Friday, May 06, 2022
Crain's Chicago Business
by Katherine Davis

Like city health officials predicted earlier this week, Chicago and Cook County’s COVID-19 cases have continued to rise, pushing the region into a medium risk category.

City health officials are now recommending that residents wear masks in public indoor spaces, including on public transit and at Chicago Public Schools. For now, indoor mask-wearing is only a recommendation—not a mandate, says the Chicago Department of Public Health. The agency says individual businesses are free to enact their own mask or vaccination requirements how they see fit. See the latest city and state COVID figures in the charts below.

“We’ve been expecting to reach the medium level for some time now,” Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of CDPH, said in a statement. “It’s not a cause for alarm, since most cases right now are mild and thankfully our COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths remain at or near all-time pandemic lows in Chicago. But it is reason for more caution, and for more care with masking, since more people in Chicago are infected with COVID right now.”

Cook County reported 259 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, a metric that puts the region in a medium-risk category as defined by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

A community is considered low risk by the CDC if there are fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days and fewer than 10 hospitalizations in the same time period. A region is in medium risk if there are more than 200 new cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period and less than 20 hospitalizations a day.

More than 20 hospitalizations puts a community in high risk.

Arwady said Chicago isn’t close to reaching a high community risk level, but that if the city did, a mask mandate would likely return.

As of May 5, Chicago was seeing 754 new cases per day on average, up 16% from the week prior. Hospitalizations were up 24%, averaging about 16 new admissions per day. Chicago is averaging fewer than one death per day.

Last week, suburban Cook County moved into the medium-risk category as the region began reporting 210 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period. DuPage and Lake counties are also considered in the medium-risk category. Around the country, Washington, D.C., and New York also moved into the medium-risk level in recent weeks.

To help curb the spread of COVID, CDPH recommends residents stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, test themselves if they have COVID-like symptoms, and follow all isolation and quarantine requirements.

Chicago hospital ICU bed status

Illinois hospital ICU bed status

Source: Illinois Department of Public Health, Chicago Department of Public Health

Current Chicago vaccine status

As of Nov. 6, probable cases (including positive antigen tests and cases that meet clinical criteria but are not yet confirmed) are being included in the state's confirmed COVID-19 case count.

 

CHICAGO'S DAILY TOTAL VACCINE DOSES ADMINISTERED

 

Chicago's vaccine distribution vs death rate

VACCINE SERIES COMPLETED
(PERCENT OF ZIP CODE POPULATION)

Percent fully vaccinated
= 80%+
= 60% to 80%
= 40% to 60%
= 20% to 40%
= 0 to 20%

Leaflet

CUMULATIVE COVID-19 DEATH RATE
(ZIP CODE)

COVID-19 death rate
= 300+
= 226 to 300
= 151 to 225
= 76 to 150
= 0 to 75

Leaflet

Note: Vaccine data as of Jan. 31. Death rate data per 100,000 is for the week ending Jan. 22. The percentage of fully vaccinated people shows the percentage of people in a ZIP code who have completed the full vaccine series. Population counts are from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2015-2019 five-year estimates. Actual counts may exceed population estimates and lead to >100% coverage, especially in areas with small population sizes. Additionally, a medical provider may report a work address or incorrect home address for the person receiving the vaccination, which may lead to over- or under-estimates of vaccination coverage by geography.??

Source: City of Chicago

 

Current Illinois status

 

ILLINOIS' DAILY TOTAL VACCINE DOSES ADMINISTERED

 

PERCENT OF POPULATION FULLY VACCINATED BY COUNTY

Percent fully vaccinated
= 65.0%+
= 55.1% to 65.0%
= 45.1% to 55.0%
= 35.1% to 45.0%
= 0 to 35.0%

+-

Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO

Note: Vaccine data last updated Feb. 1. Cook County figure combines Suburban Cook data with Chicago data.

Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health

 

ILLINOIS' NEW DAILY CORONAVIRUS CASES

Note: A backlog in data processing resulted in a previous days' data to be included in the results reported on Sept. 4.

 

Illinois' total known coronavirus cases

 

ILLINOIS' DAILY FATAL CORONAVIRUS CASES

 

NUMBER OF DAILY ILLINOIS TESTS

Note: The daily number of persons reported electronically for testing of COVID-19 at IDPH, commercial or hospital laboratories.

 

STATEWIDE SEVEN-DAY AVERAGE PERCENT POSITIVITY RATE FOR COVID-19

 

Current Chicago status

CHICAGO'S TOTAL NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES

 

CHICAGO'S KNOWN CORONAVIRUS CASES

 

Note: Does not include persons with pending COVID-19 tests or persons with COVID-19 related illness who have not been tested.