Is Illinois on the Brink of Another COVID Crisis?
Around 15,000 people packed into Allstate Arena in suburban Rosemont Monday night for a WWE professional wrestling show. It comes after hundreds of thousands attended Lollapalooza over the weekend as COVID cases continue to rise statewide.
An estimated 15,000 people were in Allstate Arena in Rosemont for a WWE professional wrestling show Monday night. The promotion claimed the show was “sold out,” likely putting about 14,000-15,000 in the building. TV shots showed a small percentage of the attendees wearing masks.
That comes immediately after Lollapalooza over the weekend which organizers boasted an attendance of 100,000 per day at Grant Park. Obviously, it was outdoors, but there wasn’t a ton of space in between plenty of unmasked attendees.
Governor Pritzker was scheduled to attend Lolla, but cancelled at the last minute. He said Monday there was “no mixed message” in his actions.
“I think those [safety measures] were reasonable things to do,” Pritzker said yesterday. “It was also reasonable for people like me who got up to near the date and decided, ‘You know what? I’d rather not go, just out of an abundance of caution.’ So that was — there’s no mixed message.”
The state is following the CDC’s guidance that suggest wearing a mask indoors in most of the state, and Pritzker has indicated he won’t hesitate to reinstitute mitigations again, though he didn’t seem interested in those actions when speaking to media Monday.
As of Monday, the statewide test positivity was at 4.9%. The positivity rate varies around the state. Cook County is still around 3%, but some rural counties are pushing 20% positivity.
While the state reports 74% of Illinois adults have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 58% are fully vaccinated, there were nearly 12,000 new cases last week and hospitalizations are up 35% in a week.