CHICAGO — The city has dropped back to being considered medium risk for COVID-19, health department officials announced Thursday.
Chicago and suburban Cook County moved into the high-risk category in late May as COVID-19 cases spiked yet again, putting a burden on the health care system. But newly reported cases and hospitalizations are dropping, so the city and county have been moved back to the medium-risk category, according to a Chicago Department of Public Health news release.
“We have been trending in the right direction of late with lower case rates and very few hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, so we’re happy to see this,” said health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, according to the news release. “But COVID-19 is still with us. We continue to recommend masking indoors and that the medically vulnerable in particular continue to take precautions to protect themselves from infection. We’re not close to being out of this yet.”
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.
Cook County, including the city of Chicago, are reporting about 221 new cases reported per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to the news release.
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