* IDPH reported 6,054 hospitalizations as of late last night, down from 6,258 the previous day. Our seven-day rolling average decrease is now 2.04 percent, essentially unchanged from yesterday, but that’s still good news. You’d like to see the rate of decrease pick up steam, but I’ll take a steady drop, too. Visualization…

The seven-day rolling average decrease for ICU beds, a lagging indicator, is now 1.9 percent.

137 deaths were reported today, down from yesterday’s 198. Seven-day rolling average increase for deaths, the ultimate lagging indicator, is 107.

* IDPH…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 183,722 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 746 deaths since January 14, 2022.

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 2,773,362 cases, including 29,845 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since January 14, 2022, laboratories have reported 1,539,013 specimens for a total of 49,488,107. As of last night, 6,054 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 972 patients were in the ICU and 560 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 11.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 15.3%.

A total of 20,207,132 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 44,420 doses. Since January 14, 2022, 310,939 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 74% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 65% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and almost 49% boosted according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html.

Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.

* This is happening way too often everywhere. But what the heck is going on in Aurora lately?…

An Aurora police sergeant has died from complications of COVID-19, the department’s second virus-related death in just more than a week. […]

Under city policy, Aurora police officers are required to either provide proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing to protect against the spread of COVID-19, department spokesman Paris Lewbel said.

When asked if Thurman and Shields were fully vaccinated, Lewbel said the city does not release any information from employee medical files, for privacy reasons. […]

COVID-19 was the leading cause of deaths among U.S. law enforcement in 2021, killing at least 301 officers, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum.

* Apparently, this is becoming a thing in our age of unnecessary rapid test shortages. Please, don’t share your test swabs to pool your results…

Then there’s the ick factor. “From a public-health perspective, the idea of sticking swabs up each other’s noses doesn’t sound like a great thing to do,” Nuzzo said. If one person in a household gets COVID, the others aren’t doomed to infection just from living in the same space. In fact, the “secondary attack rate” within a home—which describes the chance of transmitting a virus from one household member to another—appears to be just 15 to 35 percent for SARS-CoV-2. But intranasal promiscuity is a surefire way to increase those numbers, Nuzzo warns, and spread untold other germs besides. […]

The problem isn’t that pooled rapid tests definitely don’t work; it’s that they don’t definitely work. The tests available to Americans are in “a total data-free zone” in this regard, Nuzzo said.

*** UPDATE *** Scary stuff in this press release…

Just over two weeks after confirming 13,000 COVID-19 deaths in Cook County, the Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) marked another grim pandemic milestone today. The MEO confirmed the County’s 14,000th death due to COVID-19 infection this morning.

The Office noted that six weeks passed between the County’s 12,000th and 13,000th COVID-19 deaths and more than three and a half months passed between the County’s 11,000th and 12,000th COVID-19 death. The latest milestone comes during the third surge in COVID-19 cases across the County and the nation. The Office confirmed 425 COVID-19 deaths for the week of January 10. Those are the highest totals the MEO has seen since November of 2020, months before the COVID-19 vaccine was widely available to residents.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 6,750 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the City of Chicago, accounting for approximately 48% of deaths throughout Cook County. Males account for 57% of the County’s COVID-19 deaths.

* More news…

* COVID booster shots needed against omicron, CDC studies show: Three studies released Friday offered more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are standing up to the omicron variant, at least among people who received booster shots.

* Chicago Public Schools to shorten quarantine time for students and staff as city passes omicron peak

* With constant COVID closures, parents with kids in day care are at their wit’s end: ‘I honestly don’t know how we keep doing this.’

* Will Omicron Leave Most of Us Immune?: The variant is spreading widely, but won’t necessarily give us strong protection from new infections.

* Attorney general says COVID-19 testing company won’t reopen in ‘foreseeable future’

* Employers should remain cautious on reopening plans, says UChicago doc: Though it appears Chicago has passed the omicron peak, businesses should be wary of bringing employees back to the office too soon amid crowded hospitals.

* ‘Mask timeouts’ are mandatory in high school basketball. Here’s how coaches use them: Edwards says now, if he does need a timeout around the four-minute mark, he’ll use a 30-second timeout, which triples in time and acts as the mask timeout. It has become helpful to Edwards two-fold.

* Illinois driver services facilities set to reopen Monday after COVID closure