(WTTW News)
Non-essential businesses in Chicago will be allowed to stay open an hour later and booze sales have been extended for two hours after Mayor Lori Lightfoot revised her plan to stop a significant surge in the number of coronavirus cases to align with new rules imposed by state officials.
Lightfoot ordered non-essential businesses to close from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting Oct. 23. In addition, the mayor ordered that all liquor sales at bars, restaurants and stores end at 9 p.m.
However, restrictions ordered by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to stop the spread of COVID-19 take effect at midnight Friday — over the mayor’s objections — and Lightfoot altered her plan to align with the restrictions laid out by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The governor’s order suspends all indoor dining and drinking in Chicago and caps indoor gatherings at 25 people or 25% of overall room capacity.
The mayor’s order will allow on-site and to-go alcohol sales at bars and restaurants until 11 p.m. Lightfoot initially ordered those sales to stop at 9 p.m.
Lightfoot ordered all liquor stores to close at 9 p.m. in April, and that order remains in place, according to the mayor’s office.
Lightfoot initially said the city-ordered restrictions would last for two weeks.
Pritzker ordered the restrictions after Chicago recorded a significant increase in its test positivity rate during the past month, as well as a sustained increase in coronavirus-related hospitalizations during a 10-day period.
Lightfoot has been at odds with Pritzker over the role bars and restaurants play in accelerating the spread of COVID-19 since she warned on Oct. 19 the city and state had entered a second wave of the coronavirus.
Lightfoot can impose tougher restrictions in Chicago than those ordered by the governor, but she cannot overrule his order.
At an unrelated news conference Thursday morning, Pritzker praised Lightfoot for putting tighter restrictions in place in Chicago.
“[Lightfoot] has been doing really a terrific job in the city of Chicago, trying to stay ahead of this virus,” Pritzker said.
After the mayor’s order Thursday, restrictions in Chicago were aligned with state rules for the first time since Pritzker lifted the stay-at-home order at the end of May.
If the state-determined test positivity rate drops below 6.5% for three days and there is a decrease in hospital admissions during the same three-day period, and the three-day rolling average in availability of intensive care beds is greater than or equal to 20% during a seven-day period, the state restrictions will lift in Chicago, state officials said.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
