COVID-19 is on the rise in Chicago with an over 9% positivity rate in one area of the city alone.
The city’s current daily average is 948 coronavirus cases. Chicago Department of Health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said they are back to that high COVID transmission mark because of decreased detection and testing. However, only a few cases have been reported.
Health officials attribute the spike to Thanksgiving. While the number of vaccinated people is improving so is the positivity rate.
However, doctors say there is a reason to be optimistic because the ICU and admissions capacities do not mirror last year’s numbers. Arwady said that when cases went to red last year before the vaccine, the hospital also went to red.
Statewide, the health officials confirmed a 4.3% slightly higher COVID case positivity with the Delta variant as the culprit.
As scientists race to find out more about omicron this week, Illinois became one of the 22 states to detect the new omicron variant. Health officials say that the vaccinated Chicagoan contracted the virus from an out-of-state visitor.
However, some new infections are starting to fall in some hard-hit South states, but the delta variants persist because half of Americans are not fully vaccinated.
With more than 160,000 new cases a day and 100,00 COVID patients hospitalized nationwide, the holiday feels more like a 2020 flashback. In Kansas, state employees have been sent home to work remotely.
The irony is in May, and June things were so good that people are talking about the end game. But, with the rising death counts and reported positive cases comes the bitter realization that COVID-19 will remain a fact of American life for the foreseeable future.
Written by Janet Grace Ortigas
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
WGN-TV: Chicago nears average of 1,000 COVID cases a day amid holiday surge; by Brónagh Tumulty
The New York Times: Covid Deaths Surge Across a Weary America as a Once-Hopeful Summer Ends; by Mitch Smith and Julie Bosman
Featured and Top Image by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan M. Breeden Courtesy of U.S. Pacific Fleet’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of 7C0’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
