Numbers tell Illinois’ dismal COVID story, early voting begins and more in your Chicago news roundup

Good afternoon. Right here’s the most recent information you might want to know in Chicago. It’s about an eight-minute learn that may transient you on right this moment’s largest tales.

— Matt Moore (@MattKenMoore)

Climate ⛅

This afternoon shall be partly sunny with a excessive close to 51 levels. Tonight shall be cloudy with some remoted sprinkles and a low close to 36. Tomorrow shall be principally cloudy with a excessive close to 53.

Because the world marks the three-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Solar-Occasions reporters have been speaking with residents, enterprise house owners and front-line staff to color a fuller image of how COVID-19 has modified our metropolis and past — protection that we’re highlighting all week in Afternoon Version, along with different very important reporting on this metropolis that we’ll proceed to highlight to maintain you within the know.

We start this week with a narrative from our Mitchell Armentrout on assessing our state’s devastating pandemic information.

High story

3 years, 4 million circumstances, greater than 36,000 deaths: Numbers form Illinois’ dismal COVID-19 story

Mountainous bar graphs of each day case numbers can illustrate how shortly COVID-19 swept throughout Illinois in 2020. However they’ll’t seize the isolation felt by folks in Chicago and past who have been advised to remain at house within the early days of the pandemic. 

Hospital admission figures mirror the waves of sufferers who’ve crowded into coronavirus wards with critical sickness. However they don’t reveal something concerning the exhaustion of well being care staff who’ve switched to new careers.

And whereas the statewide dying toll of a minimum of 36,494 supplies a devastating indication of what the virus has ripped away over the previous three years, that quantity doesn’t strategy the total breadth of grief rippling out from every loss. 

Statistics don’t inform the entire story of the pandemic. However consultants say the information they’ve collected supplies very important insights into how the outbreak has hit totally different communities — and what everybody ought to take into consideration as we be taught to stay with the virus completely. 

“This previous winter exhibits we could also be getting to some extent the place we will make it by way of a 12 months with out crushing the well being care system,” mentioned Dr. Arti Barnes, chief medical officer of the Illinois Division of Public Well being. “That’s one of many first optimistic indicators that we’re reaching a degree the place we’re beginning to heal.”

The scars stay vivid. 

Greater than 4 million COVID infections have been confirmed within the state since early 2020. The precise quantity is probably going a minimum of a number of occasions greater, consultants say, since tens of millions of circumstances have gone undiagnosed, and the official determine doesn’t embrace at-home checks. 

Mitchell Armentrout has extra on Illinois’ dismal COVID-19 story.

Extra information you want

• Family members and followers are mourning the lack of JoJo Child, a cherished drag queen, membership child, hairstylist and doll maker who “broke the mould.” JoJo Child died on March 14 from most cancers at age 51. Our Mitch Dudek has extra on their outstanding legacy.
• A brand new invoice might give Illinois one of many nation’s strongest protections for whistleblowers in opposition to retaliation from employers threatening to research their immigration standing. The Work With out Worry Act, pending within the statehouse, would additionally develop protections for staff who report sexual harassment or file complaints outdoors of official channels.
• A lawsuit by a white North Aspect businessman has compelled Cook dinner County officers to revamp a program that might have paid out $10,000 grants to minority- and women-owned companies damage by the pandemic. This system will now settle for new purposes after an Edison Park chiropractor claimed bias in how the county would distribute the grants.
• Early voting for Chicago’s runoff election kicked off this morning and can stay open by way of the April 4 election day. Right here’s the place you’ll be able to vote in all 50 wards.
• Paul Vallas, a former Chicago Public Faculties CEO, and Brandon Johnson, a Chicago Lecturers Union official, are each mayoral candidates whose tales can’t be advised with out public training. Our Nader Issa and Lauren FitzPatrick and WBEZ’s Sarah Karp look into the candidates’ backgrounds and their radically totally different approaches to fixing public colleges.
• Millionaire businessman Willie Wilson endorsed Paul Vallas for mayor of Chicago earlier this month. And yesterday, he implored dozens of Black pastors to do the identical, in an try to shore up Vallas’ help on the South and West sides earlier than the April 4 runoff.
• Within the newly-redrawn thirty sixth Ward, Ald. Gilbert “Gil” Villegas is dealing with a runoff problem from Chicago Lecturers Union-backed candidate Lori Torres Whitt. Our Elvia Malagón has extra on the heated contest and what’s on voters’ minds.
• A 3-year Kennedy Expressway building mission begins tonight that’s positive to wreak havoc with commutes because the work is finished all the way in which from the junction with the Edens Expressway to Ohio Road. Anticipate main delays.
• Pitchfork Music Competition right this moment introduced the lineup for its return to Chicago this summer season, with The Smile, Huge Thief and Bon Iver among the many headlining acts set to carry out in Union Park. Additionally on the invoice are native mainstays like Ric Wilson, Sen Morimoto and Deeper. Tickets for the July 21-23 fest are on sale now.

A vibrant one

Black lady friendships on the coronary heart of Disney’s made-in-Chicago skating present ‘Saturdays’

Inside Markham Curler Rink, amid flashing neon lights, a way of gravity and urgency is unfolding. Fifteen-year-old Danielle Jalade and her mates Daria Johns and Peyton Basnight try to nail down a posh roller-skating flip. After, the women let loose a piercing cheer and a hug. 

The trio make up the We-B-Girlz skate crew that practices and performs on the perfect day of the week — Saturdays! When the director yells lower, the youngsters giggle to one another between scenes, their change in demeanor nearly imperceptible. 

The younger actresses are the core of Disney Channel’s new comedy collection “Saturdays,” set on the South Aspect of Chicago.

Jalade performs 14-year-old Paris Johnson, the chief of the group, with Johns and Basnight as Simone and Ari, her greatest mates. Collectively the teenagers are decided to show they’re the highest skating crew on the rink, regardless of their age. The remainder of the solid is rounded out by a bunch of Black actors with lengthy resumes — amongst them Golden Brooks as Jalade’s mother, Deb; Omar Gooding as Jalade’s dad, Cal, and rapper Yo-Yo Whitaker because the legendary chief of the curler skating rink. 

Curler skating has lengthy been a staple of the Black group. Civil rights protests have been typically held at skating rinks, the place music blared and youngsters and adults alike might let unfastened. Now, roller-skating rinks are an endangered locale. “Saturdays” was capable of lease the Markham Curler Rink from town as a result of it’s been closed for years. The crew behind “Saturdays” consists of 18-year-old former “black-ish” actress Marsai Martin, in her first tv government producer credit score.

“Disney got here to us and was like, ‘We would like a roller-skating present,’ ” Martin advised the Solar-Occasions. “It was additionally like, ‘OK, so we’re placing their ideas into consideration,’ but additionally too it simply is smart as a result of it’s not solely a giant deal in our Black group, but additionally Chicago on the whole.”

Our Mariah Rush has extra on “Saturdays” right here.

From the press field

Your each day query☕

What was the very last thing you probably did earlier than Illinois’ enacted the shelter-in-place order?

Ship us an e mail at newsletters@suntimes.com and we would characteristic your reply within the subsequent Afternoon Version.

On Friday, we requested you: How have your face mask-wearing habits advanced over the course of the pandemic?

Right here’s what a few of you mentioned…

“My habits haven’t modified in any respect for the reason that starting of the pandemic. I put on my masks each time I’m out in public: grocery shops, live shows, exhibits, and so on. I do know there’s a danger with public occasions, however I attempt to decrease it with the masks. Heck, I used to be a germaphobe then, you higher imagine I nonetheless am now! — Kayla Palmisano

“By no means wore one.” — Wealthy Sierecki

“I used to be militant about mask-wearing for a very long time, however now I solely put on it on the CTA. I’m one of many fortunate ones who hasn’t — but — gotten COVID.” — Jennifer Brown

“I put on a face masks each time I am going out in public. Contemplating my questionable breath, not-so-white enamel, menopausal girl beard having the audacity to develop in grey, my propensity for inadvertently spitting on folks after I’m speaking to them and the truth that I’m merely not as cute as I was, the fixed sporting of a face masks is the perfect factor that would have occurred to me! Plus, I actually, actually like the truth that I haven’t caught any communicable illnesses — together with the frequent chilly — in three years!” — Therese Roberson

“I didn’t put on them then and I’m not sporting them now.” — John Shreve

“I nonetheless put on a masks on public transit. Normally within the grocery retailer if it’s crowded and/or if I’ve one in my pocket. We’re going to bars and eating places once more although, in order that in all probability throws every little thing else I do out the window.” — Mary Gowlewski

“We nonetheless put on N95s round anybody outdoors our family, indoors or out, as we now have for the reason that begin of the pandemic. We don’t care concerning the seems we get once we go to a play or live performance and we’re within the 1% sporting masks. We don’t dine in eating places (however we order a number of supply!). Our habits have stayed the identical although the pandemic for 4 causes: it isn’t over, though we’re vaccinated we all know we might nonetheless catch COVID, we would like COVID to finish, and we don’t need to get lengthy COVID.” — Alex P. 

“All the time put on my masks on the CTA and planes and in airports. I’ve seen a number of COVID circumstances previously two months amongst coworkers and mates.” — Tracy Ito

“I nonetheless put on a Okay-N95 face masks in public settings and at work.” — Wendy C.

“I nonetheless put on mine after I go into shops, nail salons, magnificence salons for hair cuts or wherever I believe it’s mandatory everybody needs to be cautious as a result of covid just isn’t going away.” — Janice Valenzio

“I put on my masks when visiting my mother and mother-in-law at their assisted dwelling residence, in crowds, in physician’s workplace, and in anywhere that asks folks to be masked. It’s a easy factor.” — Carmie Daugird Callobre

Thanks for studying the Chicago Solar-Occasions Afternoon Version. Received a narrative you suppose we missed? E-mail us right here.