NOTE: Watch the live update at 11:00 in the player above.
As Chicago is expected to reach a “high” level of alert by the end of the week, top city health officials will hold an update on COVID-19 on Thursday to discuss the transition and what it means ahead of Remembrance Day weekend.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner, Ph.D. Alison Arvadi, along with other leaders, should discuss “data on the COVID-19 case and vaccination in Chicago, the expected transition from the medium to high level of the COVID community and the impact of this move ahead of Remembrance Day weekends and summer time.”
The address will be held at 11 am in the City Hall. (Watch live in the player above)
The address comes two days after Arvadi revealed that the city, along with Cook County, is likely to reach a high level of community warning, according to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
“I expect Cook County, which includes Chicago, to progress with the update [from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] later this week, “Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Alison Arvadi said on Facebook live on Tuesday.” And so I expect she’ll probably be there by Friday. “
According to the CDC, a district will be considered a “high level community” COVID-19 if it has more than 200 new weekly COVID cases per 100,000 population, and if it has 10 or more new COVID incomes per 100,000 residents per week, or if notices 10% or more of hospital beds used by COVID patients.
As of Friday, every Illinois district in the Chicago area was at the “middle level of the community” COVID-19, according to CDC guidelines, although a few were expected to reach a “high” level in the upcoming update this week. However, eight Illinois counties are already at high risk of COVID: Boone, Lee, Stephenson, Winnebago, Champaign, Ford, Peoria and Tazewell.
Evanston, a northern suburb not far from Chicago, also said that he is currently at a “high” level of the community.
In Cook County, 367.34 new weekly cases per 100,000 population have been reported since Friday, along with 9.8 new cases of COVID per 100,000 inhabitants per week.
Also included in this cluster of hospitalizations (a group of counties that the CDC categorizes together because of health care and proximity patterns) are DuPage, Lake and McHenry counties.
CDC officials say DeCalb, Kane and Kendall counties have 8.1 new admissions per 100,000 population, meaning the three counties could also be in the “high-level community” range by next week.
In the event that the district reaches a “high community level” of COVID, residents are advised to wear masks indoors regardless of COVID vaccination status.
Those residents who are immunocompromised, or who live in a household with those residents, are invited to consider avoiding “unimportant indoor activities” and to consult with their physicians about additional steps they may need to take.
Although city and county health officials have not definitively said that moving to a “high-level community” could provoke a new mask mandate, some have suggested that such a strategy could be applied in the event of a medical burden.
Arvadi said that is not the case for Chicago yet.
Just to be clear, if the county moves to that higher risk with an update later this week, the city of Chicago would be considered at high risk from COVID because our cases are high and we are starting to see some impact on hospitalizations, but we would not return mandates for masks, for example, until we start - unless and until - we start to see a serious impact on our hospitals here in Chicago. “
The change in the alarm status would take place just before the Remembrance Day holiday.
“Gather outside if you can. “It is the easiest and safest thing that significantly reduces the risk of COVID if you hang out with people,” Arvadi said. “But it’s good to get together, just make sure people have vaccines and boosters, outdoors where you can, test for COVID symptoms and be careful.
The city is planning a press conference for Thursday afternoon to discuss further steps as it prepares to enter an elevated alert level.
“Nothing worries me about the state of COVID, even though our numbers, to be clear, remain high,” Arvadi said. “And I guess many of you know someone who recently had COVID, but most of these cases have been mild.”