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COVID-19 roundup

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* Cases are up about 3 percent in the past week, but deaths are up 66 percent. The seven-day rolling average of daily hospitalizations is now +0.32 percent, down slightly from yesterday’s +0.57 percent. We’ve been on a prolonged hospitalization plateau. No sign yet of abatement. IDPH…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 207,203 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 738 deaths since January 7, 2022.

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 2,589,640 cases, including 29,099 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since January 7, 2022, laboratories have reported 1,956,972 specimens for a total of 47,949,094. As of last night, 7,320 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 1,148 patients were in the ICU and 657 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators. Updated data analysis shows almost 90% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Illinois are unvaccinated.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 7 – 13, 2022 is 10.6%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 7 – 13, 2022 is 15.6%.

A total of 19,893,424 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 51,070 doses. Since January 7, 2022, 357,487 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, almost 74% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 65% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and more than 42% 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.

* From The Atlantic…

What we can say is that the higher a wave crests, the longer and more confusing the path to the bottom will be. We need to prepare for the possibility that this wave could have an uncomfortably long tail—or at least a crooked one. “I do think the decline is unlikely to be as steep as the rise,” Saad Omer, an epidemiologist at Yale, told me. […]

What lies beyond the peak isn’t out of our control either. The decline can be sped up by the same mitigation behaviors that temper the rise, Majumder said. Curves can get flatter. They can also get shorter. And minimizing cases on the wave’s far side will still blunt the impact on the health-care system, and lessen the variant’s social toll. The key here, then, is to avoid seeing “past the peak” as a cue to relapse into riskier behavior. “The start of a decline is not sufficient to think we’re out of the woods,” Georgetown’s Bansal said. Every step we take now will determine how long we stay high up on this curve and, eventually, where we land—as well as what condition we’ll be in when we arrive at the bottom.

* Same publication…

Before the new variant reared its head, people were already leaving the service sector in droves. Now the Omicron surge is laying bare how few protections workers have retained from the scant services given to them earlier in the pandemic, and just how little safety and stability this kind of work provides to the people who do it. Omicron is making many of America’s bad jobs even worse.

* Block Club Chicago…

The Center for COVID Control, a locally based chain of testing sites, is under national scrutiny and has been cited at the highest level by a federal agency as reports come in from across the country of chaos at testing sites and confusion over results.

Amid the heightened scrutiny, the center announced Thursday it will close for a week starting Friday. […]

Again and again, people going to Center for COVID Control sites have reported getting negatives there — only to get a positive elsewhere. Others have never gotten results, or gotten them so late the test was effectively useless. Some people who didn’t even test at the sites were still sent results.

* A Florida TV station was all over the story earlier this week. It’s just crazy…

Finding a COVID-19 test in a short time can be challenging. WINK News met a mom and dad who, while on the hunt for a test, came upon a test site at a Bonita Springs strip mall. They stopped, got in line, and registered for a test, but they got an email saying they were negative before they took it.

WINK News looked into the test site and found out the company that runs this site is racking up complaints, not just in Southwest Florida but nearly everywhere. […]

While they were in line waiting for a test, they got a notification that their results were ready. Results for a test they were still in line to take.

Erin Kates said, “We got an email for each of us all, all five of us, both of us and our and our three kids saying that our rapid test came back negative.”

…Adding… Press release…

Governor JB Pritzker announced today the federal government has granted the state’s request for medical staffing assistance for Javon Bae Hospital-Riverside in Rockford. Under the agreement, a 22-person team including clinical staff from a Healthcare Medical Task Force will be deployed to support Javon Bae doctors and nurses as they treat COVID-19 patients and other patients. This surge staffing will be available for 14-days to help reduce the strain on the hospital’s Emergency Department and help other hospitals in the region who may transfer patients to Javon Bae Hospital-Riverside.

You’d barely know there was a problem in Rockford if you relied on the local newspaper website for your news.

* More…

* Kankakee schools to extend remote, hybrid learning options: Kankakee School District 111 will extend its remote and hybrid learning options through Jan. 28 instead of returning to fully in-person learning next week as previously planned, Superintendent Genevra Walters said Thursday.

* Return to work note requests overwhelm health care system: Macon County Health Department is also asking for employers not to require release letters anymore.

* Why N95, KN95 masks are much more effective than cloth versions

* UI handing out N95 masks ahead of start of semester

* For Chicago’s frustrated restaurant workers, life will never be the same

* Omicron driving more service cuts for Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 1:25 pm

Comments

I’ve used the Center for Government Contracts for COVID tests personally. There is one in the Thompson Center I think. I knew the score, but figured they would at least follow the rules. Guess not.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checker Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 1:48 pm
= You’d barely know there was a problem in Rockford
if you relied on the local newspaper website for your news =

I’m honestly starting to think this is deliberate. On a large scale.

Newspapers, like health departments, seem to have almost been completely taken over by their local chambers of commerce.

“Bad” news is not allowed. Some of them even go so far as to openly state they are only looking to publish “good news” stories.

That’s not a newspaper anymore. That’s a church bulletin.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 1:51 pm
==Of those (7,320), 1,148 patients were in the ICU and 657 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.==

Wanna bet how many of those were 1,148 were unvaccinated?

Comment by Jocko Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 1:53 pm
Perhaps more businesses (and their insurance providers) need to follow the lead of Quebec and treat non-vaxers in the same way they treat smokers and raise the premiums for those engaging in risky behavior that leads to higher medical costs. (This should have happened months ago, but better late than never.)

Actions (including inaction) have consequences.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 2:32 pm
Maybe I’m looking at this wrong. Listening to Bishop on Air this morning he was talking about the Traveling Nurses that are coming into these hospitals to help out. He was saying they are really bad for morale since they are contract workers and paid so much more. Wouldn’t you think the staff would welcome the help at this stage?

Comment by Club J Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 2:40 pm
Are there incentives to enter the Illinois National Guard (like payment of student loans and/or residency/training) for medical personnel? It seems as though that would be a no-brainer to provide so we have enough trained guards.

Comment by aovermy@yahoo.com Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 2:45 pm
===medical personnel? It seems as though that would be a no-brainer to provide so we have enough trained guards===

All you’re doing is taking those trained professionals out of one community and sending them to another and no community has any to spare at the moment. The NG isn’t magic fairy dust.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 2:47 pm
maybe we need incentives to train more so we do create some fairy dust.

Join the Guard, we will pay you to take training for a medical profession everything from Phlebotomist, to paramedic to doctor and then you pay it back by agreeing to serve for X years wouldn’t be a bad thing. It might even serve to get health care workers back in rural areas again.

(X being different for different careers a doc would be on the hook longer than a RN who would be on the hook longer than a phlebie).

Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 2:53 pm
=if you relied on the local newspaper website for your news = I have been looking around at the local rural papers I know are still locally owned. Unless it is a high school sports team that can’t play due to Covid they don’t report it. These are papers that in the old days reported admissions to the local hospital weekly. Guess there isn’t a problem if you don’t talk about it.

Comment by Publius Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 3:25 pm
Add State Journal-Register & Peoria Journal Star to your list of newspapers that have become a joke since Gannett took over them along with the Rockford Register Star. SJ-R just announced the end of a print newspaper on Saturdays & lost another experienced reporter and a photographer.

Comment by Jimbo2600 Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 3:28 pm
- You’d barely know there was a problem in Rockford -

That would explain my coworker from Rockford saying that hospitalization is down so we shouldn’t worry about omicron this morning.

Comment by Excitable Boy Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 3:43 pm
They might want to get the name of the hospital right.

It’s Javon Bea. Not “Bae,” no matter how much they like the place.

Comment by Just sayin' Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 3:50 pm