Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tests positive for COVID-19
Lightfoot credited being vaccinated and boosted for not having more serious symptoms
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated.
Lightfoot said she was experiencing "cold-like symptoms" but feels fine otherwise – which she credited to being vaccinated and boosted.
"I will continue to work from home while following the CDC guidelines for isolation," the mayor said in a statement. "This is an urgent reminder for folks to get vaccinated and boosted as it’s the only way to beat this pandemic."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lightfoot joins a long list of Democratic politicians who have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks. Since December, Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., have tested positive.
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Lightfoot’s announcement came after the Chicago Teachers Union approved a plan with the city’s school district over COVID-19 safety protocols, ending a bitter standoff that canceled classes for five days.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey speaks ahead of a car caravan where teachers and supporters gathered to demand a safe and equitable return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago, Illinois on Dec. 12, 2020. ((Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images))
Approved late Monday, the deal would have students back in class on Wednesday and teachers back a day earlier. It still requires approval from the union's roughly 25,000 members, with voting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
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Chicago Teachers Union spokesperson Ronnie Reese confirmed the goal to bring students back on Wednesday, even as the vote proceeds.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Neither side disclosed full details of the proposal Monday evening, but leaders generally said the agreement included metrics to close individual schools during outbreaks and plans to boost COVID-19 testing in the largely low-income Black and Latino school district of about 350,000 students.
Chicago Police Officer Marni Washington, left, walks with then-Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot on Sunday, May 19, 2019 at Resurrected Life Church International in the Hermosa neighborhood of Chicago. ((Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images))
The union last week called for districtwide online learning until a safety plan could be negotiated or the latest COVID-19 surge subsided. The district, which has rejected districtwide remote instruction, responded by locking teachers out of remote teaching systems two days after students returned from winter break. The union's house of delegates voted Monday evening to suspend their work action.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Parents and advocacy groups also stepped up calls Monday for quicker action. Some parents on the city's West Side demanded students return immediately.
District officials, who call the union action "an illegal stoppage," had kept buildings open for student meal pickup and said schools with enough staff were allowed to open their doors to students. Some teachers showed up despite union directives; district officials estimated about 16% of teachers did so Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides over a City Council meeting on Oct. 27, 2021, in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
City officials argued that schools are safe with protocols in place. School leaders have touted a $100 million safety plan, including air purifiers in each classroom. Roughly 91% of staff are vaccinated and masks are required indoors.
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Union officials argued that the safety measures fell short and that the district botched both testing and a database tracking infections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.