Chicago mayor orders sick to stay home, CPS closing extended

Kevin Beese Chronicle Media

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has ordered all individuals with respiratory illness symptoms to remain in their homes. She said that people beginning to feel sick are also ordered to stay home unless seeking medical attention.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has issued an order that requires individuals with respiratory illness symptoms to remain in their homes in the wake of the spreading coronavirus.

She has also extended the closing of all Chicago Public Schools through April 21.

Stay home order

Lightfoot said that people experiencing respiratory symptoms like a cough, fever or shortness of breath are ordered to stay home.

“We have documented an increasing number of cases in which sick people went to their workplace and got other people sick with the coronavirus,” Lightfoot said in a citywide address Thursday evening.

She said people who are beginning to feel sick — body aches, fatigue and sore throat — are also ordered to stay home unless seeking medical attention.

“If you violate this order, there will be consequences,”’ Lightfoot said, but did to elaborate on what the consequences would be.

The mayor said that people older than 60 or with underlying health conditions should stay at home, if possible.

“Put your health first and don’t put yourselves or others at risk,” she said. “I know these restrictions are causing hardships, but we are doing this to save lives, pure and simple. We have seen what these extreme measures have yielded in places like Japan and Singapore. Those countries have started bending the arc of the virus. And China is reporting progress for the first time. These measures work and we need them now as this virus progresses here in Chicago.”

CPS closure extended

Lightfoot has also extended the closing of Chicago Public Schools through April 20.

On March 17, Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all schools — public and private — in the state closed through March 30.

“Given what we anticipate as the continued upward trajectory of the virus spreads, I am announcing now that Chicago Public Schools will be closed through April 20, with students returning on April 21,” Lightfoot said. “We need to give parents and guardians plenty of advance notice about this reality and the ability to plan.”

“CPS and the city will continue to support you in the ways that they have through these early days of the school closures,” she said in her address to city residents. “A thousand thanks of gratitude to everyone inside and outside of CPS who have been stepping up for our kids and our families.”

Lightfoot specifically thanked hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who, on Thursday, donated $2.5 million — $1 million to CPS and $1.5 million to the Chicagoland Food Depository.

“Ken and others are exhibiting extraordinary civic leadership at its finest,” the mayor said.