Officials not concerned yet with rising COVID-19 activity in Chicago’s wastewater

Chicago officials said Thursday they are not concerned at this time about a slight uptick of COVID-19 activity in the city’s wastewater samples.

Dr. Isaac Ghinai, medical director at the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a Facebook live event that they are still refining the process to analyze wastewater, like where to sample and how much to gather to collect accurate data.

As of Thursday, he said the data show low transmission of the virus in the city.

“It looks like an increase, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re at high levels of transmission like we were,” Ghinai said. “You want to pay attention, you want to keep sampling, you want to be looking for trends there.”

He added that wastewater should never be looked at alone when making public health decisions and should be considered alongside hospitalizations and death rates.

Additionally, CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said they are watching current COVID-19 trends in Europe for potential signs of another surge in the U.S. It remains too early to know if that could happen in Chicago, but she said officials will continue vaccination efforts to reduce the risk.

As of Wednesday, 546 Illinoisans were in the hospital with COVID-19, down 52 from Tuesday and down 169 from the prior week.

Of the patients in the hospital, 89 were in intensive care units, down five from Tuesday and down 46 from the prior week. There were 38 patients on ventilators, down three from Tuesday and down 22 from the prior week.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,150 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths on Thursday.

The new cases bring the state total to 3,051,797 while the death toll remains at 33,180.

The seven-day average for new cases on Thursday was 1,129, down 17 from the prior week. The seven-day average for daily deaths is 18, down six from the prior week.

The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total tests is 1.3 percent. The seven-day statewide test positivity using the number of COVID-19 positive tests over total tests is 1.4 percent.

Eighty-one percent of eligible Illinoisans ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 72.2 percent are fully vaccinated.

Illinois vaccinators have administered 21,265,540 COVID-19 vaccines, including 4,222,469 booster doses. The seven-day average for doses administered is 8,205.