Mayor Lightfoot Unveils 5-Phase Framework For Reopening Chicago

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday unveiled a five-phase plan for the city's pandemic comeback.

"Though we still have a way to go before we can begin reopening our city, when the time comes, that reopening will follow our thoughtful, data-driven process aimed at ensuring all our residents and businesses are informed and supported every step of the way," Lightfoot said.

The "Protecting Chicago" framework for reopening businesses and public gathering places shut down under the statewide stay-at-home order in place to stem the spread of new coronavirus is a glimpse at how city leaders hope to gradually return city life to something like normal.

The city's plan, which mirrors the state's structure for reopening businesses and eventually lifting stay-home orders, doesn't include any specific dates for relaxing regulations. Lightfoot said decisions will be made based on science and data saying the city could "put out a date but it would be completely arbitrary."

The city has already moved past Phase 1, a strict stay-at-home order aimed at flattening the curve of COVID-19 infections that only allows essential work and travel and requires physical distancing from anyone you don't live with, particularly people at high-risk of suffering severe complications and death from the virus.

Currently, Chicagoans are under the second phase of the plan which requires people to wear face masks and "remain home as much as possible." The transition to Phase 3, a cautions reopening of select businesses, non-profits and city offices, phased in openings of public places and social gatherings of fewer than 10 people will depend on a set of data-driven factors, officials said. Those include:

• A declining rate of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and deaths over 14 days.
• Having fewer than 1,800 hospitalized patients, 600 ICU cases and 450 people on ventilators.
• A citywide testing capacity of at least 5 percent of residents per month.
• Fewer than 30 percent testing positivity rates in congregate settings and 15-percent positivity rates in communities.
• Declining emergency room visits for COVID-19 and influenza-like symptoms for 14 days.
• An "expanded system"in place to contact tracing in congregate settings such as nursing homes and in communities the hardest hit by the coronavirus.

Phase 4, a gradual reopening to a "new normal" will lift additional restrictions on businesses and public amenities including the lakefront with continued requirements for social distancing and wearing face coverings in public. Lightfoot said her administration has been in talks with people who have suggested ways to regulate public gatherings at parks and the lakefront that are under consideration.

Lightfoot said she would consider a proposal floated during Friday's news conference, stationing social distancing monitors in public areas to remind people not to congregate. The mayor compared the proposed monitors to ushers "at Wrigley" who aggressively monitor crowds at the Cubs stadium.

The final phase of the mayors plan calls for reopening all businesses, a return to work for all "non-vulnerable" people, the return of some public events and most activities, according to the city's plan.

City officials said the transition between later phases of the plan will be announced in the coming weeks. Decisions will be based on guidance from public health officials and the answers to the following questions:

• Is the rate of the disease spread across the city and surrounding counties decreasing?
• Does the city have testing and contact-tracing capacity to track the disease and limit its spread?
• Are there enough support systems in place for vulnerable residents?
• Can the healthcare systems hand a potential future surge in cases, including enough beds, ventilators and personal protective equipment.

"While our goal is to get as many people back to work as quickly and safely as possible, we will keep data and science as the north stars of this work," city public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.

As part of the city's reopening framework, officials have set up an online survey to solicit public input on the plan.