Cook County could repair a number of COVID-19 restrictions aimed at reducing increasing cases as the county begins to see a third surge of the coronavirus, health officials said Saturday.
Both the city of Chicago and Cook County recently saw more than 600 new daily cases, according to Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer and co-leader at the Cook County Department of Public Health.
A few weeks ago, Rubin said, about 250 cases are reported every day. On Saturday, Illinois saw 2,839 new cases and 13 deaths as the positivity rate rose from 4.1 to 4.3%.
A total of 145,315 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in a recent 24-hour period, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. A total of 6188607 doses were administered across the state.
Health officials in the city of Chicago have expressed concern about a “quantum leap” in coronavirus cases, saying the failure to limit profits could cause certain restrictions to be reintroduced after it was released earlier this year.
According to data from the IDPH, the city of Chicago raised its seven-day positive rate from 28% on March 19 to 4.5% from March 28, a rapid increase that frightens some health care experts.
Although no decisions have been made on restoring restrictions in Cook County, officials say change could come in the next week, with the biggest focus falling on indoor activities.
“The data showed that it’s not necessarily outdoor activities, but indoors, so these are the kind of things we need to evaluate and look at the data,” Rubin said.
As in Chicago, Rubin said the cases in Cook County’s younger population, especially people in their twenties and thirties, are increasing as the age group is not largely vaccinated.
Although the availability of the coronavirus vaccine is growing, Chicago mayors Lori Lightfoot and Drs. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, calls on residents, especially young people, to continue to keep the protocols at social distance and their masks in public, saying the end of the pandemic is in sight can be if residents remain vigilant.
“The actions you are taking now will have an impact on what we can all do in the future,” Lightfoot said earlier this week. ‘We do not want to be forced to take any steps back, or worse, to close things because we have not yet done what is necessary now to remain diligent. COVID-19 is still here, it still kills people in our city every day. So we have to stay diligent. “