SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WMBD) — The Illinois Department of Public Health announced all Illinois counties are at a low community level for COVID-19 Friday.
According to an IDPH news release, this is down from four counties being at medium community level last week. No counties have been at a high community COVID-19 level for the last seven weeks.
Since the pandemic started, IDPH has reported of 4,135,808 COVID-19 cases and 36,850 COVID-19-related deaths.
The World Health Organization announced on Friday the end of the global health emergency for COVID-19 that has been in place since January 2020. With the end of the national and state public health emergency ending on May 11, some changes in data collection are expected.
According to IDPH:
- After May 11, the CDC has announced it will stop tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases at the community level, meaning that it will no longer be providing a weekly updates that show whether COVID-19 cases are at Low, Medium or High Level.
- Hospitals will no longer be required to report the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital beds or in the ICU or on ventilators.
- IDPH will continue to report the weekly number of COVID-19 hospital admissions, cases and deaths and weekly vaccination data.
- Data on COVID-19 and the flu will also continue to be reported via the Illinois Waste Water Surveillance System dashboard.
“We want the public to know that due to changes in federal reporting requirements some of the COVID-19 data that we have been collecting will change after May 11,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “However, IDPH will still have reliable methods for tracking COVID-19 in Illinois. IDPH will continue its focus on protecting the public from COVID-19, especially those individuals who are vulnerable to serious illness. With the World Health Organization’s news today of the end of the global health emergency, as well as the national public health emergency and statewide disaster declarations ending in less than a week, it is very good news that cases remain low. All counties in Illinois are now at Low Community Level for COVID-19 and this marks the seventh straight week with zero counties at a high COVID-19 community level.”
IDPH still encourages everyone to seek treatment if they test positive for COVID-19.
More information is available on IDPH’s website.