Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday that the rise in new cases of COVID-19 isn’t as steep as it was which may indicate progress in trying to fight the spread of the disease.

But during his daily virus update, Pritzker also delivered sobering news. He said the virus could pick up steam again next fall and winter and that people need to seriously consider canceling large gatherings planned for this summer.

Chicago expects to receive at least $572 million from the federal stimulus plan, but the massive infusion won’t be enough to cover declining revenues and rising costs tied to the coronavirus — in part, because the city has already spent $100 million.

In a memo released Thursday followed by a conference call with reporters, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her financial team said there is “no way to know what the full extent of the financial impact will be on our residents, our city and our budget” because nobody knows when the pandemic will end.

The state of Illinois is in for a world of fiscal hurt.

In one of the first efforts to quantify the pandemic’s impact on the state’s budget, a group of fiscal experts from the University of Illinois System has estimated the revenue hit to the state over the next four years at between $10 billion to $28 billion.

Nearly three weeks in, small businesses across Illinois are adapting to the governor’s stay-at-home order, but some business owners are worried their businesses won’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order that went into effect March 21. The order shuttered all non-essential business operations. The order limits any group gathering, public or private, of 10 people or more, but it includes specific carve-outs for grocery stores, hardware stores and other essential businesses.

Gig workers and other self-employed, independent contractors in Illinois cannot look forward to getting unemployment checks anytime soon — despite a new federal law intended to help them out financially.

The $2 trillion federal stimulus bill that was approved on March 27 cleared the way to expand jobless benefits to many workers who had not previously been eligible, including the vast ranks of drivers for Uber, Lyft and other ride-share apps.

Nearly 500,000 people have filed initial unemployment claims in Illinois in the last three weeks, including more than 200,00 people last week.

In Illinois, 200,940 people filed for unemployment last week, a 13% increase of 22,519 claims from the previous week and a record for the Land of Lincoln. That’s according to preliminary data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Chicago’s $100 million loan program for small businesses is aimed at aiding owners and their employees, but it’s having a meager impact so far.

The city’s Small Business Resiliency Fund has been swamped with about 7,000 applications since starting to receive them on March 31, and has approved just 10 applications as of yesterday evening, a city spokesperson said.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart does not have to grant the immediate mass release of people from the county jail to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the facility, but U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly did order Dart to take actions to improve conditions in the jail.

Civil rights lawyers had filed a lawsuit seeking improved conditions and releases in the face of the spreading outbreak. As of Wednesday night, Dart’s office reported 401 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among detainees and sheriff’s staff.

Officials today began to reveal how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Chicago’s city government, saying the city, the Board of Education and the Chicago Transit Authority collectively are getting an estimated $1.56 billion in emergency aid. But they left unanswered major questions about how the city will replace lost revenue.

In a conference call, Major Lori Lightfoot continued as she has in recent weeks to express general confidence in the city’s financial situation and went beyond that, vowing that no public employees will be laid off and that the city’s full pension payment will be made.

To prepare for a surge in COVID-19 deaths, Cook County officials on Thursday opened a refrigerated warehouse to store thousands of additional bodies.

The 66,000-square foot refrigerated “surge center” can hold more than 2,000 bodies, and is located about five miles from the county’s Near West Side morgue, according to a statement from the office of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Springfield residents not in compliance with the state’s stay-at-home order could soon be slapped with a fine of up to $500.

The potential penalty is the result of an emergency order signed by Mayor Jim Langfelder on Wednesday that seeks to beef up the city’s enforcement of the state order, which prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people and calls for at least six feet of social distancing when out in public.