CHICAGO — Another 28 Illinoisans were reported dead from coronavirus in the past day, and 3,790 more cases were found throughout the state.
For weeks, officials have warned daily cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates are on the rise in Chicago and throughout Illinois. Officials have said they fear the city and state are in the beginning of a third wave of COVID-19.
Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said Thursday there are no signs the city’s rise in cases and hospital visits will slow anytime soon.
Part of what’s fueling the surge is new variants, Arwady said during a livestream. She said more variants of COVID-19 are being found in Chicago — in particular, the more infectious and deadly B.1.1.7 variant found in the United Kingdom.
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Current vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing serious illness and death among those more common variants, but the vast majority of Chicagoans have not yet been fully vaccinated.
City contact tracers have also found people newly diagnosed with COVID-19 are reporting having been in contact with far more people recently, “because people are doing more high-risk gathering” in private and public settings, Arwady said.
“We are on a similar trajectory here” to Michigan, which is already seeing figures almost as bad as it did during its own second surge, Arwady said.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 across and Chicago’s and Illinois’ positivity rates are also rising. Deaths remain low, with an average of three per day in Chicago; but officials have previously said those losses lag behind other figures.
“The question is going to be: With vaccine in the mix, if we can get a lot of the highest-risk folks vaccinated quickly, will we see the impact on these severe outcomes?” Arwady said.
Arwady said, as of now, she does not have a “major concern” about overwhelming the health care system and seeing a “huge number of deaths … but the increase in cases really has the potential to cause significant illness, hospitalizations and potentially some increase in death again.”
People should avoid gathering, especially if all people at the gathering are not fully vaccinated or if there will be people present who would be at increased risk from coronavirus, Arwady said.
At the same time, the city has maintained its loosened rules on businesses, allowing for more people to gather at restaurants and bars. Chicago also recently loosening restrictions on outdoor activities in a bid to get people to spend more time outside, where it’s harder for the virus to spread.
On Wednesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she does anticipate the city having festivals this summer. But recently, the mayor also said the city won’t see “anything more significant in the reopening front” until the number of new cases stabilizes and falls.
Cook County is considering pulling back on indoor dining at bars and restaurants due to the surge.
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Reopening is also stalled on a statewide level. Though more than 70 percent of Illinoisans 65 and older have now gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the rising number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 means the state can’t move into its “Bridge Phase.”
“I’ve been to this movie before and seen the rising positivity rates, and I’m concerned about it,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference in March.
Officials do have hope a third wave can still be averted. They’ve said people should keep taking steps to protect themselves and others, like wearing a mask and staying socially distant.
The rise in new cases is being seen among people 18-29 and 30-39, particularly in the Lincoln Park, Old Town and Portage Park neighborhoods. Older people, who have had greater access to vaccines so far and who are most at risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, are not seeing significant upticks. The city is targeting its warnings at younger people.
Another 28 Illinoisans were reported dead from coronavirus during the past day. The most recent victims included seven people from Cook County, including a man in his 30s and a man in his 50s.
At least 21,423 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,279 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
The state reported 3,790 confirmed cases over the past day. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,265,457.
Across Illinois, an average of 107,302 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average. Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 6,552,982 vaccine doses of the 8,423,845 provided to them.
About 1,288,133 million doses of vaccine have been administered to Chicagoans, and 1,466,697 doses have been administered in the city overall.
Illinoisans outside Chicago who are 16 and older will be eligible for vaccinations Monday as more doses are coming into the state. Pritzker has also detailed how the state could reopen in coming weeks — if more people are vaccinated and COVID-19 cases and deaths don’t surge.
Chicago will open vaccine eligibility to all adults starting April 19.
More doses are coming to the city, too. April and May will be especially big for vaccinations, Arwady said. Chicago is doing 1C vaccinations, which includes people 16 and older with qualifying underlying conditions and essential workers.
People are still at risk from COVID-19 and will have to continue taking precautions for much of 2021, officials have said. People should keep wearing a mask, staying socially distant, washing their hands frequently, not gathering, not traveling and not having people into their home, experts have said.
Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate rose to 4.1 percent Wednesday with 80,628 tests reported. It was at 3.9 percent Tuesday. The figure represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests.
Illinois’ seven-day test positivity, which measures the percentage of tests that were positive, rose to 4.6 percent Wednesday. It was at 4.5 percent Tuesday.
As of Tuesday night, 1,710 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 353 people in the ICU and 142 people using ventilators.
In Chicago, six deaths and 790 confirmed cases were reported since Tuesday. There have been at least 5,049 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago and 260,647 confirmed cases, according to state data.
The city is seeing an average of three deaths per day, down from an average of four per day the week prior. That’s the lowest that figure has been in months, Arwady previously said. During the peak of the second, fall surge in the pandemic, nearly 25 people per day were being killed by COVID-19; during the peak of the first surge in the spring, nearly 50 people were killed per day.
An average of 606 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 21 percent increase from the previous week. At the same time, testing has risen by 9 percent since a week ago.
The city’s seven-day positivity rate is at 5.2 percent, up from 4.4 percent the week before.
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