S surgeon general recently named Chicago as one of the emerging hot spots in the cove.

It 19 pandemic.

And here to give us an update on one of our country's great cities is Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Thanks so much for joining us Mayor Lightfoot and tell us how your city of Chicago was doing right now.

You know, I think we're doing pretty well under the circumstances.

Thes air, clearly unprecedented times for all of us.

But we've really been focused on preparation and particularly around strengthening our health care system, our first responders and the people in our city who are most vulnerable.

So we're moving on all of those tracks simultaneously, and I think we're doing well.

We've asked our hospitals to stretch themselves so that they could be prepared for the surgeon patients.

We are making sure that we're providing all kinds of support for our healthcare workers on.

And of course, our front line first responders are critically important as well.

We've got a major announcement today about ah hotel.

That's gonna be respite just for our first responders.

And then we've been doing double duty to make sure that the people that are most vulnerable are seniors.

People with underlying medical conditions and our homeless are taken care of, and then we know that our economy is taking a hit.

So we've taken some very specific steps to support small businesses and their employees.

You're anticipating that surge.

How's the social distancing going in your city?

Well, we for the most part people have been compliant.

But I had to take some very specific steps to shut down our iconic lakefront and some internal walkways and trails because we weren't seeing the kind of compliance that we needed.

Since I took those steps last week, we've seen great compliance across the city.

We've launched a stay home, save lives campaign toe, emphasize the people that by staying home, they truly are making a difference.

You know this, but this virus is like none other in our lifetime.

What one individual does has an impact on many, many others.

So that interconnectedness is something that we're playing on but talking about how we have to be in this together, and we have to think not just about our own individual needs, but the needs of a city and really a nation and staying home is the safest way to protect people's lives.

And speaking of that, public schools, like in so many areas in Chicago there are closed until at least April 21st.

Talk about the effort Chicago schools are taking towards that remote learning that so many parents and students were trying to figure out right now.

Well, it's it's a it's a big challenge for us because we weren't really set up for remote learning.

But I think our public school system and our leaders have done a tremendous job.

We've made a lot of progress in public education in Chicago over the recent years.

We want to make sure that that progress continues, so we've done a lot of our teachers have really converted their curriculum for remote learning.

We're getting thousands and tens of thousands of devices in the hands of our students so that they can me connected.

But we also need the service providers toe help us bridge the digital divide.

That still is a problem in many of our communities.

But I'm excited that our students will continue their arc of learning even while the physical schools are closed.

We're still open for business and educating our Children.

That's fantastic.

And you mentioned closing the lakefront in the parks.

Well, there are a number of humorous means online with a stern image of you Photoshopped into various photos of Chicago Parks closures.

You're laughing.

I was gonna ask you what you make of some of these means.

You know, I got to tell you, I love it.

I want it shows the incredible creativity of people in our city.

But look, this is a really difficult, intense time and the fact that people are hungry for some kind of release.

We launched a series of videos ourselves yesterday.

We've gotten literally hundreds of thousands of views on social media.

People wanna have something that they can rally around.

Hope Hope really does have a healing power.

So I'm excited about him.

I'm having fun with them.

You're leading the way.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Thank you so much for your time and for your leadership.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel.

If you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel.

And don't forget to download the ABC News after breaking news alerts.