Thread by @BauerJournalism

Arwady: "... It is not good here in Chicago." We're breaking records almost daily.

https://twitter.com/chicagosmayor/status/1326209128084119552

Arwady: Our positivity rate is at 13%. A month ago, we were just at 5%.

That means 13% of the tests being done are coming back positive.

Arwady: Chicago now seeing an average of 1,686 new confirmed cases per day — a 400% increase from a month ago. ...

"We've had days with more than 2,200 cases on a single day."

Over the weekend, we had a day with more than 3,000 cases reported. "We cannot keep up with that volume of cases, period. ... This is an outbreak that is in poor control in every part of the city."

Arwady: There will be a press conference. 17% of the people who have had COVID at any point in Chicago "have COVID right now. That's how many people are infectious right now." And there are 5-7 times as many people who have it as who have had it confirmed via test.

Arwady: That means there are up to 145,000 people who are infectious with COVID right now. "That's why the risk of gathering, unfortunately, is so high, and the highest, really, that we've seen certainly in many months."

Arwady: All summer, we were at 2-3 deaths per day. Now we're up to 7 per day. Over the past month, our death rate has more than doubled, and it's going up.

Arwady: Latinx Chicagoans are still disproportionately impacted, but the increase is seen among people of all races/ethnicities and ages.

Arwady: 776 people hospitalized in Chicago with COVID. Another 192 in ICU and 104 on ventilators.

Arwady: "Now really is the time ... to be getting serious even moreso about COVID."

Arwady: "I was really disappointed to see false messaging around the idea that doctors are writing that patients have COVID because they'll get $2,000. This was something that was being said, including by the president; it is absolutely not based in reality." ...

... When doctors are filling out info, "what they are writing in terms of diagnoses does not turn into money for them."

Arwady: "There is absolutely no falsification going on. ... There just is not. And if people continue to question you about that, I would point you to the fact that we have seen major increases in deaths sort of overall here, with most of that being accounted for by COVID."

Arwady: "As a doctor myself, I am just horrified" people think doctors might be trying to profit off this when they're putting their own safety on the line and working hard.

Arwady: "All the research shows" when people are wearing two-layer cotton masks, the risk of transmission goes down by about 85%.

Arwady: "I consider myself like I have COVID all the time, and that's what we need folks to do."

Arwady: If an employer is telling you to break quarantine, you can report them to 311.

Arwady: "We really are not seeing a lot of spread in schools." They haven't been shown to be a significant source of community spread when they have mitigations.

Under the state's definition, there have been no outbreaks reported in Chicago schools.