Cook County has ‘big’ transmission of COVID and should hide indoors: CDC – NBC Chicago

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Cook County is now experiencing “substantial” transmission of COVID-19 in the community, according to data updated by federal health officials Thursday, meaning that fully vaccinated people should resume wearing masks indoors under new guidelines issued earlier. from this week.

Cook County was added to the list of counties seeing “substantial” transition on Thursday. Other Chicago area counties in the same category include: Will, DuPage, Kendall, McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, DeKalb, LaSalle, and Grundy.

You can find a map of each US county and its transmission level here الإرسال

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors again in areas of the United States with significant or high transmission of COVID-19.

The new guidance is a reversal of previous recommendations that said people who have been fully vaccinated can remove masks in most places.

Many Illinois counties fall into a rating of either “large,” painted orange, or “high,” indicated in red. Some counties—most concentrated in the northern and central regions of the state—are experiencing “moderate” transmission, indicated in yellow, while only two are colored blue for “low” transmission, with internal masking recommendations not applying to these two categories.

The agency uses two metrics to group US counties into the four levels of community transmission: the number of new cases per 100,000 residents and the proportion of positive COVID-19 tests over the past week.

If a county reports 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period or the positivity rate is 8% to 10%, it falls into the “substantial transmission” category, whereas those reporting 100 or more cases per 100,000 or have A positive rate of at least 10% is categorized as ‘high transmission’. These are the two groups that the CDC recommends wearing a mask.

Chicago’s chief medical officer said earlier Thursday that the city may move into the “large” transmission category very soon, noting that an average of 200 new cases per day indicates that shift.

“The average infection rate is 185 cases per day and it’s increasing, I expect we will move very soon into this high risk category,” Chicago Public Health Commissioner Alison Aroudi said in a Facebook Live Thursday.

Chicago could make official announcements about more COVID precautions next week, Arwady continued, blaming the delta variable for the increased number of cases in Chicago and across Illinois.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday that more than 97% of people who have contracted the Delta virus are not immunized, as she encouraged residents to get vaccinated. “Without that protection, you’d be playing Russian roulette,” Lightfoot said. “This alternative is real. It’s killer.”

The CDC also said Tuesday that fully vaccinated people “may choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk of severe disease, or if A member of their family was not immune.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health said Tuesday it is “fully adopting” the updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

The IDPH also said that the state will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new recommendations for K-12 schools, recommending blanket disguise indoors among teachers, staff, students and school visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

“While data continues to show the efficacy of the three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized in the United States, including against the delta variant, we continue to see the virus spread rapidly among the unvaccinated,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezeki said in a statement. She pointed out that the cases of the emerging coronavirus and hospitalizations are constantly increasing, especially among those who are not immune to the virus.

“The risk is greater for everyone if we do not stop the ongoing spread of the virus and the delta variant,” Ezeki said. “We know masking can help prevent transmission of COVID-19 and its variants. Until more people are vaccinated, we join the CDC in recommending that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask indoors in areas of transmission. The infection is large and high, and in K-12 schools.”

IDPH cited CDC data on the delta variant which shows the variant is much more contagious than other strains and spreads more than twice as easily from person to person.

Ezike and IDPH have continued to encourage Illinois residents to get vaccinated.

The International Institute of Public Health said, “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant causes some superinfection with vaccines, but nonetheless, most superinfections are mild, and vaccines prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death.”

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