Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area – Chicago Tribune

Here are the latest updates on the coronavirus in the Chicago area and Illinois:

Companies are putting additional cybersecurity measures in place and encouraging videoconferencing. They are questioning whether employees have the equipment they need to be productive at home. They are testing the capability of their servers as well as employees’ ability to access what they need remotely. Read more here. — Ally Marotti

The Illinois State Museum is suspending all of its programs, events and school group visits through April 10, due to the coronavirus.

The program suspension affects the Springfield museum and branch facilities, the Lockport Galley and Dickson Mounds Museum, but those facilities currently remain open during regular operating hours.

“Until we know the public’s health is ensured, taking these steps is our best course of action,” Illinois State Museum Director Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko said in a statement Thursday. “Additionally, we anticipate there will be further steps needed as we learn more.

The frequency of cleaning public spaces at the museum facilities is increasing, in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The NCAA Tournament has been canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. This is a developing story. Get the latest updates here.

Being quarantined at home due to a coronavirus case at school would be difficult for any family. But parents at Chicago’s Vaughn Occupational High School, which serves students with cognitive, developmental and multiple disabilities, have particularly complex challenges. Read more here. — Christy Gutowski

This makes the encyclopedic art museum the first among Chicago’s major cultural institutions to begin to diminish its public profile as the likelihood of community transmission of the disease increases. Read more here. — Steve Johnson

Major League Baseball has canceled the rest of its spring training game schedule due to the coronavirus and will delay opening day for at least two weeks. Read more here.

Planning to stock up on hand sanitizer and other household essentials over the weekend? Good luck.

Shoppers concerned about the coronavirus outbreak — or the prospect of being holed up at home for days if required to self-quarantine or work remotely — have left some stores’ shelves barren of everything from disinfecting wipes to toilet paper.

But hand sanitizer seems to be scarcest: at 18 stores within three miles of downtown Chicago that reporters visited Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, there wasn’t a bottle to be found. Stores that had scored recent shipments said they sold out within hours. Read more here. — Lauren Zumbach and Mary Ellen Podmolik

Northern Illinois: NIU extended spring break an additional week, through March 22. After spring break, “modified courses” rather than face-to-face classes will begin and run two weeks, through April 4, the school announced on its website. The school intends to return to traditional classes on April 6 but could extend its modified courses if necessary. Residence and dining halls at the school are set to remain open to accommodate students who cannot or choose not to leave, the school said. — Sarah Freishtat

North Central College: In-person undergraduate classes at Naperville’s North Central College are suspended for the remainder of the spring semester, the college announced Thursday in a news release.The last day of in-person instruction is Friday, and there will be no classes Monday or Tuesday as North Central makes final preparations for remote instruction, according to a news release from President Troy Hammond. The campus will remain open. — Erin Hegarty

Aurora University: Aurora University will suspend all classroom instruction at Aurora campuses beginning at 10 p.m. Thursday, university President Rebecca Sherrick said in a statement. Coursework will resume online or otherwise remotely Wednesday, March 18, she said. At a minimum, online and remote classes will continue through April 3. Residence halls and food service will remain open through next week, with “stringent” cleaning and safety measures in place, Sherrick said. Campus will remain open while in-person classes are suspended, though some areas could have reduced staffing and no events larger than 250 people will take place, she said. — Sarah Freishtat

The latest victim of the COVID-19 pandemic: Chicago’s annual James Beard Awards Gala.

The gala, unofficially billed as “the Oscars of the food world,” was to have taken place May 4 in Chicago. Now it has been postponed until an unspecified date this summer. Read more here. — Phil Vettel

Walter Payton College Prep’s student newspaper, the Paw Print, published an editorial calling for CPS to close all schools, or at least all high schools.

“No one doubts that the economic impact of dramatic social distancing measures will be devastating. But we can’t afford to be like the town mayor in the movie Jaws who refused to close the beaches because it would hurt the tourism industry, even as shark attacks claimed more victims,” according to the editorial by Paw Print editor Will Foster. “In our view, as part of these necessary measures, Chicago Public Schools should close, at a minimum, all high schools under its jurisdiction, and shift to online learning indefinitely.”

While closing schools could have adverse effects on many students and families, it seems the “the least bad option,” Foster wrote, listing colleges and universities that have already taken similar measures. Though many CPS students rely on free meals at school, there are ways to continue providing food to students, he writes.

Foster, a senior at Payton, said in an interview he didn’t want to speak for his entire school community and didn’t know that everyone would endorse his editorial, but he did know there was significant concern among students about whether the school should or would close. Though no cases were yet associated with Payton, he said, “who knows what’s going on that’s not detected.”

“It’s definitely on people’s minds but nobody knows exactly when, if at all, school might be canceled,” he said. “It’s a little worrisome.”

In the meantime, he said Payton students haven’t received any communication from the top about contingency plans “with regard to food or really anything.”

Foster wrote that schools have more resources than ever before to facilitate remote learning, making the case that even if child care for younger students remains an issue, high schools could at least be closed.

“Some might dismiss school closures as an overreaction,” he wrote. “We understand this concern, but we do not share it. Washing hands can only do so much good when people are sitting next to each other in classes for seven hours a day. And while it is true that young people are generally less vulnerable to the coronavirus, we have an obligation to avoid spreading the virus to protect the most vulnerable people among us — from elderly grandparents to siblings with asthma or weak immune systems.” — Hannah Leone

Residents crowded into City Council chambers Thursday along with more than a dozen aldermen for the Finance Committee, coming into close contact with one another as health officials call for people to avoid close interaction to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus to one another.

Meanwhile, the building’s lobby remains open to the public to walk through or conduct business in the city clerk’s office and other city departments.

The City Council is set to meet next Wednesday, and there are several council committee meetings scheduled each day in the run-up to that. Read more here. — John Byrne

Major League Baseball is reportedly suspending all operations amid coronavirus concerns. The NHL, after meeting with their Board of Governors, also announced that it is suspending play. Read more here.

The University of Illinois at Chicago announced Thursday the seventh annual Young Men of Color Summit, scheduled for Friday at UIC and co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Schools and UIC, has been canceled because of coronavirus concerns, according to a news release.

Speakers scheduled for the event had included state Rep. Aarón Ortíz and Alfred Tatum, dean of the UIC College of Education. About 500 CPS juniors and seniors had been scheduled to attend. —Chicago Tribune staff

At a news conference Thursday morning, health care workers called on hospital administrators across the city to provide extensive guidance and up to 15 days of paid sick leave to workers they say are on the “frontlines” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our working conditions have a direct impact on public health,” said Anne Igoe, vice president for hospitals for Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois Indiana.