Most of the suburbs of Chicago have returned to the “medium” COVID-19 risk.City expected to continue – Chicago Tribune

The risk of transmitting COVID-19 in Cook County, a suburb of Chicago, and elsewhere in the Chicago area has jumped to “medium” levels under the latest national guidelines, officials said Friday.

As of Thursday, the suburban Cook County recorded more than 200 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, taking the area to the next level of coronavirus infection under the latest metrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I tilted it. Lake and DuPage counties have also returned to medium risk. As of Friday, the state-wide case rate was 193 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Chicago’s top public health officials said Friday that Chicago expects to move to medium risk soon.

As the incidents increased again, the Chicago Public Schools also renewed the requirement to wear masks on buildings, although the district abolished universal masks earlier this year under legal pressure.

As a result of the updated COVID-19 designation, the Cook County Public Health Service has avoided indoor masking, pre-banquet testing, taking booster shots, socializing outdoors if possible, and avoiding poorly ventilated areas. Recommended, but not required.

“These recommendations are not new, but are emphasized to protect our community from further increases in COVID,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior health officer at the county, in a statement. “Since hospitalizations are still low, we now want to contain further spread.”

In Chicago, Public Health Service Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwadi said in a statement on Friday that the city said, “COVID-19 levels have remained low and cases have gradually increased over the past few weeks, but soon. Cross over to “medium”. When we do so, I see it as a yellow light of attention. Thankfully, it’s far from reaching the “high” COVID-19 level, but people need to be more careful. “

“We are confident that there is little need to set vaccine requirements at the city level at this time, as our healthcare system remains good,” Arwady said the day before. She said the city is “transparent” and recommends masks in an environment with unvaccinated people if the metrics reach “medium” levels of diffusion.

Earlier this month, Arwady also said that the CPS would reinstate Mask’s obligations if the city met the “medium” risk level. When the risk level jumps to “high”, the mask requirements for most indoor public facilities come back with vaccine requirements for places such as restaurants and bars.

Chicago is currently on the “low” send designation, but the metric has been rising over the weeks.

Chicago has recorded an average of 151 COVID-19 cases and 2.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week, with 2.5% of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. ..

In the suburbs of Cook County, there were an average of 214 cases and 4.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week, with 3.1% of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.

Across the state, on Friday health officials announced 5,955 new confirmed and possible cases of COVID-19.

Last week, the state recorded an average of 3,521 cases per day, up from 2,793 per day last week. The average number of cases per week until March 18 decreased to 1,067 per day and then began to increase slowly again.

Hospitalizations are also increasing, but at a slower pace than in the early days of the pandemic.

As of Thursday night, Illinois hospitals had 732 COVID-19 patients, up from 613 a week ago. After reaching a record of 7,380 at the height of the Omicron surge in January, hospital patient numbers had dropped to 434 across the state by April 2.

Governor JB Pritzkar, who lifted the state-wide mask mandate on February 28 and lifted the public transport mandate last week, said he was closely watching the increase in the incident.

“I don’t want to see more incidents,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Chicago on Friday. “But this stealth omicron, the variant we’re currently using, doesn’t seem to send a percentage of what its predecessor did to the hospital. That’s good, but I want to see someone go to the hospital. No …. The most important thing is to have our healthcare system available. “

Pritzker recently said he had received a second boost to the COVID-19 vaccine and advised others eligible to do the same to start vaccination if they had not yet been vaccinated. rice field.

CDC Latest indicators To assess the COVID-19 risk of the community, look at the combination of case count, inpatient, and inpatient bed count. Areas with more than 200 cases per 100,000 residents in the past week are automatically considered “medium” or higher risk.

The Chicago Tribune’s Tracy Wurts contributed.

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