The Illinois Department of Public Health advised residents to pay close attention to conditions in their local communities Thursday due to “slowly rising” COVID case rates in much of the state. Vi Nguyen has more.
As COVID cases continue to rise in Illinois and in the U.S., four Illinois counties are now experiencing medium risk levels for the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Friday, DuPage, Champaign, McLean and Piatt counties are all listed under the CDC's "medium" transmission risk level, the second-highest level on the CDC's scale. The designation means elderly or immunocompromised individuals are urged to wear masks in public indoor spaces.
Last week, only Champaign County was at the medium community level.
Counties that reach a high community level are urged to reinstate mask-wearing for all individuals indoors regardless of vaccination status and to consider avoiding non-essential indoor activities.
In places with low community transmission, residents are encouraged to stay up to date with COVID vaccines and boosters, and maintained improved ventilation throughout indoor spaces when possible.
As of Friday, no communities were said to be experiencing high transmission.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the state saw nearly 20,000 new COVID cases in the last week, along with an additional 58 deaths.
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The state, which is increasing its testing capacity and treatment supply for COVID-19, along with continuing to urge vaccinations and booster shots, last week reported COVID metrics were "slowly rising."
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