CHICAGO — As COVID-19 cases increase in Chicago and kids head back to classes, health experts are offering guidance around a new booster vaccine coming this fall.
Chicago is reporting an average daily count of 92 COVID-19 cases this week compared to 75 cases last week, an increase of 23 percent, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard. Both case counts and hospitalizations have been trending upward recently, though they’re still well below early 2022 levels, when the city was seeing nearly 250 cases a day, according to city data.
Dr. Sindhu Aderson, attending physician and central region medical director for Northwestern Immediate Care, said she has seen an uptick in patients testing positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks.
“A month ago I wouldn’t see any patients in a shift and now, I’ll see four or five positive COVID patients in a shift, across possibly like 30 patients a day in a 12-hour shift. It’s a bit of an increase for me,” she said.
The new booster is expected to become available in early October and “should offer protection against” the two predominant variants spreading nationwide, said Dr. Aniruddha Hazra, an adult infectious disease doctor at the University of Chicago.
But you may not be able to get the new booster until “later into the winter,” Hazra said. That’s because the CDC will likely “follow the same rollout of the other booster vaccines where we initially start with the folks that are more vulnerable and then move from there,” he said.
Eighty percent of Americans have not received a booster at all, according to Hazra. He said he is “concerned” for people “walking into the winter season” without a booster shot, especially as flu season approaches.
“If you haven’t received your initial booster that has been available for over almost a year now, you should get that,” he said.
For those who are vulnerable yet are fully vaccinated and boosted, Hazra recommends “just wait for the new booster.”
Neither the XBB1.16 variant nor the newer one, EG.5, is “any more dangerous” than past variants, Aderson said.
“We’re seeing cough, cold, fever, body aches, things that generally we’ve seen. We haven’t seen any huge increase in hospitalizations,” Aderson said.
Aderson also advised people who test positive for COVID-19 to wait 90 days before getting the new booster.
“That would likely be your best bet and give you and likely increase your level of protection,” she said.
In addition to a booster shot, Aderson said she encourages people to get their flu shot and to continue to test for COVID-19 at home.
“We just encourage to just check your symptoms and be a little diligent about that, particularly as we’ve seen cases creep up,” she said.
CPS schools will not longer do COVID-19 testing in schools but will provide at-home rapid tests to students and staff if exposure occurs and before holiday breaks, including Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to Chalkbeat.
The city is hosting back-to-school events this week and next week where students can get vaccinated for COVID-19 and other diseases.
Cases will continue to rise and fall through the year and health professionals will need to adjust as new information is collected, Hazra said.
“COVID is here to stay,” he said.
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