{"id":30048,"date":"2021-09-24T20:08:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T01:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=30048"},"modified":"2021-09-24T20:08:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T01:08:14","slug":"covid-19-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2021\/09\/24\/covid-19-update\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As COVID-19 infections rise across the country and new, increasingly contagious variants gain prominence, the CDC and IDPH have updated recommendations for mask-wearing. Unvaccinated people are at particular risk of being infected with COVID-19. The CDC and IDPH <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">continue to recommend<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that those twelve years of age or older be<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">vaccinated<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Variants&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currently, four<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cvariants of concern<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are circulating in the US. The variants differ in speeds of transmission and severity. Vaccines and treatments help to prevent and mitigate the effects of all, but some variants remain more difficult to manage than others. Tests are able to detect COVID-19-positivity regardless of variant, but they cannot identify the variant a person has.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Beta variant may spread more quickly than variants that are not \u201cof concern\u201d (referred to as \u201cother variants\u201d henceforth). As indicated by current data, it does not cause more severe sickness or carry an increased likelihood of death. Authorized vaccines are largely successful in preventing this variant, though rare breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people do occur. Even in such cases, vaccines help to reduce the severity of illness, the need for hospitalization, and odds of death. Specific monoclonal antibody treatments\u2014immunotherapy via which monoclonal antibodies to bind to the virus and prevent it from entering cells\u2014are less effective against this variant<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Gamma variant spreads more quickly than other variants. Present data indicate no increased likelihood of more severe illness or death associated with it. Similar to the Beta variant, authorized vaccines are successful in its prevention, though a fully vaccinated person may occasionally contract it. Still, vaccination will minimize this variant\u2019s effects. Specific monoclonal antibody treatments are less effective against this variant.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Alpha variant spreads significantly more quickly than other variants and may cause more severe sickness in those infected. Authorized vaccines are also successful in preventing this variant, but again rare breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people do occur. Treatments are effective against this variant<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Delta <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is another variant that spreads significantly faster than other variants. It\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/variants\/delta-variant.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">more than twice as contagious<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as the original strain and 50% more contagious than the Alpha variant. It may cause more severe sickness than other variants. As with the other three variants of concern, authorized vaccines are effective in prevention for all but a small proportion of people, in whom breakthrough cases may occur. However, data suggest that infected, fully vaccinated people may spread the virus to others. Specific monoclonal antibody treatments are less effective against this variant.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Mask Mandate&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following updated recommendations from the CDC, the IDPH adopted <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">new guidelines<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for mask-wearing in public on July 27th. As the virus continues to spread throughout the country, and with the emerging Delta variant increasing transmission rates, the IDPH recommends that everyone, fully vaccinated or not, \u201cwear a mask indoors in areas of substantial and high transmissions, and in K-12 schools.\u201d Areas of substantial transmission, according to the CDC, are those with 50-99 cases per 100,000 people within a 7-day period. Areas of high transmission have seen 100+ cases per 100,000 people within the same. The level of transmission per county can be found <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vaccination Mandate<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On August 26th Governor J.B. Pritzker announced via <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.illinois.gov\/government\/executive-orders\/executive-order.executive-order-number-20.2021.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">executive order<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that some groups of public sector workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 5th or be tested regularly for the virus. These groups are all public PreK-12 teachers and staff, higher education employees and students, and health care workers. Similarly, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/news\/local\/chicago-announces-covid-vaccine-mandate-for-all-city-workers\/2598278\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">statement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a day earlier that full COVID-19 vaccination will be required of all city employees and volunteers by October 15th.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These mandates come as the majority of Illinoisans personally affected by COVID-19 are unvaccinated. According to Pritzker, unvaccinated people accounted for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/26\/us\/illinois-mask-covid-vaccine\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">98%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of Illinois COVID-19 cases, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/26\/us\/illinois-mask-covid-vaccine\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">96%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of hospitalizations, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/26\/us\/illinois-mask-covid-vaccine\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">95%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of deaths between January and July.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe data shows that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself and those you come in contact with from serious illness, hospitalization, or death from COVID-19,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/26\/us\/illinois-mask-covid-vaccine\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said Dr. Allison Arwady<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner. \u201cAdopting and implementing this requirement,\u201d she continued, on the topic of the Chicago mandate, \u201cis the responsible, common-sense approach, which is why we\u2019re seeing so many other government agencies, companies, institutions, and organizations pursue this course of action.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As COVID-19 infections rise across the country and new, increasingly contagious variants gain prominence, the CDC and IDPH have updated recommendations for mask-wearing. Unvaccinated people&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":576,"featured_media":30049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[3257,3374],"coauthors":[3434],"class_list":["post-30048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-back-to-school-edition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30101,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30048\/revisions\/30101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30048"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}