IDPH reminds people to stay home from holiday gatherings if sick, and and seek treatment immediately
Note: We’ve changed the layout of this post in order to make the charts more readable.
information gathered by Melanie Jongsma
CHICAGO, Ill. (December 24, 2022) – With COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses circulating at concerning levels, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is reminding the public to celebrate the holidays safely. IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra is urging anyone who is feeling ill to take a COVID-19 test and to stay home if they test positive to avoid spreading the virus to friends and family, especially those vulnerable to serious outcomes.
Beginning in January, IDPH will report weekly data on Wednesday of each week for the previous week ending Sunday. The Lansing Journal will continue to report information as we receive it from IDPH. IDPH officials stated they believe that weekly reporting provides the public with a more accurate picture of COVID-19 trends across the state over time by tracking cases and deaths by the week they arise, rather than the date they are reported, which may be days or weeks later.
IDPH is helping Illinoisans prepare for the fall and winter surge of COVID-19 cases by offering 1 million free COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to Illinois residents in all zip codes outside the City of Chicago through a partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation’s public charity, RF Catalytic Capital and its Project ACT (Access COVID Tests) program.
Through Project ACT, IDPH is distributing up to one million at-home antigen tests to 200,000 Illinois households. You can request one package of five tests on a first-come-first-serve basis at the Request Free Tests page (dph.illinois.gov/covid19/testing/act-zip-codes.html) on the IDPH website. The tests will be delivered to the home address.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 3,953,928 cases, including 35,714 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of Thursday night, 1,814 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 184 patients were in the ICU and 117 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Illinois interactive graphs
The graphs below are created by HiGeorge and are “live,” so they are continually updated as new data are released from official sources.
