The city of Chicago is footing the bill for more than 1,000 hotel rooms to be used as quarantine and isolated recovery sites for coronavirus victims.
Announcing the plan on Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the rooms β which are spread out among five hotels β will mostly be used for recovering patients to free up hospital beds for the more seriously ill. The city has also commandeered the former Metro South Medical Center building, which has 200 available rooms, and struck a deal with the YMCA, which has agreed to take in as many as 400 homeless people, she said.
Lightfoot unveiled the plan after 236 new COVID-19 cases in Chicago were confirmed Monday, bringing the statewide total to 1,285. βIn the absence of federal leadership, we have created a model and plan that can be followed by other cities and towns across the nation,β she said.
