Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

Illinois public health officials reported Sunday they had logged 1,604 newly diagnosed cases and 14 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 287,930 known cases and 8,601 deaths.

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Abi Carbajal stands in the kindergarten line with her daughter Liani Uribe, 7, who is entering the second grade and Abi’s little brother, Jacob Rebollar, 5, who begins kindergarten on the sidewalk outside of Newton Bateman Elementary School in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood on Sept. 2, 2020.

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Erika Cardoza, 22, Gustavo Martinez, 22, and their son Eli, 3, get a free COVID-19 test provided by Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) at “I Grow Chicago” in West Englewood on Aug. 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and labor leaders whose members could bear the brunt of layoffs or furloughs as the city tries to close a yawning 2021 budget deficit called on the state’s Congressional delegation this week to work toward passage of a federal aid package that could forestall the deepest cuts.

It’s not likely the letter they sent to legislators from Illinois will have much impact on the partisan Washington D.C. impasse over aid to cities and other units of government hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on key metrics in your area

COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

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Illinois coronavirus graphs: The latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more

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A news ticker in Chicago’s Loop announces new COVID-19 cases on Sept. 3, 2020.

Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:

7:19 a.m.: Pandemic-related canning supply shortages real in Illinois, but there are solutions

The pandemic-related trend that saw more people trying their hand at home gardening this summer may have led to a bountiful harvest of fresh produce, but it’s left some scrambling to find canning supplies as they try to save the last of their colorful crops to enjoy during the grayer days of winter.

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A pigeon overlooks a quiet East Randolph Street in Chicago’s Loop on Sept. 3, 2020.

“Canning supplies are in short supply everywhere,” said Brandon Pennell, manager at Midland Farm & Home Supply in Jacksonville. “We have people ask for lids all the time. … Everybody grew a garden this year.”

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The columns of Wrigley Square in Millennium Park are lit in red on Sept. 1, 2020. Buildings around Chicago were lit in red to dramatize the hemorrhaging going on in America’s live events industry.

When canning, clean Mason jars free of nicks can be reused. But seals and lids should to be new to provide the seal necessary to keep food safe for longer-term storage. It’s also not a good idea to buy more than you expect to need for one year, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, meaning stockpiling doesn’t work.

Read more here. —Angela Bauer, Jacksonville Journal-Courier

6 a.m.: For Chicago’s theaters, an opportunity for more racial diversity also comes at a time of crisis

For Jackie Taylor, the founder of the Black Ensemble Theater and a woman who has seen calls for greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the Chicago theater come and go over the years, this moment seems different.

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More than 100 school buses remain parked and unused on the Illinois School Bus Co. lot in Crestwood on Sept. 3, 2020.

“This has been a fight for more than 400 years,” Taylor said. “So it’s not exactly new. And we had all the demonstrations and the marches and the same conversations in the 1960s. But there has been a change in the wind. And I think, in terms of things clicking in people’s minds about racism, it is suddenly now happening on a deeper level.”

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Sink use is separated in a student bathroom at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood on Sept. 2, 2020.

So what’s different?

“Young people,” Taylor said. “Young people, including young white people, are saying they do not want a world of white privilege, but one of inclusion. They are bringing a different essence to the fight. So there is new hope.”

That hope, though, is tempered by a contemporaneous pandemic that has shuttered Chicago theaters, possibly for many months to come, and turned the later half of 2020 into a struggle for financial survival both on institutional and individual levels. Jobs have disappeared. The talent that makes up the sector is being forced to seek employment elsewhere, prompting worries over when, or if, they will return. Governmental help of adequate scope has not been forthcoming and many hands from many sectors are outstretched.

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Hostess Camille Webb, right, leads customer Michael Harris to the outdoor sitting at Ja’ Grill Hyde Park restaurant on Aug. 25, 2020. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced new statewide rules requiring patrons in restaurants and bars to wear masks while interacting with waitstaff and other employees.

Read more here. —Chris Jones

In case you missed it

Here are five stories from last week related to COVID-19:

Drive-thru flu shots? Vaccine vouchers? How getting the flu shot in Illinois will be different this year.

How COVID-19 decimated Illinois nursing homes, exposed government flaws and left families in frustrating limbo.

Youth hockey in Illinois has been frozen by COVID-19 restrictions. Some parents say it’s time for a thaw.

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Ian Van Cleaf, assistant principal, takes the temperature of a student arriving on the first day of school at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood before Anna can enter the school on Sept. 2, 2020.

Chicago-area parents rally to get kids back in school, and some districts are making it happen.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, labor leaders call for congressional help on Chicago’s coronavirus revenue hole.

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