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According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, more than
400 people in Illinois were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19
last week.
During a meeting Thursday with health departments from around
the state, Dr. Arti Barnes, chief medical officer with IDPH,
said it appears hospital admissions in the state have peaked.
“I’m not going to go as far to say that we’re not going to see
another second wave coming up deeper into the winter, but at
least it looks like this is one slightly reassuring piece of
news,” Barnes said.
Wastewater tests show there is no dominant strain affecting the
state at this time, he said.
“The past variants that caused the pandemic hit hard and fast,
but if you look at the couple most recent months, no one variant
is dominating anymore in this new COVID era,” Barnes said.
Health officials are now focusing more on hospital admission
than positive cases, and are moving toward classifying the virus
as a respiratory illness.
In one school district, Evanston-Skokie District 65, COVID-19 is
being treated like any other communicable disease. Students who
test positive must be quarantined for five days and can return
to school wearing a mask for another five days as long as they
are symptom free.
IDPH plans to investigate what effect air purifiers are having
that were installed in most schools as a result of the pandemic.
Vaccine manufacturers are expected to release an updated
COVID-19 vaccine sometime this month, which Barnes said will be
referred to as an “annual COVID shot” in an effort to gain more
acceptance.
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