Despite cases of the more contagious "Kraken" COVID-19 variant increasing in the Midwest, Illinois has seen a rather significant decline in new COVID cases over the past week, as well as improvements in counties' community level status overall.
According to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, as of Friday, a total of 28 counties Illinois were at an elevated COVID status, compared to 56 counties at either "medium" or "high" status a week prior.
Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Will and Kankakee counties were listed in the "medium" category, as shown in the most recent CDC report. DeKalb, LaSalle, Kane and Kendall counties were all reported to be at "low" status. Only three of Illinois' 102 counties were said to be at "high" - Hancock County in the western portion of the state, as well as Hamilton and White counties in southern Illinois.
Case numbers have seen notable decreases, with 10,967 new and probable COVID cases reported for the week ending Jan. 15 compared to 16,602 cases for the week ending Jan. 8. Hospitalizations, additionally, haven't increased in recent weeks.
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Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of IDPH, said in a news release he is encouraged by the decreasing community levels, but did note that the "Kraken" variant, which has spread rapidly throughout the Northeast, is behind an increase in cases throughout the Midwest.
The variant now makes up 43% of cases in the U.S. and more than 14% of cases in the Midwest, climbing in both metrics from 30.4% and roughly 7% the week prior, according to CDC estimates.
As of late Thursday, 1,220 individuals were in the hospital with COVID-19 in Illinois. Of those people, 151 patients were in the ICU and 57 were on ventilators, according to IDPH. The week prior, 1,395 people were reported to be in the hospital with COVID.
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Overall, IDPH has reported a total of 4,008,844 cases, including 36,000 deaths, in Illinois since the beginning of the pandemic.
