Chicago ‘on the precipice’ of returning to tougher COVID-19 restrictions, Mayor Lori Lightfoot warns

Mayor Lori Lightfoot sounded a stern warning Wednesday that Chicago is “on the precipice,” saying she may soon need to roll back parts of the city’s reopening if COVID-19 cases continue to increase, particularly among young people flocking to bars and restaurants.

While the mayor consistently has cautioned the city is far from free of the grip of the pandemic, she struck a particularly dire tone at a morning news conference.

“Some of you have joked that I’m like the mom who will turn the car around if you’re acting up,” Lightfoot said with Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady at her side. “No, friends. It’s actually worse. I won’t just turn the car around. I’m going to shut it off, I’m going to kick you out and I’m going to make you walk home. That’s who I am. That’s who I must be.

“But I don’t want to be that person if I don’t have to, but I will if you make me, and right now we are on the precipice,” she added. “We are dangerously close to going back to a dangerous state of conditions.”

Lightfoot pointed to Chicago’s daily average number of new cases, which sat at 192 on Wednesday. Once that number gets over 200, which Arwady said likely will happen, the city will look at where there are increases and consider taking steps to slow the rise, the mayor said.

“If we see an uptick, if we go above 200, of course we are going to be interested and concerned about what’s driving those numbers, and then we will take measures as appropriate to address particular areas where we’re seeing the new cases coming from,” Lightfoot said.

The mayor drew attention to the increase in the percentage of cases among young people, a frequent point of concern from City Hall in recent weeks.

With lots of Chicagoans in their 20s heading to reopened bars and restaurants, Lightfoot said the city will continue to crack down on establishments that are flouting the capacity rules and could take tougher steps to restrict those types of businesses.

On Tuesday, there were 192 new cases of COVID-19 in Chicago, based on a seven-day rolling average. Thirty percent of those, 58 cases, were among people age 18 to 29, according to city statistics.

That age group made up 21% of cases on June 3, when Chicago entered phase three of Lightfoot’s pandemic reopening plan. And on June 26, when the city adopted its current phase four reopening rules that allowed indoor seating at bars and restaurants and gym openings, people in that age group made up 27% of cases, according to the city.

Currently, the next highest category of new infections is among people between the ages of 30-39, followed by those between ages 40-49, Arwady said.

That compares with higher rates among older people in the early months of the pandemic, when health officials were focusing testing efforts on the elderly, who show the most severe symptoms and are at highest risk of death, rather than younger people who are often asymptomatic, though they can still spread the disease.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_johnbyrne