According to the newest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID cases and hospitalizations are threatening to push several Chicago-area counties, including Cook County, into the highest-level of COVID alert in coming weeks.
In that situation, there are two metric thresholds that can be hit that would push those counties into a “high community level” of COVID. One is if the county is seeing 10 or more weekly hospital admissions per 100,000 residents, or if it is seeing 10% or more of its hospital beds occupied by COVID Patients.The CDC puts together its hospitalization data based not just on the county that a hospital is in, but on what other counties are potentially serviced by that hospital.
As a result, those eight counties could soon join the eight other Illinois counties that have already hit a “high community level” of the virus.Here’s What the CDC Recommends for ‘High Community Level’ Areastheir area hits that “high community level” threshold? It is also recommended that those residents talk to their health care providers about additional preventative steps, or to ask if they are eligible for COVID antivirals or monoclonal antibodies in the event of a COVID infection.
"While our hospital numbers remain as good as they are, we'd have to see twice as many Chicagoans getting hospitalized to need to be thinking about mandates," she said.
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