BREAKING: Illinois Covid Cases Continue Surge, Hospitals Overwhelmed; Shutdowns To Continue?
BREAKING NEWS: Illinois covid numbers have ripped up another 20 percent over the past week, omicron is surging around Chicago, statewide healthcare officials are pleading people to be cautious as hospitals are overwhelmed, and events cancellations continue as the possibility of another statewide shutdown looms.
Health officials in Cook County, which encompasses Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, are warning that “suspected cases of the omicron variant are rising… and are likely to escalate quickly,” the health department said in a press release. “CCDPH is issuing Increased mitigation practices for individuals and businesses. CCDPH urges suburban Cook County residents to follow them to slow the spread of COVID-19. We must continue to work together to keep each other healthy and to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system.”
Illinois covid numbers continued to spike, up nearly 20 percent over the past week, with 59,312 new cases, 316 new deaths and a new total of 1,944,056 casesand 27,117 total deaths from covid since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Illinois covid numbers, including of the omicron variant, have been soaring over the past month. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Department of Public Health)
“This is setting up to be a very deadly COVID Christmas and New Years,” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Friday in a video press conference. “Hospital bed availability has reached a critically low level, demand on resources is high and the wait times in local emergency departments are very long.
“This virus is devastating the economic stability of our counties with the same intensity we have witnessed in human victims and the toll it has taken on families all across the region,” she said. “Here in the northern Illinois Rockford region, hospitals are seeing COVID admissions rise at an alarming rate.”
Fewer than 10 percent of the state’s intensive care unit beds are now available due to the spike, with 772 patients in intensive care unit beds statewide, the highest number since Jan. 6, 2021. Almost 400 of those patients are on ventilators.
Illinois covid cases continue to see new record spikes in December.
Locally, Quad-Cities heathcare officials are pleading with people to exercise caution, especially going into the holidays, to slow to incredibly quick spread over the past month.
“2020 has been a period of darkness, suffering, and death, and we’re still living in that shadowy time before the sun fully rises,” said Janet Hill, CFO and PIO of the Rock Island County Health Department during a press conference last week. “In the Quad-Cities, we sit at a 60% vaccination rate, which means that 40% of those eligible to be vaccinated have not stepped into the light to end the pandemic. We’re back to overflowing hospitals, exhausted healthcare and public health workers, and grieving families. Except this time, it’s all preventable.”
Dr. Kurt Andersen from Genesis Health System urged people to get vaccinated to help stop the spread in a video conference last week, and Nita Ludwig, Administrator of the Rock Island County Health Department, posted on the department’s Facebook, “We have been averaging 150 shots per clinic day. We can do more shots on these days. Please stop in and get vaccinated. There are also many pharmacies, Community Health Care, and other providers in our county to obtain a vaccination. Find your shot at www.vaccines.gov. The time to act is now.”
Dr. Kurt Andersen from Genesis Health System in the Quad-Cities is among healthcare officials statewide urging people to get vaccinated to stop the rapid spread of covid.
The rapidly spiking numbers have caused shutdowns to begin in the public and private sectors. Schools had sporadically shut down over the last month due to covid spikes at different spots statewide — including a shutdown of Edison Junior High in Rock Island here in the Quad-Cities — and in Region 1, including northern Illinois counties Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago, the school board is saying they’ve had a hard time remaining open.
“We’ve recently had 16 staff members out and there is not capacity in our learning community to make up that many staff,” North Boone Community Unit School District Board President Ed Mulholland said. “At some point, if this continues, we will be forced to reevaluate our strategies, as other school districts in the region have already done. We currently have 218 students quarantining out of a total student population of 1,600. As you can imagine, the impact on student learning is huge.”
Winnebago County issued a disaster proclamation due to covid last week, with Winnebago County Board Chairman Joseph Chiarelli leading the call after his own horrible bout with covid.
“My experience being hospitalized with COVID identified a need for not only prevention, but intervention, and I want to advocate for additional treatment options to be readily available to Winnebago County residents,” Chiarelli said in a released statement.
In addition, performances at public venues have begun shutting down.
Illinois has become a new covid hot spot, along with its surrounding states, new data shows.
The Paramount Theatre in Aurora on Friday announced the cancellation of performances through Sunday of its current production of “Cinderella” due to covid.
“Pretty Woman: The Musical” was shutdown by Broadway In Chicago.
The Joffrey Ballet canceled Dec 17-18 performances of “The Nutcracker” at the Lyric Opera House due to covid.
And Teatro ZinZanni, the dinner theatre/cirque extravaganza at the Spiegeltent ZaZou on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel Chicago Loop, released a statement on its website announcing that it was closing down, with a hope to reopen on Dec. 26.
In the meantime, as has been hinted at for weeks, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker once again came closer to enacting new statewide restrictions, and gave his blessing to any cities or counties that wanted to do so unilaterally to stop the spread.
“Illinois has some of the most stringent mitigations already,” Pritzker said. “That is wearing masks indoors. That is what the mitigation regime needs to be get vaccinated wear a mask indoors, you know, please socially distance, especially if you don’t know the people that you’re with. I know that people are gathering during this holiday season, just be extra careful.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
In the same question and answer session with media, Pritzker encouraged authorities around the state to “implement more stringent mitigations as they see fit,” and did not rule out more statewide mandates coming from him.
Illinois’ trends for restrictions tend to begin in Chicago, and spread throughout the state, and in the third-largest city in the U.S. its mayor, Lori Lightfoot, admitted that they are looking at more restrictions before the holiday to stop the quickening spread of the virus.
In a press conference, Lightfoot said they haven’t “landed on one particular strategy,” but are looking at a number of options, and said that the restrictions would be “made in a patient and methodical manner.”
“We are looking at a number of different strategies that can help us deal with this latest surge, but we always do that in partnership and in communication with the individuals and the businesses that are going to be affected,” she said. “We don’t unilaterally impose anything.”
Illinois cases are up over 40 percent since the start of December, and officials are finally admitting that they’ve been looking at expanding statewide restrictions.
“We have moved into very high transmission,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner. “While unsurprising, this news should remind Chicagoans of the ongoing threat from COVID-19, especially as families prepare to come together over the holidays.”
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