CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- After a summer of seeing a rise in the number of people contracting COVID-19 in Chicago and the rest of Illinois, there may be a glimmer of hope.
The numbers of COVID cases in Illinois are still higher than they’ve been in months, but public health officials said they are starting to see signs the infection rate may be leveling off.
The state has seen its COVID test positivity rate dip slightly over the past couple of days to 4.8 percent.
Governor Pritzker said officials will be watching to see if those day by day decreases in COVID numbers stretch into weeks and that it’s more than a leveling off, but an actual decrease.
"We’ll watch the numbers over the next few days to see whether we can string together a week and two weeks of numbers, not just flattening, but heading down. We’ll take action, certainly, as we see things improving," said Governor Pritzker.
He added that he doesn’t know if there will be a spike in COVID numbers with schools being back in-person, but he said there are two ways to keep down the spread of COVID-19.
"Mask wearing does an awful lot to curb the spread, and of course, getting vaccinated is perhaps the most important thing to keep people safe," Pritzker said.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the city has been seeing COVID numbers stabilizing over the past few days, too. She said it might be because of the city’s indoor mask mandate.
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Vaccinations are also up. More than 5,000 people a day are getting COVID shots in the City of Chicago.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, more than 6.5 million people are fully vaccinated. That’s 53 percent of the population. On average, more than 40,000 people are getting COVID shots each day.
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