* Hospitalizations have declined 30.84 percent since last Friday, compared to a 25 percent drop the previous week. ICU numbers fell 31.75 percent. Ventilator usage dropped 31.74 percent. Deaths were up by 738 three Friday’s ago, up by 746 two Friday’s ago, and were up at the end of last week by 843. The peak appears to have been cleared because they’re up this week by 608. The first decline in the rate of increase in a while. From IDPH…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 60,389 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 608 deaths since January 28, 2022. The number of cases reported this week (60,389) is less than half as many reported during the previous week (123,812).

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 2,957,563 cases, including 31,296 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since January 28, 2022, laboratories have reported 1,047,216 specimens for a total of 51,846,053. As of last night, 3,135 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 546 patients were in the ICU and 314 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 28 – February 3, 2022 is 5.8%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 28 – February 3, 2022 is 8.0%.

A total of 20,623,484 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 28,626 doses. Since January 28, 2022, 200,384 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 75% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 66% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and more than 47% 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.

* We are way ahead of the national average…

New cases per day have tanked by almost a half-million nationwide since mid-January, the curve trending downward in every state but Maine. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen 15% over that period to about 124,000.

Illinois cases dropped in half in just the past week and 71 percent since mid-January. Hospitalizations here have fallen 57 percent since mid-January.

* From Alex Degman’s interview of Dr. Ezike…

Do you foresee the state changing the guidance going forward for what’s considered fully vaccinated with Moderna’s full FDA approval?

I mean, that’s inevitable, I think, because we are understanding that these successive variants are more and more evading the vaccine immunity. And so if we want to minimize these ongoing surges, it behooves us to be up to date. And, you know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s every five months. We need to follow and see, you know, when is it that people seem to start picking up more infections than they did at the beginning of the vaccine and figure out what the timeline is. Eventually, there will probably be other vaccines that maybe will last longer, maybe there’ll be a multivalent vaccine where you can have something that would protect against different kinds of strains — to have that all in one more akin to what we see with the flu vaccine. You know, there’s a lot that technology is working on in science and research will probably have something, you know, down the road that we’re not even thinking about today.

So basically, we’re still in the thick of changing and evolving science?

That’s how science works. It’s constantly evolving. You know, the sausage is being made right in front of us. I think it’s not comfortable for everyone to see how this evolves. We’re used to diseases that, “Oh, they’ve been around for hundreds of years. We know how this works.” We are part of that history that, you know, 100 years from now, people [will be] like “Oh, yeah, I understand about COVID,” but they will know about it because of what we have gone through during this time.

* More…

* They knocked on strangers’ doors and persuaded naysayers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Here are their tips.

* COVID has pushed one Chicago institution into crisis again and again. The Omicron surge is receding. Now what?: With COVID set to be a permanent fixture in our lives, more surges and variants are possible. The hospital will have to deal with people whose care was postponed amid the surge and those with long-term problems because of their run-ins with COVID. Meanwhile, the staffing shortages that long preceded Omicron’s arrival will remain. A small community hospital will struggle to attract staff in a way that a larger, better-funded institution won’t. Nursing- and medical-school applications are up, but training the next generation will take several years. “We have to be able to navigate a path forward with less,” Oglesby-Odom said. “We’re never going to be able to go back to the way we were, because there’s not that same workforce.”

* Another Chicago winter hazard: Frozen sewage hinders COVID monitoring

* Chicago restaurant vaccine mandate, indoor mask rules could be rolled back ‘soon’ if COVID cases stay in free fall: The turnaround has been especially pronounced in Chicago, where cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all down by more than 40% since last week.

* Medicare opens up access to free at-home COVID-19 tests