more pies.
I think her father would approve.
And I think we should be grateful for everyone out there finding ways to help. With pies and thoughtfulness and hard work and love.
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It’s the light that breaks the darkness.
It’s the light we so badly need.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--The pandemic is boosting a stagnant meal kit industry. But will interest persist when people are no

The pandemic is boosting a stagnant meal kit industry. But will interest persist when people are no longer stuck at home?

Companies large and small are seeing the meal kit sales boost and hoping it reflects long-term eating trends that will @ @ @ @ @ than half of Americans say they are cooking more now than they were pre-pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ said they will continue to do so once life reverts to normal , mostly to @ @ @ @ @ , according to a mid-April survey by Hunter , a food public relations firm that @ @ @ @

Demeko Taylor unboxes a chicken pot pie meal from Tovala at his home in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood on May 14, 2020. Taylor says he makes a Tovala dinner six days a week. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Barbie Steffen was trying to determine the best way to feed her family without stepping foot in a grocery store when she remembered a gift card that had gone unused for more than a year.
Steffen, 35, of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, dusted it off and placed her first order with Home Chef, a Chicago-based meal kit delivery service that hadn’t interested her pre-pandemic. Prepping and assembling the ingredients had seemed like too much work.
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But soon she was smitten by the idiot-proof recipes that gave her confidence in her cooking and brought variety to mealtime. Now she makes dinner from Home Chef meal kits twice a week and has seen her veggie-hating kids transformed.
“They’re eating Brussels sprouts," Steffen said. "They love couscous now.”
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For the Steffen family, the meal kits filled a pandemic-fueled need when Instacart grocery delivery slots were more than a week out. But she expects they will remain a part of her dinner repertoire long-term.
“I think I want to keep doing it,” she said. “Not only does it make it easier for me, it gives me more inspiration for meals. Because I get very stuck making the same thing.”
Demeko Taylor, a real estate agent who lives in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood, unboxes a chicken pot pie meal from Tovala on May 14, 2020. The meals come with a QR code that customers scan into a special smart oven, which automatically adjusts its settings. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Meal kit services are enjoying a surge in demand as legions of people cook from home amid COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. That’s a welcome development for an industry that was crowded with more than 100 competitors and stagnating before the coronavirus struck.
The share of the population using meal kits has grown to 7% since the pandemic began, after being stuck at 5% all of last year, according to Darren Seifer, food and beverage analyst with NPD Group. The lift may be temporary, but some say it could be a seminal moment as people avoid going out and look to stretch their dollars.
"These meal kits have an opportunity now to prove their value,” Seifer said.
Katie Peterson with her two children Kaitlyn, 4, and Connor, 7, at their home on May 18, 2020 in Arlington Heights. Peterson, head of growth for Evolv, the incubator at Kraft Heinz, is co-founder of SupperUp, a new meal kit service that delivers ingredients and recipes for Instant Pot meals. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Whether interest continues depends partly on whether people will continue to pay for the convenience if the economy worsens. But that’s not stopping some companies from getting in the game with concepts that try to solve some of the challenges faced by meal kit pioneers.
That includes Kraft Heinz incubator Evolv, which just launched a new meal kit delivery service, SupperUp, in partnership with Instant Pot.
While a primary benefit of meal kits is to avoid food waste by pre-portioning ingredients, some customers find them so time-consuming that the food expires before people prepare them, said Katie Peterson, head of growth at Evolv and co-founder of SupperUp.
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Bright yellow packaging for one of the new meal kits for SupperUp at the home of Katie Peterson on May 18, 2020, in Arlington Heights. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Unlike meal kit services that send fresh ingredients, the no-subscription SupperUp, which is being piloted in Illinois before a national rollout, delivers flash-frozen ingredients that can be put directly into the popular pressure cooker. The recipes serve four and work out to $5.50 to $7.50 per serving.
[ 12 home-delivered meal kits tested and ranked to find the best for your money ]
The pandemic has inspired some established restaurants to introduce meal kits of their own. Chick-fil-A, which started testing meal kits in 2018, recently added a $14.99 chicken Parmesan meal kit for two to its menus nationwide. Denny’s last month launched five meal kits, including a breakfast for up to six and a slow-cooked pot roast for eight.
In Chicago, Fat Rice announced it was closing its popular restaurant and reopening as Super Fat Rice Mart to allow customers to cook its Macanese recipes at home. Its signature Super Value Cook Kit, for $99, includes ingredients to feed two adults for breakfast, lunch and dinner over two days.
But the shift in eating habits has been particularly beneficial for traditional meal kit delivery services, which report rising demand since shelter-in-place orders took hold in the U.S. in March.
The Blue Apron logo is seen on a screen above the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in October 2017. Blue Apron is forecasting second-quarter 2020 revenue to grow to $130 million, up from $102 million in the first quarter. (Richard Drew/AP)
Blue Apron, once the industry leader, is touting a much-needed sales bump after losing customers and money for several years.
The New York-based company, which saw revenue fall 28% to $102 million in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, is forecasting second-quarter revenue to grow to $130 million. After losing $20 million in the first quarter, it expects to deliver a net loss of no more than $6 million in the second quarter, the company said in its earnings release.
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Blue Apron CEO Linda Findley Kozlowski has said the company expects demand to continue even as COVID-19 restrictions lift.
But Cara Rasch, a research analyst at Packaged Facts, cautions that the resurgence of meal kits is likely not sustainable once people are no longer confined to their homes.
“When businesses reopen and people return to lifestyles on the go, restaurant carryout, prepared meal delivery, and other similar food options are going to keep winning out over meal kits due to increased convenience and value to the customer,” Rasch said.
Rasch expects Blue Apron to continue its fall and lose customers to stronger competitors like HelloFresh, now the market leader. Both Blue Apron and HelloFresh are subscription services priced at about $10 per meal.
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HelloFresh, based in Germany, grew its U.S. customer base by 88% in the first quarter compared with last year, to 2.6 million, out of 4.2 million customers globally. It owns organic meal kit company Green Chef and budget-friendly meal kit service EveryPlate.
Home Chef, headquartered in Chicago’s Old Post Office, started the year expecting to grow 20% to 30%, but as a result of the pandemic now forecasts at least 60% growth, said Rich DeNardis, chief revenue officer and head of marketing.
“We are speaking to a whole different set of consumers,” DeNardis said. “Maybe folks who are more vulnerable, older, empty nesters who have disposable income. They are thinking of the risk/reward of going to the grocery store more than they used to.”
Bought by Kroger two years ago for $200 million, Home Chef has three tiers of meals based on the amount of effort it takes to cook them — traditional meal kits, oven-ready meals that require less prep work, and heat-and-eat trays. They are sold online as well as in 2,000 Kroger-owned grocery stores, including many Mariano’s, for an average of $9 per person.
Companies large and small are seeing the meal kit sales boost and hoping it reflects long-term eating trends that will bolster the industry. More than half of Americans say they are cooking more now than they were pre-pandemic, and half of those people said they will continue to do so once life reverts to normal, mostly to save money and eat healthier, according to a mid-April survey by Hunter, a food public relations firm that polled 1,000 people.
Demeko Taylor dines on his Tovala chicken pot pie meal for dinner at his home in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood on May 14, 2020. Taylor said he increased his Tovala order when the pandemic struck and now buys six meals a week for $72. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Demeko Taylor, a real estate agent who lives in the Gold Coast, said the no-prep meals he gets from Chicago-based Tovala work with his unpredictable work schedule, and he likes avoiding the hassle of grocery runs and the amount of food that rotted in his refrigerator.
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Tovala sells customers not only meals but a high-tech countertop oven that cooks them. When the pandemic struck, Taylor increased his weekly meal delivery order from four to six, a pace he expects to continue after life resumes some normalcy.
“Everything is virtual now, so I will probably be home more often,” said Taylor, 38. The $72 weekly he pays for six meals seems like a “steal” for the quality of the food, he added, and “it gives me the variety of what I want when I want it.”
Founded three years ago, the company delivers meals with a QR code that customers scan into their smart oven, which automatically adjusts its settings to cook each of the fresh ingredients to specifications. The oven costs $299 and each meal is $12.
Founder and CEO David Rabie, who declined to disclose revenues, said sales have increased 300% since September.
Evanston-based Meez Meals, which had been growing steadily but modestly since its founding 10 years ago, doubled its sales as soon as the stay-at-home order hit, CEO Scott Zuckerman said.
The service sets itself apart by doing the time-consuming work in advance — dicing the onions, preparing the ginger soy aioli — to make meal preparation easier. It also maintains a local, personal feel, putting the names of the workers responsible for preparing each dish on the packaging.
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Priced at $9.50 to $15 per person, its meals are on the higher end. But for customers who normally shop at Whole Foods, it doesn’t add much to the grocery budget, and Zuckerman thinks interest in the service will stick even as lockdowns lift.
“I think that this has caused a real sea change in the way people think about food,” Zuckerman said. “I think there is going to be a greater desire by customers to know what they’re eating and see it come together, and we’re making it a lot easier.”
aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Ribfest canceled for first time in event’s 33-year history due to coronavirus pandemic; would have b

Ribfest canceled for first time in event’s 33-year history due to coronavirus pandemic; would have been held in Romeoville

“ I am very proud of the hard work that our club has put in to create an exciting Ribfest @ @ @ @ @ ” Exchange Club President Ron Amato said in the release .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ move forward , especially for the local charities that our club supports as part of @ @ @ @ @ health and safety of our attendees , volunteers , vendors , and club members is @ @ @ @ @ to seeing everyone at Ribfest in 2021 .
”

Ribfest, hosted by the Exchange Club of Naperville, is canceled this year. This was the first time the festival was scheduled to be held at Romeoville's Deer Crossing Park. (Diana Moca)
For the first time in its 33-year history, Ribfest has been canceled due to health safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, organizers announced Sunday night.
The Exchange Club of Naperville’s four-day Fourth of July festival was to be held for the first time at its new Romeoville location. Prior to this year, the event had been held in Naperville.
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“In consideration of the current COVID-19 conditions and recent capacity restrictions mandated by the state, the (Exchange Club of Naperville) has concluded that the health and safety of Ribfest attendees, volunteers and entertainers cannot be guaranteed for such a large-scale public event,” the organization said in a news release.
“Therefore, the Exchange Club of Naperville, along with the village of Romeoville, regretfully believes that Ribfest simply cannot go forward this year," the release said.
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The event was scheduled for July 2-5 at Deer Crossing Park, and several headlining musical acts — Nelly, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Jesse McCartney, Fitz and The Tantrums, Cold War Kids and Elle King — were already announced.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly warned against large gatherings to stop the spread of COVID-19, and weeks ago recommended people “think seriously about cancelling large summer events.”
Illinois remains under Pritzker’s stay-at-home order through the end of May. The order urges residents to stay at home except for necessary trips like grocery shopping and for medical purposes, and to stay at least six feet from others.
The decision to cancel Ribfest follows deliberation from organizers about other ways the event could be held, the release said. The festival, which includes a carnival midway, ribs and other food, live music and other activities, is a major charity fundraiser for the Exchange Club.
“We look forward to hosting Ribfest in Romeoville come 2021,” Romeoville Mayor John Noak said in the release. “We continue to have a strong partnership with the Exchange Club of Naperville and will continue to support its mission.”
In 2019, the club decided to relocate the event to Romeoville after the Naperville Park District told organizers Knoch Park could no longer be be used for the festival because new amenities were being added to the grounds. The fest typically attracted as many as 200,000 people to Naperville over four days in the first week of July.
“I am very proud of the hard work that our club has put in to create an exciting Ribfest at a new venue,” Exchange Club President Ron Amato said in the release. “It’s unfortunate that we cannot move forward, especially for the local charities that our club supports as part of its mission, but the health and safety of our attendees, volunteers, vendors, and club members is paramount. We look forward to seeing everyone at Ribfest in 2021.”
Information on concert ticket refunds will be announced soon. Ticket holders will have the option of donating the money paid to the Exchange Club of Naperville to support its mission to prevent child abuse and domestic violence, the release said.
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ehegarty@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Daywatch: Churchgoers defy stay-at-home order, Cook County gets a D in social distancing and how sho

Daywatch: Churchgoers defy stay-at-home order, Cook County gets a D in social distancing and how shopping will look when stores reopen

Valentine joined at least 100 other members of the congregation who also decided to attend the in-person service , according @ @ @ @ @ one of the religious leaders advocating for local and state government to allow all churches @ @ @ @ @ possible .

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Pastor Joseph Wyrostek holds his 1-year-old son Titus Wyrostek while standing next to his wife Nancy Wyrostek and their daughters Bethany Wyrostek, Joy Wyrostek and Hannah Wyrostek during a service at the Metro Praise International Church on May 17, 2020, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Met by protesters and defying the stay-at-home order, Michael Valentine, 24, went to church Sunday at Metro Praise International church in Belmont Cragin, one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods by COVID-19 in Chicago.
“There is something great about praising the Lord when you’re with other brothers and sisters,” he said. “It’s powerful, and it strengthens your faith and encourages you, especially during times like these.”
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Valentine joined at least 100 other members of the congregation who also decided to attend the in-person service, according to Pastor Joseph Wyrostek, one of the religious leaders advocating for local and state government to allow all churches to open as soon as possible.
A pedestrian passes the closed Chicago Workforce Center at 18th St. in Pilsen, Friday, May 1, 2020. A sign on the window stated that "in order to protect everyone through social distancing, IDES offices are closed to the public until further notice. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
A glitch in a newly-launched state system for processing unemployment claims for gig workers publicly exposed personal information, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Sunday.
It’s the latest in a series of issues for a beleaguered state agency that has struggled to handle a deluge of unemployment claims as the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the state’s economy. For months, people have reported issues accessing the online filing system and getting through by phone, which Pritzker has blamed on inadequate technology and agency understaffing.
People gather along Diversey Harbor in Lincoln Park during the warm spring weather on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Residents of Chicago and the surrounding Cook County suburbs are now getting a D in social distancing from a New York City data firm that’s been grading the country on compliance with stay-at-home orders.
That’s a significant drop from late March, when the area got an A, but the difference is more about revisions to the grading system than a huge change in behavior. Unacast, the firm drawing the measurements from a sampling of cellphone data, toughened its criteria based on input from public health experts.
The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a new guidance permitting dentists to resume full dental care starting last Monday, while recommending extra precautions to limit potential exposure to COVID-19. Yet many dentists say they’re struggling to find adequate personal protective equipment amid a national shortage. (Getty)
After weeks of only treating emergencies, dentists in Illinois can now resume offering routine dental care, though there will be changes to office visits to limit the spread of COVID-19. Yet many dentists say they’re struggling to find adequate personal protective equipment amid a national shortage — a potential roadblock to fully reopening.
Fleet Feet's salesperson Kirk Cherep, left, pushes a pair of shoes to Tonya and Solomon Animashaun, of Homewood, inside the Schererville, Indiana, store on May 13, 2020. Customers are allowed inside the store by appointment only. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
For the first time in weeks, customers at specialty running store Fleet Feet in Schererville, Indiana, can walk inside and try on a pair of shoes. But first, they’ll need an appointment. To encourage social distancing, the shop just across the Illinois border can only handle about three fittings at a time.


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--As researchers at Northwestern and elsewhere scramble to find a treatment for COVID-19, they hope th

As researchers at Northwestern and elsewhere scramble to find a treatment for COVID-19, they hope this time the money won’t run out before the next threat hits

“ People are going to know what the word ‘ coronavirus ’ means for the rest of their lives , @ @ @ @ @ The attention is there .
Now it ’ s going to be , ‘ I @ @ @ @ @ happen again.
’ Let ’ s get the legislators to say , ‘ You know @ @ @ @ @ like HIV was , and we have an entire institute for HIV at NIH .
@ @ @ @ @ funding increases to infectious diseases and pandemics so we ’ re prepared better next time @ @ @

More than a decade ago, a center was founded at Northwestern University as a rapid-response operation against infectious disease.
But funding for coronavirus research across the country was sporadic — a boom when epidemics like MERS hit, a bust when they were under control. Some promising drugs never made it out of the laboratory as funding waned.
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Now, researchers with the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases are rushing to find an effective treatment for COVID-19, making up for lost time against a disease that has already killed more than 300,000 people around the world, including more than 86,000 in the United States.
And they hope they’ll be ready for whatever comes next.
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“I think we’re making substantial strides,” said Karla Satchell, director of the center who is a professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Drug discovery is a slow process, and our hope is that we can do something in time to help this round of the pandemic. But at the very least, we can do enough that this won’t happen again.”
One researcher funded through the center is working on modifying a drug originally approved to treat hepatitis C. It isn’t on the market anymore because it was replaced by more efficient therapies, but it could be adjusted fairly quickly to disrupt how the coronavirus replicates itself.
Purdue University biochemistry graduate student Emma Lendy talks with Andy Mesecar, one of the leading scientists identifying protein targets for potential COVID-19 drug therapies, on campus at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, on April 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Others at the center, which coordinates research at eight universities, are reviewing past work on drugs that showed potential against the SARS epidemic in 2002 and the MERS outbreak in 2012. Both diseases are also caused by coronaviruses.
At some point, though, scientists with the center and across the country hope to break new ground as future threats loom.
“You can make a lot of movement fast, based on what you know," Satchell said. “But at some point, you hit a wall where you have to discover new things.”
‘Know where to start’
Andy Mesecar needs a weekend off.
An expert in biochemistry and gene therapy, he’s worked seven-day weeks for the last few months, racing to find a drug for patients with COVID-19 while teaching at Purdue University and submitting frequent reports to the National Institutes of Health. The center at Northwestern has funded his work since 2018.
Mesecar has a manuscript under review in a scientific journal on how a drug approved to treat hepatitis C could be modified to potentially treat COVID-19. His is one of the leading labs in the center studying coronaviruses, and he and his team have dedicated nearly two decades to the research.
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With a background in biochemistry and structural biology, Mesecar started out as an assistant professor at the University of Ilinois at Chicago, studying enzymes that could fight cancer. He got into infectious diseases after the anthrax attacks in the weeks after 9/11. Then, he pivoted to studying enzymes that could be used against SARS when it surfaced in November 2002.
“My training in structural biology allows me to work on any diseases that go around,” Mesecar said. “I can apply it to any disease and do so rapidly.”
The bulk of coronavirus research — both through the center and across the country — began during the SARS epidemic and continued through the MERS outbreak less than 10 years later. At the time, hardly anything was known about coronaviruses, Satchell said, so researchers sprinted to learn its basic biochemistry and how it entered the body and replicated itself.
Remdesivir, the latest promise in treating COVID-19, was shown in animal studies to be effective against both MERS and SARS. But it was not approved for human trials until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and is just now being distributed to some patients across the country after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized its emergency use.
During the basic science phase of drug discovery, scientists are looking for inhibitors to stop the virus. This is where Mesecar’s research lies.
When researchers identify the genetic sequence of a protein or enzyme that is essential to the virus’s replication, they then look for a compound that blocks it, called the inhibitor. The compounds are developed into a drug that not only lasts long enough in the body to kill the virus but is also nontoxic. Only then can it move to animal trials and, eventually, human trials.
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At Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, Andy Mesecar, one of the leading scientists identifying protein targets for potential COVID-19 drug therapies, points to an image of an atomic model of the coronavirus main protease bound to an FDA-approved drug. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
When the NIH put out a call for grant proposals during the SARS outbreak, Mesecar was part of a group that focused on development of inhibitors that could be used to treat the disease. They were given five years of funding. When the money ran out, he was faced with the question of how to continue his work. No one was getting infected with SARS anymore, so the incentive for more research faded away and, with it, the money.
When MERS emerged in 2012, Mesecar’s team switched to this new coronavirus, publishing papers that shared their discovery of compounds that worked against it. He and his team were among the first to predict that the next coronavirus outbreak would come from bats, the suspected origin of COVID-19. “Everything we did was to predict the next outbreak,” he said. “What we wanted to do was to have compounds that could rapidly move toward the particular coronavirus strain that emerged.”
They worried their research would meet the same end as their SARS research — and they were right. Again, interest and funding declined.
To continue their work, they scoured for small amounts of funding that they could pool. But even three years ago, they didn’t have enough to support a single person fully. In 2018, Mesecar’s lab started to get funding from the center at Northwestern.
But the lull in funding across the country had already done its damage. No clinical trials of the compounds had been done by the time the pandemic hit.
“Nothing ever got out of the laboratory (for SARS),” she said. “There’s no treatment for COVID-19 that is specific to this virus and this infection, and the research tracking it really seems like it just ended. Most papers, they’ll have dates on them from 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2009, and then the literature just goes blank. It picks up again around 2014 with regards to MERS.”
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‘You get stretched’
It’s ultimately up to the NIH to determine which basic science research should go forward. Should it continue funding research for a disease such as SARS with no known cases anymore, or allocate money to something else, like studying drug-resistant bacteria that still kills thousands of people?
And with new viruses surfacing all the time, how does NIH ensure there is enough money for what is needed most? “You get stretched,” Mesecar said.
A Biosafety Level 2 lab at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, on April 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
As the coronavirus spread at an alarming rate, the NIH was allocated $1.78 billion for research on the novel coronavirus, including $1.5 billion to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is funding the work at the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases.
Drug therapies for Ebola, influenza, yellow fever and other viruses are now being reviewed for their potential against COVID-19, according to the NIAID. Investments are being made on more rapid testing of vaccines and antibody-based therapies.
“It is also important to note that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in 2019,” the agency said in a statement. “While NIAID supports the development of broad-spectrum therapeutics to be prepared for such an event, it is difficult to understand whether a drug is effective against a certain virus until that virus emerges.”
But Satchell, Mesecar and others point to earlier warnings. In 2015, the World Health Organization said coronaviruses were one of the top emerging health threats and likely to cause major epidemics. And in 2017, a paper was published in PLOS Pathogens by experts studying coronaviruses in horseshoe bats in China who emphasized the need for “preparedness for future emergence of SARS-like diseases.”
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Mesecar said researchers could have studied the effects of certain compounds on animals so they could be more quickly developed when new viruses appeared. This was the key to remdesivir reaching patients now. “We’re not as far behind as we could be because of the love and ingenuity of scientists who want to pursue and learn about it,” he said.
The coronavirus field is undergoing a rapid change, with many new researchers and much more money. Half the supplemental funding the center got from NIAID went to Mesecar’s drug discovery unit — which “was not particularly well-funded and short-staffed,” Satchell said — and the other half went to other labs that are a part of the center.
Satchell and others hope some of these people will want to stay in the field to prepare for the next public health threat. She’s seen this effect during the tuberculosis crisis, anthrax attacks and SARS, and she believes the COVID-19 pandemic will yield similar results.
“Let’s go for a good drug. Not a vaccine but a universal vaccine,” Satchell said. “Let’s understand a little more about immunology; let’s understand how this virus engages the immune system in the host response.”
She said treatments for HIV improved because of “consistent dedication” to develop therapies, and that needs to be the attitude going forward in coronavirus research too.
“People are going to know what the word ‘coronavirus’ means for the rest of their lives,” Mesecar said. “The attention is there. Now it’s going to be, ‘I never want to have this happen again.’ Let’s get the legislators to say, ‘You know what, coronaviruses are nasty like HIV was, and we have an entire institute for HIV at NIH. Maybe we should think about funding increases to infectious diseases and pandemics so we’re prepared better next time.' "
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gwong@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Inside St. Anthony Hospital

Inside St. Anthony Hospital

Treja Kelley had been hesitant to come forward after witnessing the murder of her 17-year-old cousin .
But she found @ @ @ @ @ stand last year and helped secure a guilty verdict .
Her testimony , though , @ @ @ @ @ head , prosecutors said .
Just a few months after testifying , Kelley was shot @ @ @ @ @ not far from where her cousin had been slain .
She was 18 and pregnant @

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chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Chicago hospital on the financial brink: St. Anthony’s fights for survival, sues state for money owe

Chicago hospital on the financial brink: St. Anthony’s fights for survival, sues state for money owed

As of last week , a ZIP code in the South Lawndale community , which includes Little Village , had @ @ @ @ @ in the state .
That same ZIP code was among the city neighborhoods with the @ @ @ @ @ with 72 deaths .
Little Village is a Latino neighborhood , and it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ number of Latinos who have died of the coronavirus because the Cook County medical examiner @ @ @ @ @ with that identifier .

Dr. Juan Bosco Ayala, an intensivist in the ICU, checks on a COVID-19 patient on May 11, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
In a workshop at St. Anthony Hospital, maintenance crews spend time each morning making the sanitizing wipes the medical center can no longer afford to buy.
After soaking paper towels in a liquid mixture developed by an infection preventionist, they deliver the 3.5-gallon buckets — bright green drums with “Menards” printed on them — throughout the 151-bed hospital.
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The regular vendor stopped supplying the wipes weeks ago when the medical center struggled to pay its bills on time. And a worldwide shortage has made them difficult to find on the open market, where hospitals now try to outbid each other for precious stock.
With a century-old mission to care for people living in Little Village and other nearby neighborhoods, this is the unorthodox approach St. Anthony must take as it battles both insolvency and a deadly virus that has hit the neighborhoods it serves harder than other parts of the city.
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“We needed a solution and we found one,” said Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, the hospital’s medical director of infection prevention. “There has been a lot of difficult problem-solving since the pandemic began, but it had to be done because we’ll be dealing with COVID for a long time."
If, that is, St. Anthony can survive.
Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, medical director of infection prevention, enters a COVID-19 patient room in the ICU. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The hospital recently sued the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, alleging that flaws in the state’s Medicaid program are threatening its survival in the midst of the pandemic.
Hospital officials contend they already were owed $22 million for services provided to Medicaid patients as of mid-February. The financial situation became even more dire after the outbreak began and St. Anthony had to expand its intensive care unit capacity, purchase additional ventilators and outfit its emergency department bays with plastic sheeting to prevent the virus’s spread.
Coupled with the loss of revenue from elective procedures and unplanned expenses, the hospital estimates COVID-19 has cost it $10 million, according to court records. About 60% of St. Anthony patients are on Medicaid, the government-subsidized health insurance program, hospital President and CEO Guy A. Medaglia said.
The lawsuit blames former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner for the shortfall, alleging that the system his administration revamped and expanded to handle Medicaid reimbursements harms safety net hospitals that serve primarily low-income patients. Called Medicaid managed care, the program, in which health insurance companies and organizations administer Medicaid benefits for the state, initially held the promise of improving patient care.
But reimbursements for health care are often late. And sometimes they don’t come at all.
Radiology technologist Vincent Rodriguez moves his equipment into a patient screening area that has been divided with plastic walls to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Under the current system, about 40% of St. Anthony’s claims are denied, Medaglia said. That’s about four times higher than the previous program, according to the suit.
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“We were doing OK before this new system,” Medaglia said. “We weren’t rich. We weren’t part of the ‘haves,’ but we always managed to take care of our employees, our patients and our community. Now we’re in real trouble."
It’s a complaint other safety net hospitals — medical facilities that exist on slim margins and treat anyone regardless of ability to pay — also have made in recent years. Their cries for help, however, have only grown louder during the pandemic as treating the virus requires more personnel, more medical supplies and more personal protective equipment.
“St. Anthony may have been the first to file a lawsuit, but I guarantee you that they won’t be the last,” said Tim Egan, president of Roseland Community Hospital on the far South Side. “We’re waiting to see if the heroics we delivered will be rewarded with the right funding, but we can’t be sure it will.”
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services worked with St. Anthony on its claims, but the two sides could not find a resolution, an agency spokesman said.
“To date, the hospital has not yet provided to the state any information demonstrating that it is due any payment,” spokesman John Hoffman said. “It is unfortunate that the hospital chose the path of litigation instead of continuing to discuss its concerns with us.”
Claiming less than $500,000 cash on hand — about two days’ worth — St. Anthony petitioned a federal judge last month for an emergency hearing to recoup some of the money it’s owed. The request is unlikely to be heard before the end of June.
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The hospital has managed to stay open through donations and about $21 million in federal stimulus money, Medaglia said. But with a $5.5 million monthly payroll and another $19 million owed to vendors, those dollars will not last long.
Maintenance mechanic Roy Carrera pours water and bleach over paper towels to make sanitizing wipes. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Maintenance mechanic Roy Carrera checks the water and bleach solution that is poured over the paper towels. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“If we were paid what we were supposed to be paid and we were paid on time, we would be fine. We would have a future," Medaglia said. “If the current system is not fixed, there is no future. We can’t keep doing this forever.”
Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker earmarked $834,494 for St. Anthony as part of a $75 million aid package for medical centers statewide. About $21 million went to safety net hospitals, and the department is working on getting more support to those facilities, Hoffman said.
“The critical importance of health care equity has never been so vital, and we are committed to responding to the concerns of safety net hospitals to continue advancing this goal,” he said.
The aid St. Anthony has received so far, however, is a fraction of what the hospital needs to keep operating as the virus tears through the neighborhoods it serves at a rate higher other parts of the city.
As of last week, a ZIP code in the South Lawndale community, which includes Little Village, had the highest number of cases in the state. That same ZIP code was among the city neighborhoods with the greatest number of fatalities, with 72 deaths. Little Village is a Latino neighborhood, and it’s been harder to count the number of Latinos who have died of the coronavirus because the Cook County medical examiner only recently began labeling cases with that identifier.
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COVID-19 testing also illustrates the impact. Across Illinois, roughly 15% of tests come back with a positive result. At St. Anthony, that figure is about 50%, officials said. The hospital tests about 250 patients per week at its walk-up and drive-thru sites.
The virus’s toll was evident in the St. Anthony intensive care unit on a recent Monday morning. Ten of 13 patients were on ventilators, and many had organs beginning to fail.
Respiratory therapist Bessy Piusten works with a COVID-19 patient on a ventilator in the ICU. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
A sign on a door in the ICU warns medical staff that the patient inside is COVID-19 positive. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The 15-bed ICU has been at capacity for weeks, though there were two open beds in the unit shortly before noon. A few hours earlier, two patients had died, and a housekeeper furiously scrubbed the room with disinfectant so another COVID patient could move in.
“We have four people in the emergency department waiting for beds up here,” said Dr. Mohamed Dahodwala, the hospital’s chairman of medicine. “We always having people waiting. We are a hot spot within a hot spot.”
The volume has been so heavy that Dr. Juan Bosco Ayala, who specializes in critical care and pulmonary disease, did not take a single day off in April, hospital administrators said. The patients were just too sick; their needs too great for him to stay home.
Nearly 30 patients died during that time period, according to the hospital’s data, a level of death that Ayala has not experienced at any other time in his career.
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He keeps pictures of patients who survived and those who didn’t. Families shared the photos with staff during the patients’ ICU stays, along with details about the patients’ lives and those who loved them.
On the morning the unit lost two patients, Ayala scrolled through his phone, looking at photos of his patients during healthier times.
Dr. Mohamed Dahodwala, chair of medicine, looks over in the ICU. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“It definitely makes you feel desperate, like your back is against the wall,” he said. “The virus wants to demoralize you, but then we go to the next room and realize we have our reason to keep fighting.”
To a person, everyone working in the ICU has a reason to keep fighting even if their hazard pay is lower than at other facilities, and they might have been able to take better-paying jobs elsewhere.
For Arlene Ramirez, an X-ray technician who used to live in Little Village, the old neighborhood serves as motivation.
She enters patients’ rooms with a portable X-ray and captures images of their infected lungs as their chests heave in a rapid staccato rhythm. The sicker the patient, the cloudier their lungs appear on the screen. Though Ramirez expects it, a cloudy image never ceases to dishearten her.
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Arlene Ramirez, an MRI technologist, reviews a chest X-ray from a COVID-19 patient. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
She says she had job offers, but wanted to be part of a bilingual hospital where patients could communicate with the staff and not worry about being turned away. Only 4% of St. Anthony patients have private insurance, while 70% are either uninsured or on Medicaid.
“People come here because they trust us to care for them," Ramirez said. “It means a lot to me to help them, especially now."
As Ramirez finished her work, Mena Lora, the hospital’s only infectious disease specialist, entered the ICU. He has spent most of the pandemic separated from his pregnant wife and children, who quarantined with her parents in Ohio until she gave birth to their third child in late April.
Mena Lora took two weeks off to be with his family, though he wore a mask and stayed in a hotel until he took a COVID test and it came back negative. He returned to work Monday, while his wife and children planned to stay in Ohio a little bit longer.
After accepting congratulatory elbow bumps from the ICU staff, he shared even more good news: St. Anthony had received its first shipment of remdesivir, the antiviral medication that is being tested as an effective treatment for COVID-19. The hospital was one of 14 statewide to receive the drug based on hospitalization data and its full ICU.
“We are hopeful this could make a significant difference,” Mena Lora said.
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Dr. Mohamed Dahodwala, left, chair of medicine, helps Dr. Alfredo Mena Lora, medical director of infection prevention, tie his gown as he enters a COVID-19 patient room. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
St. Anthony has been burned by such hopes. More than a month ago, it was given a rapid COVID-19 test machine as a gift, but staff could not use it for weeks because the hospital wasn’t considered a high enough priority for the reagents and the software needed to run the equipment.
Instead of getting tests back in 48 hours, the hospital had to rely upon private labs that were taking up to 10 days for results.
The hospital finally secured the reagents Wednesday, the same day figures showed Little Village had crossed a threshold of 2,200 confirmed cases. They are expected to be delivered Monday.
“The most significant health care disparity, especially early on in the pandemic, has been the access to testing,” said Mena Lora, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago. “Larger hospitals and university hospitals were able to develop their own internal testing, and smaller hospitals like ours, hospitals that are financially constrained, can’t just buy the equipment or get access to testing immediately."
Mena Lora understands the financial pressure St. Anthony is under, but he said he makes a concerted effort to keep money out of his decision-making process. When the hospital could no longer get disposable surgical gowns from its supplier, for example, he recommended purchasing reusable smocks that can be washed and worn again.
The smocks cost $30 apiece, and he needed about 2,000. He and Dahodwala put the request through, and it was granted.
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Nurse Kaylea Karas steps out of a patient room in the emergency department. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
A crucifix hangs above medical equipment in the ICU where COVID-19 patients are treated. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“My worry was certainly there in the beginning, but once we crossed that threshold and it became a national crisis that was bigger than us, I stopped worrying excessively about how much things cost and focused on the problem at hand," Mena Lora said. “I’m sure it’s extremely difficult for our financial guys, but they make it happen.”
The hospital’s number crunchers have been equally supportive about the decision to hold off on elective procedures despite their role as a hospital’s financial lifeblood, he said. With as much as two-thirds of the hospital’s beds occupied by COVID-19 patients on any given day, the hospital does not meet the guidelines established by the state health department to resume such services.
“We’re reviewing them on case-by-case basis, but there has to be an urgent need,” he said. “It wouldn’t be responsible to do anything else.”
As he walked out of the Emergency Department after checking on patients’ conditions, Mena Lora stopped, pulled a sanitizing wipe from the Menards bucket and scrubbed down the counter he had touched.
“This hospital survived the 1918 flu pandemic,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to survive this one too.”
Chicago Tribune’s Cecilia Reyes contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-05-18--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened May 16-17 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

Most of the residents and staff who tested positive are no longer ill , a nursing home spokeswoman said , @ @ @ @ @ it feels at Bria like the worst of the outbreak may have passed .
But @ @ @ @ @ the outbreak , Jacobs , staff and families have painted a picture of an onslaught @ @ @ @ @ home became a rallying point for the Geneva community , receiving an outpouring of support @ @ @ @ @ nursing home failed to adequately communicate during the pandemic .
Read more here .
–Sarah @

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,734 new coronavirus cases Sunday and 51 additional deaths. The newly released numbers pushed the statewide total of known cases to 94,191 and total Illinois deaths to 4,177 since the pandemic began.
The daily deaths released Sunday were the lowest in a 24-hour period since May 4.
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The statewide seven-day coronavirus “rolling positivity rate” is 15%.Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said that to move forward to the next phase of reopening the state, the share of people testing positive for the coronavirus must be at or under 20% and increase no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period.
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[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ How will Illinois reopen? Three charts breaking down Pritzker’s plan ]
[ As the coronavirus spreads, the Tribune is tracking Illinois cases here ]
Here’s what happened May 16-17 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
11:10 p.m.: Sean Penn, Mayor Lightfoot to tour coronavirus testing facility on Monday
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and actor Sean Penn will tour one of the coronavirus testing sites she set up with support from his charity on Monday, her office said.
Last week, the city announced it would ramp up Chicago’s COVID-19 testing capacity ahead of a potential reopening by adding six sites in mostly black and brown communities with an assist from Community Organized Relief Effort, a charity Penn co-founded with Ann Lee.
One of the sites will open in the parking lot at the White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate Field in Bridgeport for asymptomatic first responders and health care and other essential workers, the city said.
The others largely will be aimed at the city’s black and Latino communities, including sites at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy in Little Village, Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academies in Hanson Park, Kennedy-King College in Englewood, Senka Park in Gage Park and Gately Park in Pullman. Locations have been chosen because they’re near public transportation, easily accessible by vehicle and have large spaces for proper social distancing, city officials said.
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So far, the sites at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Prieto Math and Science Academy are open and have performed 800 combined tests in less than a week, the city said. Lightfoot is scheduled to tour the testing site at Prieto Math and Science Academy with Penn and Lee. Read more here. —Gregory Pratt
7:59 p.m. (Updated): Hundreds defy stay-at-home order to attend church while mayor’s office warns that violators may be cited after review
Met by protesters and defying the stay-at-home order, Michael Valentine attended services Sunday at Metro Praise International Church in the Cragin neighborhood of Chicago, an area that has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus.
“There is something great about praising the Lord when you’re with other brothers and sisters,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s powerful, and it strengthens your faith and encourages you, especially during times like these.”
Valentine joined at least 100 other members of the congregation who also decided to attend the in-person services, according to the Rev. Joseph Wyrostek, one of the religious leaders advocating for local and state governments to allow all churches to open as soon as possible.
Wyrostek is not alone. Across the country, a growing assortment of church and faith leaders has been pressing for government restrictions on worship services to be lifted. Read more here. — Laura Rodríguez Presa, Patrick M. O’Connell and Jessica Villagomez
2:40 p.m.: 51 reported deaths is lowest daily toll since May 4
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,734 new coronavirus cases Sunday and 51 additional deaths. The newly released numbers pushed the statewide total of known cases to 94,191 and total Illinois deaths to 4,177 since the pandemic began.
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The daily deaths released Sunday were the lowest in a 24-hour period since May 4.
The statewide seven-day coronavirus “rolling positivity rate” is 15%.Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said that to move forward to the next phase of reopening the state, the share of people testing positive for the coronavirus must be at or under 20% and increase no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period.
The Sunday cases included 28 deaths in Cook County, six in Lake County, five in DuPage County and four in Kane County.
Officials reported 20,295 daily coronavirus tests, bringing the statewide total to 581,944.
After a week in which the daily case totals climbed above 4,000 on Tuesday and above 3,000 on Thursday, Sunday’s case amount was a slight drop from the previous day and the lowest since Wednesday. –Patrick M. O’Connell
11:50 a.m.: Data breach in new Illinois online unemployment system for gig workers exposes private information
A glitch in a newly-launched state system for processing unemployment claims for gig workers publicly exposed personal information, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Sunday.
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The Illinois Department of Employment Security “is aware there was a glitch” in a new system for processing unemployment claims for independent contractors and the self-employed that “made some private information publicly available for a short time, and worked to immediately remedy the situation,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement. “A full investigation is under way to assess exactly what happened and how many people were impacted. Those who were impacted will be notified.”
It’s the latest in a series of issues for a beleaguered state agency that has struggled to handle a deluge of unemployment claims as the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the state’s economy.
For months, people have reported issues accessing the online filing system and getting through by phone, which Pritzker has blamed on inadequate technology and agency understaffing. Read more here. –Jamie Munks
10:55 a.m.: At hard-hit Geneva nursing home where nearly a quarter of its residents died, anger and a rallying cry amid COVID-19 outbreak
Bria of Geneva has more coronavirus cases and deaths than any long-term care facility in Kane County. Since the start of the outbreak, the nursing home has reported 113 cases of COVID-19 among its 91 residents and 120 staff. Nearly a quarter of residents — 22 — have died at the nursing home, state and nursing home figures show.
Most of the residents and staff who tested positive are no longer ill, a nursing home spokeswoman said, and resident Debbie Jacobs said it feels at Bria like the worst of the outbreak may have passed. But, at the height of the outbreak, Jacobs, staff and families have painted a picture of an onslaught of cases. The nursing home became a rallying point for the Geneva community, receiving an outpouring of support. Some families said the nursing home failed to adequately communicate during the pandemic. Read more here. –Sarah Freishtat
10:30 a.m.: Southland communities lay off, furlough staff as coronavirus pandemic craters revenue projections
South suburban communities are being forced to make painful personnel decisions as they scramble to recalibrate their budgets in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Many municipalities in the Southland have already eliminated or furloughed staff to offset significant projected revenue declines, and officials aren’t ruling out additional cuts if the state’s reopening is delayed.
“It’s gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and extremely difficult,” Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury said. “But in the absence of any federal or state assistance, we really have no alternative.”
Bury said the village, which anticipates an $8-10 million revenue shortfall due to the pandemic, has had to eliminate six positions already and may have to cut more if financial relief doesn’t materialize. Read more here. –Zak Koeske
May 16
Federal appeals court says Pritzker’s executive order limiting gatherings doesn’t appear to discriminate against religious activities, will almost certainly withstand legal challenge
A federal appeals court on Saturday said Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order limiting gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic does not appear to discriminate against religious activities and will almost certainly withstand a legal challenge.
The order by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals came as part of a lawsuit by the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church on Chicago’s Northwest Side and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles seeking a federal court injunction allowing them to hold services without “threat of criminal sanctions” by state and local officials. Leaders for both churches vowed to adhere to strict social distancing guidelines.
In an opinion issued last week, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman blasted the lawsuit as “both ill-founded and selfish,” writing that a restraining order “would risk the lives of congregants ... their family members, friends, co-workers and other members of their communities with whom they come in contact.”
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In filing their appeal, the churches made the longshot bid of asking the 7th Circuit to issue an injunction anyway, while the case was being briefed. A three-judge panel shot down that request on Saturday, saying that Pritzker’s order limiting religious gatherings to 10 people or fewer appeared to be lawful amid an “extraordinary public health emergency.”
“The Executive Order does not discriminate against religious activities, nor does it show hostility toward religion,” the order by Judges Frank Easterbrook, Michael Kanne, and David Hamilton stated. “(The) temporary numerical restrictions on public gatherings apply not only to worship services but also to the most comparable types of secular gatherings, such as concerts, lectures, theatrical performances, or choir practices, in which groups of people gather together for extended periods, especially where speech and singing feature prominently and raise risks of transmitting the COVID-19 virus.”
The court gave the churches until Friday to file a full brief on the issues. Oral arguments are not expected until next month.
The lawsuit is one of two religious challenges to Pritzker’s order currently being considered by the appellate court. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee denied a bid by The Beloved Church in rural northwest Illinois for a temporary restraining order. Briefs are due to the 7th Circuit in that case on June 15. —Jason Meisner
2,088 new known COVID-19 cases and 74 additional deaths
State health officials on Saturday announced 2,088 new known cases of COVID-19, pushing the statewide total of known cases to 92,457.
Another 74 deaths were reported Saturday, for a statewide total of 4,129 deaths since the pandemic began, according to statistics released by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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Of the new reported deaths, 54 occurred in Cook County, including according to the health department. The youngest reported victims were two men in their 30s, while three victims — two women and one man — were at least 100 years old.
One fatality was reported by the Illinois Manteno Veteran’s Home in Manteno, the third resident of the home to have died from the disease, according to the release.
Just over 23,000 tests were administered over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests statewide to 561,649, officials said.
Health officials also reported that statewide 7-day “rolling positivity rate” is 15%. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said that to move forward to the next phase of reopening the state, the share of people testing positive for the coronavirus must be at or under 20% and increase no more than 10 percentage points over a 14-day period. —Jason Meisner
Protesters rally outside Thompson Center
A few hundred people rallied in front of the Thompson Center on Saturday afternoon, protesting the governor’s stay-at-home order.
A speaker yelled to the crowd with a megaphone, “We need freedom!”
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Protesters stood at the corner of Clark and Randolph streets carrying signs and flags, including one that read: “God is essential. Open church now.”
Another protester carried a sign proclaiming: “Fear of government overreach, not a virus,” and a shirtless man waved an American flag, swaying to Jon Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.” Pritzker’s order has been in effect since March 21, and has been under increasing scrutiny as other states have begun to reopen.
A Trump 2020 flag waved above the crowd, and cars drove past on Randolph Street, honking horns and displaying American flags and other protest signs. Dozens of officers on foot and bicycles lined the corner, but the gathering remained peaceful.
As the protest was winding down, a man with a ski mask walked around with a banner with an apparent Neo-Nazi sign, causing a stir among protesters who yelled at him to leave.
“You’re making us look bad,” one man yelled as officers surrounded the man while he waved the flag.
“Take off your mask coward,” another yelled.
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Officers on bicycles stayed near the man as he walked down Randolph with the sign. —Madeline Buckley
Chicago making progress towards re-opening, Arwady says
Chicago is making progress toward a phase where the city gradually reopens, according to Allison Arwady, director of the Chicago Department of Public Health, but she warned people to continue abiding by the state's stay at home order even as the weather grows nicer.
"Even on days like today, go out and enjoy the sun on your porch or backyard or on a walk with the people you live with," Arwady said Saturday during a daily question-and-answer session on social media. "Do not use it as an opportunity to get together with people."
Still, Arwady had a measure of good news, as she noted that the city is doubling its number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 every 20 days or so. Earlier this year, Chicago was doubling its caseload every few days.
As of Saturday, there were 35,316 confirmed infections, resulting in 1,600 deaths. That marks an increase of 903 cases and and 48 deaths since Friday, Arwady said.
More than 128,000 people have been tested in the city, now averaging more than 3,000 tests each day. Just over 20% percent are coming back positive, she said.
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"We do continue to make progress," Arwady said.
These metrics are key parts of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's plan for reopening Chicago.
In order to move to phase 3 to "cautiously reopen," the city would need to see a decline in the COVID-19 case rate over 14 days and a declining rate of new cases; stable or declining rates of hospitalizations; ICU admissions and deaths; fewer than 1,800 coronavirus patients in hospital beds; fewer than 600 coronavirus patients in ICU beds; and fewer than 450 on ventilators.
Regarding hospital capacity, Arwady said local hospitals are full, but so far have generally been able to "tolerate this surge of patients."
Asked whether hospitals could handle a new surge of cases as the city gradually reopens, Arwady said hundreds of beds are still available in one section of the McCormick Place medical facility as a backup.
State and city officials are not currently staffing the alternate care facility because the stay at home order has flattened the curve enough so that the extra beds are not needed as of now, she said. But the FEMA-funded facility will not be dismantled in case there is a spike in cases.
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“If we get to a point where we have another surge, the last thing we wanted to do was undo all of that work,” she said. —Madeline Buckley
—Chicago Tribune staff and The Associated Press
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chicagotribune--2020-05-18--$250K bail for man accused of stabbing bystander who defended woman

Johnson ’ s court-appointed attorney said his client is an unemployed Army veteran whose only income was government assistance .
@ @ @ @ @ , Judge John F. Lyke Jr. ordered Johnson to pay $ 25,000 bail for release @ @ @ @ @ the case “ extremely aggravating ” and the victim a hero for aiding a stranger @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t have anything to do with this but tried to protect this woman @ @ @ @ @ hope someone would do , ” the judge said .

A 64-year-old Roseland man was ordered held on $250,000 bail Sunday after he was accused of stabbing a younger man who tried to defend a woman being threatened by the knife-wielding man, according to prosecutors.
Following the stabbing that left part of the victim’s intestines exposed, police arrested Wendell Johnson at the scene and recovered a kitchen knife, authorities told a judge during a bail hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
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Johnson, of the 10300 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery, according to authorities. During a hearing broadcast on YouTube, Johnson grimaced underneath a face mask and shook his head as he listened to prosecutors describe the grisly attack that occurred in a block of shops just east of the Dan Ryan Expressway.
The 23-year-old victim was walking in the 7100 block of South State Street when he noticed a man and woman arguing on the street. As he approached the quarreling pair, the victim noticed that the man tried to stab the woman several times and inserted himself between them, authorities said.
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Johnson is accused of threatening to kill the victim and delivering a single stab wound to the victim’s abdomen, said Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Wojnicki. Bystanders stopped any further attacks as police arrived, Wojnicki added. The attack was captured on surveillance
The victim was hospitalized and required “extensive surgery” to allow medical staff to repair the intestines, Wojnicki said.
Johnson’s court-appointed attorney said his client is an unemployed Army veteran whose only income was government assistance. Despite a clean criminal record, Judge John F. Lyke Jr. ordered Johnson to pay $25,000 bail for release with electronic monitoring, calling the case “extremely aggravating” and the victim a hero for aiding a stranger. “This gentleman who didn’t have anything to do with this but tried to protect this woman did what most of us hope someone would do,” the judge said.
Johnson will return to court Friday.