On a Saturday in late March of last year, employees walked out of public libraries carrying plants and boxes of personal items, parents and young children took one last chance to run around in playgrounds, and the streets began emptying. Chicagoans were preparing for the state’s stay-at-home order, which officially took effect at 5 p.m. on March 21, 2020. More than a year later, Illinois and .
While some residents have expressed concerns that rollbacks of coronavirus restrictions could lead to surges in virus cases, Dr. Allison Arwady says that she is “very confident” that case numbers are low enough in the state to prevent a large surge from happening in the early stages of summer. Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, spoke out.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file
Illinois’ infection rate dropped to a record low again this week as the state prepares to reopen Friday.
With the return to a new “normal” around the corner, state health officials Wednesday reported 408 new coronavirus cases and an additional 23 deaths 10 of which were in the Chicago area.
The new cases were detected among 41,758 tests processed by the Illinois Department of Public Health within the last 24 hours, officials said Wednesday. That dropped the seven-day positivity rate to 1% the lowest it’s been since experts started tracking that metric last May.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have also plummeted in recent weeks.