Mayor Lori Lightfoot will have a press conference at 1 p.m. She'll talk about how the city is trying to help communities of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by coronavirus.

I'll live tweet it. Follow for updates.

Background here: https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/04/05/70-of-the-people-dying-from-coronavirus-in-chicago-are-black-report/

Lightfoot speaking. "This past weekend, the Department of Streets and Sanitation lost an employee from complications related to COVID-19. This individual was a dedicated Chicagoan who served our city for 27 years." They're not naming him/her out of respect for the family.

Lightfoot: Each life lost "gives us a moment of reflection."

Lightfoot: "Please remember to be safe. This disease is highly contagious and, unfortunately, we now know over and over again, it is deadly."

Lightfoot: "Our immediate efforts are focused on Austin, Auburn Gresham and South Shore — communities chosen because they're experiencing some of the worst impacts of this crisis and show the clearest need for immediate action."

Lightfoot: Task forces with outreach workers will focus on four things: education, prevention, testing & treatment and support services.

Lightfoot: "In partnership with community leaders, we have sharpened our message and guidance and are delivering informational fliers and postcard tailored to essential workers, residents over 60 and those with underlying conditions." The city has "supported" distribution of ...

masks in those areas.
"... This is not a one-and-done project. ... These measures specifically allow us to quickly identify gaps and solve problems." It's happened in past week.

Lightfoot: The team is led by Chief Equity Officer Candace Moore and Deputy Mayor for Education Sybil Madison.

Lightfoot: Some communities are facing "a different reality when it comes to COVID-19." "... This team has partnered with three anchor community organizations to help construct a leadership network that will be at the heart of delivering resources and information ... ."

Lightfoot: This week and next, "We'll be engaging with residents via three tele-town halls customized to share relevant information and have frank discussions about what's needed to protect residents and flatten the curve in these communities, just as we've done overall in ...

"the city of Chicago."
They'll focus on making solutions to food insecurity. The Emergency Operations Center teams are working on how to address needed food solutions on the South Side. An Auburn Gresham group flagged food insecurity as a "significant community need."

Lightfoot: They will also focus on increasing testing capacity and access to health care.

Lightfoot: "We may all be experiencing this crisis, but we aren't experiencing this crisis in the same way. ... This disease has spread more heavily to some communities. ... The health disparities that resulted in high rates of [underlying health conditions] ... are the very ...

"conditions that this ... virus ruthlessly attacks. The maps we saw revealed more than just cases of COVID-19. They illuminated the broken and, yes, racist" systems that have forced communities of color to live in poverty. "The very issues that place incredible burdens on our ...

"families before this crisis have only grown exponentially more during this crisis. And thrust into high relief how the issues of equity and opportunity are truly matters of life and death. We cannot simply stand for that here in Chicago. We cannot sit idly by while this ...

"disease devastated certain parts of our communities disproportionately more than others. These trends didn't start overnight and they won't end overnight or by the close of this crisis, but they must end."

Lightfoot: "I'm proud of the work we've done. But I know, as everyone does, that we have so much more to do."
City is "doubling down" in fight to end poverty and end racial inequality.

Lightfoot: "These are tough times, but we are going to get through this because of all the hardwork and the partnerships that we have across the city. Because people all over the city love their neighborhood, love their neighbors. If we treat our neighbors like ourselves, we ...

"will be better for it on the other side of this pandemic."

Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, speaking. She said 2 weeks ago they first shared info on race. You can see that data on http://Chicago.gov/coronavirus .

Arwady: Chicago is 30% Black, 29% Latinx/Hispanic, 33% White, 7% Asian. But 46% of confirmed cases are in Black chicagoans, 24% are in Latinx/Hispanic, 21% are in White and 4% are in Asians.

Arwady: Chicago is now at 500 deaths among residents.

Twenty of the 500 deaths are still under investigation related to race/ethnicity. But among the remaining: 287 are among Black Chicagoans, 83 are Latinx/Hispanic, 82 are White, 23 are Asian and 5 are "other."

Arwady: 68% of deaths remain in the Black community, 17% in the Latinx community, 17% in the White community.
"The death rate remains four times as high in the Black community as it does in the White community, and we have seen an increase, particularly in Latinx and ...

"Hispanic communities since we reported two weeks ago."

Moore: Racial Equity Rapid Response Team is a collaborative effort between community organizations, health care groups, the city, etc.

Moore: "No data conveys the need more than the mortality instances that Dr. Arwady shared with us. This data shows us that in no uncertain terms, the most devastating impact of this crisis, lives lost, lands much heavier in certain communities."

Moore: "The work we are building is about bringing a hyperlocal public health strategy to these communities."

Moore: "We've already been working to diversify our methods and messages of our communications." Again, they're having town halls this week.

Moore: "We are working to ensure residents have the resources and information needed to protect themselves and their families."

Moore: Reporting has been an issue in the Latinx/Hispanic community, but they're working on it, as is the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Moore: "We are fortunate to also have some amazing partnerships that have formed to take our work farther than the city could do alone." They're working with AARP for Racial Equity COVID-19 Communications Strategy targeting 50+yo Black and Latino people and their families.

Ayesha Jaco from West Side United speaking. "The work of the newly formed Racial Equity Rapid Response Team is central to West Side United's mission, which identifies structural racism and historical disinvestment in Black and Brown communities as pillars" of inequities.

Jaco: West Side United is working to ensure targeted West and South side communities have structures in place that provide screening, testing, education and communications.

Jaco: "We are working to continue to combine these capacities to customize a citywide community-based command center approach."

Jaco: "We know that it takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to heal our city." They need the leadership of the mayor, hospitals and community leaders.

Darnell Shields of Austin Coming Together is speaking. "... The importance of addressing the disparities that exist in Chicago is paramount to us. Austin and most of the West Side is highly populated by African Americans, and it is also a well-known fact that the social ...

"determinants of good health are not in our favor. The number of pre-existing health conditions that plague the Black community as a result of extreme poverty, systemic racism, make us more susceptible to the dangers of COVID-19. It is for this reason Austin Coming Together is...

"proud to serve as a community lead" for this work.

Shields: "One of our first orders of business is to work with the Mayor's Office to organize a virtual town hall Saturday and other activities leading up to that to help inform our residents ... ."

Here's where/when you can participate in the town halls in Austin, South Shore and Auburn Gresham.

Carlos Nelson of the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corporation is speaking. The group "is poised and organized to continue bringing racial equity rapid response to the residents in our community."

Nelson: "To date, in addition to ongoing wellness checks and door-to-door deliveries of food and essentials to seniors and other vulnerable populations, [the group] has provided $75,000 in emergency rental and mortgage assistance to families and individuals" who have lost wages.

Nelson: Data shows there's a demand for nearly $300,000 more among their families.

Nelson: "This crisis has brought community leaders and partners together in a cohesive and unified voice. One message: to save and sustain lives in Auburn Gresham and our South Side community."

Nelson: "When this pandemic is over, it is imperative that we as a greater community continue to fight ... other longstanding epidemics — like poverty, like food instability, like little access to health care and other social determinants of health — with the same vigor we're ...

"fighting right now."

Anton Seals Jr. of South Shore Works is speaking. The group is advocating for expansion of testing and has partnered to distribute PPE like masks and gloves.

Seals: The third thing they're advocating is the expansion of the racial equity team. "The opportunity for us to further dive into what has been a longstanding — the huge racial and social disconnection around the systematic approaches — we are thinking there needs to be an ...