CHICAGO (CBS) — Seven more states are now off the Chicago Travel Advisory but starting next week, the city will be using the listing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as COVID cases are dropping in the U.S. and Illinois.
“This is actually the last update of the travel advisory in the way that you all have gotten used to hearing it, where for nearly two years now, we have been calculating what are the case rates per 100,000 and then sharing states that are higher risk and states that are lower risk. So as of today, the 11 states in orange are still on the travel advisory, meaning they’re averaging more than 15 cases per 100,000 per day,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH.)
The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) said Alabama, California, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon are no longer on the city’s travel advisory.
The agency announced that it’ll be updating its advisory “to align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Community Levels.” That starts on Friday, March 25.
“Moving forward, Chicago’s Travel Advisory will be updated every Friday to align with the release of the updated CDC COVID-19 Community Level data,” according to the CDPH.
The Chicago Travel Advisory will be adjusted for the new CDC guidance. It designates counties nationwide as high, medium, or low risk.
“We think this helps people understand the risk when they travel and know how to be prepared. But looking ahead, starting this Friday we will transition the travel advisory to align with the CDCs COVID-19 community levels,” Arwady said.
Right now, the state of Illinois is considered low risk. The CDC’s website lets people look for counties to look at the current risk level.
“Chicago’s Travel Advisory was always meant to be used by Chicagoans as a tool to help make informed decisions about travel based on their individual and local COVID-19 risk,” said Arwady said. “As we enter this new phase of the pandemic, it’s important for us to remember that all risk is local – and by aligning with the CDC COVID-19 Community Levels, we’re able to better recommend the prevention steps that align with the specific risk.”
Dr. Arwady said while the area is “in a good place” she warns that with the new BA.2 variant, people should still be aware that COVID has not disappeared and people should continue to look at numbers, both locally and to places where they’re planning to travel.
She said there are no plans to get rid of the Chicago Travel Advisory altogether.
“We definitely want to maintain the travel advisory. We think this helps people understand the risk when they travel and know how to be prepared,” Arwady said.
There has been a slight uptick in coronavirus cases here in Chicago in the last week and Dr. Arwady believes that is partly driven by the increase in Omicron BA.2 cases.
“In Chicago, we’ve seen that BA.2 doubling about every seven days, so we do think we’ll see predominance, meaning most of our cases will be that BA.2 by the end of the month.”
She added “we are starting to see a little bit of an increase. If you’ve been following along on our dashboard. We are committed to continuing to update that daily Monday through Friday. We’ve seen a little bit of an uptake and in cases were averaging just 156 per day across the whole city. But that’s up from the 130s about a week ago,” Arwady said, who added that the city’s positivity rate is in a good place.
“Our positivity is beautiful 0.8%. Better than almost anywhere in the country, even in the world. But it also is up just a little bit. It was 0.7% a week ago. We have a stably low number of people in the hospital,123 folks with COVID in Chicago hospitals and another 25 in the ICU right now with COVID but we are starting to see a little bit of an increase. Nothing to be alarmed about. Not unexpected, as we’ve had some changing behaviors as we’re seeing more of the BA.2 very much still in control. But something we’re keeping a close eye on.”
As spring break travel gets underway and as people make plans for summer travel, people should look at the CDC’s chart to understand what is happening in the areas they’ve visiting.
“What have we been saying for two years risk is local epidemiology is local,” Arwady said. “And so we are going to be referring to the CDC advisor you can see there’s just a few areas in the country that are high risk right now. But if there are Chicagoans traveling to those areas of Appalachian or northern Maine or eastern Montana, we want folks to know that risk is high. All travelers should check this map.”
