Illinois Coronavirus: Sub-Variant Could Stall Omicron’s Push Decline

SPRINGFIELD – The surge of Omicron in Illinois has nosedived again with steep declines in new cases and the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals – but a new subvariant could slow the speed of this descent.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday reported 6,664 more cases of COVID-19 — less than half the number of new infections recorded three days earlier and the lowest daily case count in seven weeks.

Hospitalizations, occupied intensive care beds and the number of deaths from the virus have also fallen further.

But this encouraging news was tempered somewhat by a report of the first case of the Omicron subvariant in Illinois. The infected person, from Chicago, was tested for COVID-19 on January 18, according to researchers from Northwestern Medicine.

The sub-variant, known as the “stealth Omicron” or BA.2, spread to parts of Europe and Asia. The World Health Organization has not determined this to be a variant of concern, a designation that may result in increased transmissibility, greater severity of cases, resistance to treatment, or other troubling developments. .

But it remains to be seen whether the Omicron sub-variant will simply prove the same. Health experts are already warning of a potential stall in Illinois emerging from the outbreak.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times File

“If BA.2 follows the same pattern in the US as seen in countries like the UK, Denmark or India, we could see a slowdown in the current decline in new cases,” Ramon Lorenzo said. -Redondo, director of bioinformatics at Northwestern Medicine. Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution, said in a statement. “In this case, the number of new cases could stabilize for a while before starting to fall again.

Texas, New York and Wisconsin have already detected the subvariant, so it’s no surprise it’s also been found in Illinois, said Dr. Michael Angarone, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Northwestern Medicine Infectious Diseases.

Angarone said it’s too early to tell if this subvariant will be significantly different from the Omicron variant that has filled hospital beds across the state over the past month.

“We just don’t know about these variants and how they’re going to behave differently than the previous variant,” Angarone said. “As for the sub-variants, we just don’t know how they’re going to act until we have more cases of them.”

News of the Omicron sub-variant came on a day of promising coronavirus news.

Just three and a half weeks ago, Illinois reported its highest COVID-19 case count on record at 44,089, followed a week later by a record coronavirus hospitalizations of 7,380.

But as of Sunday evening, the number of hospital beds and intensive care units occupied by COVID-19 patients in Illinois was at its lowest level since mid-December.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times File

State public health officials reported 3,870 COVID-19 patients in hospital beds, down 1,300 from a week earlier. Patients with the virus in intensive care units across the state fell to 684, the lowest level since Dec. 10 and nearly 470 fewer than three weeks ago.

Hospitals are welcoming the relief, having borne the brunt of the fifth and worst surge of the pandemic to date.

“One of the other major stressors that has kind of been taken off the plate for many hospitals and hospital systems is that not only are we not seeing as many patients being admitted, but also a lot of employees who were infected and had to retire from work – we don’t see that either,” Angarone said.

Deaths also fell to lower double digits after exceeding 100 for nine of the previous 12 days.

28 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Monday, down sharply from 129 reported two days earlier and the lowest daily tally since early January.

As of Monday, 75% of Illinois’ population ages 18 and older were fully immunized and 85% had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

For help finding a vaccine or to arrange a free home vaccination appointment, visit chicago.gov/covidvax or call (312) 746-4835.