COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life in south, southwest suburbs in 2020

On March 11, when Illinois had reported 25 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, dozens of people filed into the Robbins Community Center, greeted by a woman who gave each a quick squirt from a bottle of hand sanitizer. Elbow bumps replaced handshakes, and inside the building’s gymnasium the mood felt like a pep rally, with about 60 Robbins residents being told “we will beat coronavirus, we won’t let coronavirus beat us.”