October Coronavirus Cases Trend Upward In Alsip And Crestwood

Lorraine Swanson
·2 min read

ALSIP-CRESTWOOD, IL — October is officially behind us, but COVID-19, not so much. The pandemic has been upon us for over seven months and cases continue to rise here in Illinois.

Indoor dining at restaurants in nearly every region in Illinois was put on pause last week, as state public health officials announced new restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Indoor service at bars and restaurants in suburban Cook County are now off-limits, all outdoor eating or drinking has to stop by 11 p.m. and gatherings are limited to a maximum of 25 people.

This action marks the first time the additional mitigation measures are applied to suburban Cook County. Similar restrictions are already in place in Regions 7 and 8, including DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties.

Johns Hopkins University and Medicine reports there have been a total of 46,509,232 COVID-19 cases around the world— as of Nov. 1. Over nine-million of those cases are here in the United States.

As of Oct. 30, Cook County has had a total of 76,070 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. Cook has also reported 2,062 deaths since the start of the pandemic, and a 9.2 percent test positivity rate in the last week.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 650 cases have been reported in Alsip, and 323 in Crestwood. Forty-nine new cases were reported in Alsip and 19 in Crestwood over the past 14 days. Both communities showed increases of 33.8 percent in Alsip, and 36.4 percent in Crestwood, for the reporting period ending Oct. 24, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. Numbers are updated every Wednesday.

Across suburban Cook County, the positivity rate and the rate of hospital admissions has been rising sharply. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported that there are 3,294 people across Illinois in the hospital for COVID-19 or are under investigation. About 14 percent of hospital beds are being occupied by these patients and 692 of these patients are in the ICU, as of Oct. 31.

This article originally appeared on the Alsip-Crestwood Patch