Allison Arwady stressed that the new COVID booster being available for children as young as 5 is critical to a possible surge the next few months.
Amid slow increases in COVID cases in Illinois and around the United States, Chicago’s top doctor says that residents may want to start wearing masks more often in indoor spaces, especially with flu and RSV cases on the rise as well.
Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, took time during her Tuesday Facebook Live to address questions about masking, and says that she has continued to wear masks in indoor spaces.
“I have continued to wear a mask in settings where I want to show my care for others,” she said. “I’ve been encouraging of anybody who chooses to mask because I think it’s a sign of caring for others.”
Under current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, residents who live in counties that are seeing “high transmission levels” of COVID-19 are encouraged to wear masks.
While no Illinois county is currently at that threshold, there are numerous counties that are now at a “medium transmission” level, including McHenry, Lake, DuPage, Cook, Grundy and Will counties.
Arwady says that a mask mandate wouldn’t be explored unless there was a “significant threat” to the health care system, but she says that masking indoors now, especially for those who are experiencing any type of illness, is probably a good idea.
“If your child is sick, even if it’s a cold, we’d like you to have them wear a mask right now,” she said. “That helps decrease the spread…of influenza, and the masks help with risk of RSV.”
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She encouraged parents to think of masks the way they think of “umbrellas,” only used when conditions call for it.
“It’s not realistic, just given how many respiratory viruses there are, that kids are always going to be able to stay at home,” she said. “But if they are able to put a mask on again, think of it like an umbrella. You don’t have to do it all the time, but you have it when you need it.”
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Parents are being urged to take precautions with their children as RSV, a respiratory illness, spreads throughout the state. In fact, pediatric ICU beds in Illinois are in dwindling supply, with only 4% of the specialized beds currently available as the virus ravages young populations.
Flu activity in the state is also at a “high level,” according to experts, leading to concerns of a potential “tripledemic” that could also include the COVID-19 virus.
New variants of that virus are currently starting to spread in Illinois and nationwide, with some concern that they could not only evade immunity from previous strains, but also that they could render specific antibody therapies obsolete.
Still, the average number of new cases in Illinois has largely remained steady in recent weeks, with the state now averaging just under 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day.
