September 17: 2056 New COVID 19 Cases in Illinois

Illinois had additional 25 fatalities.  Boone County had 10 new COVID-19 cases

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Here's where each health region in northern Illinois stands as of Thursday

State's positivity rate goes down to 3.6 percent

By JOHN SAHLYFollow12:12 PM

Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com

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The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,056 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional deaths Thursday.

As of late Wednesday, Illinois had 1,558 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Of those hospitalized, 359 were in intensive care units, and 144 were on ventilators.

The seven-day rolling average of Illinois’ positivity rate decreased slightly to 3.6%. The state received the results of 57,800 COVID-19 tests in the 24 hours leading up to Thursday afternoon.

• Here's where each health region in northern Illinois stands as of Wednesday
• Here's where each health region in northern Illinois stands as of Tuesday

Illinois now has seen 268,207 total cases of the virus and 8,392 people have died. The state has conducted a total of 4,920,938 tests since the start of the pandemic.

Regional update: According to a July 15 update to Gov. JB Pritzker's COVID-19 response plan, the state will be tracking public health metrics in a slightly different way to monitor any potential resurgences of COVID-19. Additional restrictions can be placed on any of the state's 11 health regions if the region sustains an increase in its average positivity rate for seven days out of a 10-day period.

A region may also become more restrictive if there is a seven-day increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19-related illness or a reduction in hospital medical/surgical beds or ICU capacity below 20%. If a region reports three consecutive days with greater than an 8% average positivity rate, additional infection mitigation will be considered through a tiered system of restriction guidelines offered by the IDPH.

The North Suburban region (McHenry and Lake counties) has seen five days of positivity increases and zero days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 5.7%. Currently, 44% of medical/surgical beds are available and 60% of ICU beds.

The West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) has seen three days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 5.4%. Currently, 36% of medical/surgical beds are available and 44% of ICU beds.

The South Suburban region (Will and Kankakee counties) has seen two days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 6.1%.

Additional mitigation measures from the IDPH have been placed on the region after its positivity rate exceeded 8% If the region can hold under 6.5% for another two days, it will return to the standard Phase 4 restrictions.

Currently, 33% of the region's medical/surgical beds are available and 36% of ICU beds.

The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen one day of positivity increases and one day of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate slightly decreased to 6.0%. Currently, 43% of medical/surgical beds are available and 43% of ICU beds.

The North-Central region (Bureau, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kendall, Knox, La Salle, Livingston, Marshall, McDonough, McLean, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren and Woodford counties) has seen one day of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 6.0%. Currently, 42% of medical/surgical beds are available and 41% of ICU beds.

Chicago has seen one day of positivity increases and four days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased slightly to 5.0%. Currently, 26% of medical/surgical beds are available and 34% of ICU beds.

Suburban Cook County has seen two days of positivity increases and three days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate decreased to 5.3%. Currently, 32% of medical/surgical beds are available and 39% of ICU beds.

To see how other regions across the state are doing, see the full IDPH dashboard here.

Above is from:  https://www.shawlocal.com/2020/09/17/heres-where-each-health-region-in-northern-illinois-stands-as-of-thursday/aml8wmi/

Trump axes plan for massive mask distribution

The United States Postal Service drafted an ambitious proposal in April to send a pack of five face masks to every residential address in the U.S. before top White House officials killed the idea, according to an analysis by the Washington Post of documents acquired by the watchdog organization American Oversight.

American Oversight, which obtained over 9,000 pages related to the USPS via the Freedom of Information Act, released the documents in late August. One of the records, entitled “U.S. Postal Service to Deliver Face Coverings to Every American Household,” is a draft of a press release indicating that USPS planned to “distribute 560 million reusable cotton face masks on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to every residential delivery point in America, beginning in areas which HHS has identified as experiencing high transmission rates of COVID-19 and to workers providing essential services throughout the nation during this pandemic.”

Composed in April, the draft stated that “letter carriers, rural carriers and others will deliver one pack of five face coverings to each residential delivery point and PO Box,” with the first shipments intended to reach residents that month. The Orleans and Jefferson parishes of Louisiana were targeted for delivery first, followed by Washington’s King County, Michigan’s Wayne County, and New York.

The draft was never finalized due to the White House axing the plan, the Washington Post reported, citing senior administration officials who asked to be anonymous.

“There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” one of the officials told the Post.

As an alternative, HHS instituted “Project: America Strong,” a system that has seen about 600 million masks distributed to critical infrastructure companies, hospitals and community groups, rather than individuals.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House also utilized the postal service to send out a postcard prominently displaying Donald Trump’s name with guidelines for good hygiene and social distancing ― a decision that Accountable.US, another nonprofit watchdog, lambasted due to the president publicly downplaying both these guidelines and the danger of the coronavirus at the time. Though the postcard went out in March to about 138 million addresses, the White House has yet to repay USPS for the $28 million cost of printing and distributing the cards.

In August, Trump seemingly admitted that he was intentionally blocking funding for the USPS, which is expected to see a torrent of mail-in ballots ahead of the November presidential election. The president has been propagating conspiracy theories against mail-in voting, claiming that it leads to “ballot harvesting” and “voter fraud.”

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/usps-plan-5-face-masks-to-every-american-white-house-174340862.html