- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Suburban Cook County is now considered medium risk for COVID-19 transmission, its health department announced Friday.
The change is due to the daily number of new COVID-19 cases going up, according to a Cook County Department of Public Health news release. Chicago, the suburbs and the rest of the state have seen daily cases go up as more contagious variants of Omicron have spread.
As of Thursday, suburban Cook County is reporting 210 cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days. The CDC considers a county medium risk for transmission if it sees more than 200 cases per 100,000 residents.
The health department’s recommendations:
- People should wear a mask indoors to protect those most at risk from COVID-19, including people older than 50, people with underlying medical conditions and those who are immunocompromised.
- People should socialize outdoors if possible and avoid settings that have poor ventilation.
- People who get diagnosed with COVID-19 should contact their doctor immediately to get treatment.
- People should get vaccinated and boosted against the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluates a county as low, medium or high risk depending on the number of new COVID-19 cases in that area, as well as what toll COVID-19 is placing on the area’s health care system.
Vaccinations:
• In Illinois, about 8.2 million people — or 64.7 percent of the state’s 12.7 million people — are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to state data.
• Across the state, 15,913 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average.
• Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 21,871,464 vaccine doses of the 26,692,545 provided to them.
• City data shows more than 1.8 million Chicagoans — or 69 percent of all residents — are fully vaccinated, and 77.5 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot.
Everyone 5 and older is eligible to get vaccinated in Chicago.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free and do not require insurance. Anyone can call the city’s coronavirus hotline at 312-746-4835 to get more information on how and where to get vaccinated in their community.
The numbers:
• Since Wednesday, 30 Illinoisans were reported dead from COVID-19.
• At least 33,614 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 4,284 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
• The state reported 13,982 cases since Wednesday. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 3,138,682.
• The state is reporting an average of 193 confirmed cases per day per 100,000 people. That average was at 173 on Wednesday.
• As of Thursday night, 75 people with COVID-19 were in the ICU and 32 people with COVID-19 were using ventilators in Illinois.
• In Chicago, 11 deaths were reported since Wednesday. There have been at least 7,376 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago. The city is seeing an average of less than one death per day, down 50 percent from last week.
• Chicago has had 2,809 confirmed cases reported since Wednesday. It’s had a total of 581,944 confirmed cases. An average of 647 confirmed cases are being reported per day, up 32 percent from a week ago.
• Testing in Chicago is up 121 percent from a week ago.
• Chicago’s positivity rate was at 3.7 percent, down from 5.9 percent a week ago.
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