NOTE: NBC Chicago will offer a live stream of the event beginning at 9:30 a.m. Watch live in the player above
Chicago's top doctor is slated to deliver a COVID-19 update Friday ahead of Halloween and the upcoming holiday season.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady and other city health officials are scheduled to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. to discuss bivalent booster uptake, protections for the winter and holiday seasons and more. (Watch live above)
The news conference comes after area doctors held a press briefing warning of what they predict will be a "potentially scary cold and flu season" with an "explosion" of viruses like RSV, flu and COVID.
The warning comes as pediatric hospitals across Illinois and the country are filling up with children needing treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a respiratory virus that doesn't typically peak late-December through mid-February.
"The region is facing a surge of pediatric respiratory cases, leaving health care facilities, including Advocate Children’s Hospital, on high alert," a spokesperson for Advocate Health Care said last week in a release. "Many sick children are presenting with bronchiolitis, a lower respiratory tract disease frequently caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)."
However, RSV isn't the only surge area doctors have their eye on.
Local
According to data from Cook County Health, only 9% of people in Suburban Cook County have received the bivalent COVID booster, which specifically targets widely circulating omicron variants.
"People may ask why we need boosters and whether that means the vaccines don't work," Huhn said Tuesday. "The COVID booster provides updated information as [the COVID] virus has mutated," he continued. "Staying up-to-date on our boosters ensures that our body has the latest information code to fight this disease."
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared the way for anyone ages 5 and older, who previously received an initial COVID vaccine series, to safely receive the current bivalent booster.
"Now, it's all about this current booster," said Dr. Lamar Hasbrouck, chief operating officer at the Cook County Department of Public Health on Tuesday. "So if you got the series that is the first two shots, and it's been at least two months, you should go ahead and get the booster," he said. "And by the way, you can get your flu shot at the same time you get the booster."
However, as booster adoption remains low, health experts are concerned that COVID cases will follow historical winter COVID patterns.
"In terms of suburban Cook County...in terms of the COVID-19 community transmission, the rates are currently low," Hasbrouck said. "However, we are expecting a likely surge in the winter. I can't say with any real precision, but we are expecting a surge."
According to health experts, reports of a "heavy influenza season" in the southern hemisphere coupled with an early RSV season in the U.S. are raising alarm bells.
Add to that, experts say, the current number of flu hospitalizations in the U.S. and Europe, along with the elimination of COVID restrictions, and the concern increases.
"It's true in the last two seasons, flu has been relatively mild, largely due to the precautions that we've put into place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19." said Dr. Sharon Welbel, director of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology at Cook County Health on Tuesday. "These efforts were all wildly successful in preventing the spread of influenza, RSV, and other respiratory illnesses."
"However," Welbel continued, "with the combination of the disappearance of mitigation measures, the early influence and RSV season that we are already witnessing, I fully expect to see an explosion of influenza, RSV, COVID, and other respiratory viral illnesses, this fall and winter."
The best protection, health experts say, come not only in the form of a COVID booster, but in receiving this season's flu shot before the Halloween holiday.
