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Local leaders will deliver America's communities through this crisis. That's why Bloomberg Philanthropies created the City Hall Coronavirus Daily Update, to elevate the critical information city leaders need to respond to and recover from the challenges at hand.
Please share this email with other local decision makers—they can subscribe here. And please reach out with any suggestions for content you'd like to see or tips on the latest actions from your city.
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Racial disparities: lessons from Chicago’s rapid response team
Chicago was one of the first cities to take note of the startling racial disparities uncovered by the COVID-19 crisis—and for good reason. Of the first 100 Chicagoans to die from COVID-19, 75 were African-American. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her team took quick action, creating one of the nation’s first initiatives dedicated to mitigating the devastating toll the pandemic has caused in communities of color. Since then, leaders across the country have been watching the work in Chicago as they move to address disparities in their own communities. Here’s what Chicago’s Chief Equity Officer, Candace Moore, says the city has already learned.
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DATA TRACKER
Johns Hopkins' confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases as of 8 a.m. EDT on May 27.
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TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES
1,681,418
(up 18,650 from May 26)
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TOTAL DEATHS
98,929
(up 706 from May 26)
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LATEST CITY ACTIONS
A roundup of responses to the coronavirus crisis. See the
COVID-19: Local Action Tracker for more.
CLOSINGS, OPENINGS & SOCIAL DISTANCING
COMMUNICATIONS
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
TESTING & MEDICAL
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveils a $56-million request for proposals to enhance the city’s contact-tracing abilities. The funds will primarily support community organizations, who will need to hire 600 additional contact tracers for the city.
- Los Angeles opens Dodger Stadium as the city’s largest testing site. The facility can conduct 6,000 tests each day.
- New York City is on track to conduct 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day by August 1.
- Fifty days after receiving its first patient, a Boston field hospital in the Seaport convention center stops taking admissions.
GLOBAL OUTLOOK
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Daily Inspiration: The power of poetry
Most of us look forward to the end of meetings. But the people of Newark, N.J., have an entirely different reason to anticipate the end of Mayor Ras Baraka’s daily pandemic updates. That’s because, for the past two months, Mayor Baraka has ended almost every briefing with a poem. “It’s difficult to be happy in these difficult, depressing times,” Baraka explains, “but I love to share poetry that is encouraging, inspiring, that gives people a sense of a new day, new opportunity of how to persevere.” He’s recited the works of Toni Morrison, Tupac Shakur, and even his own poetry. (You may have heard him before—as Baraka’s work was featured on Lauryn Hill’s 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.) His readings have become so popular that he jokes that, on nights he forgets, “I’ll invariably get an email that’s like, ‘Yo, you forgot the poem today, man!’”
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CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
Find more COVID-19 resources for city leaders here. Please suggest new resources to include here.
EVENTS
- Join Bloomberg Philanthropies for a three-part web series that presents challenges, strategies, and opportunities in addressing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second session is today at 1 p.m. EDT. Register here.
- Join What Works Cities for a two-part webinar series on how cities can avoid over-reliance on fines and fees—which harm economically vulnerable communities—as they close budget gaps caused by COVID-19. The first session is Wednesday, June 3 at 3 p.m. EDT. Register here.
RESOURCES
CDC'S LATEST GUIDANCE FOR:
GIFTS & GRANTS
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