COVID-19 cases are on an uptick across the country and in both DuPage and Will Counties in recent weeks. As of last week, about 72% of cases in the Midwest were either the BA.5 or BA.4 variants, according to CDC data, which groups Illinois with Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The B.5 strain has emerged as the dominant one and appears to evade immune protection from vaccines prior infections more easily than past variants. The vaccines still remain effective in largely preventing hospitalizations and death, doctors say.
DuPage County at High Risk
DuPage County is now at high risk levels with 11.4 new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people. Will County is listed as medium risk with 7.5 admissions per 100,000. There have been 323 new cases in Naperville over the past seven days. Edward Hospital is currently treating 18 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and have reported one death due to COVID-19 during that time. 37 inpatients with COVID-19 have been discharged by Edward Hospital over the past week.
Will County currently has a higher positivity rate for COVID-19 testing at 14.32% while DuPage County is at a 13.95% positivity rate.
There are currently over 1,300 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the state of Illinois, the highest number since February of 2022.
Vaccination Rates
The B.5 strain has surged ahead of B.4 as the dominant one and appears to evade immune protection from vaccines prior infections more easily than past variants. The vaccines still remain effective in largely preventing hospitalizations and death, doctors say. Both Pfizer and Moderna are currently working on developing Omicron specific vaccines to fight the newest variants.
In DuPage County, 77.6% of the population is fully vaccinated while 68.4% of Will County residents are full vaccinated.
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