Kane County health official hopeful COVID-19 omicron surge is ending

Emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated

The latest local COVID-19 stats show unvaccinated people are far more likely to be hospitalized with the virus then people who are vaccinated.

With the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on the decline as well as Kane County’s positivity rate, Kane County Health Department official Michael Isaacson is hopeful that the current COVID-19 surge caused by the highly transmissible omicron variant is on its last legs.

“Looking back over the last 30 days, the good news is we’re finally starting to trend down,” Isaacson, the Kane County Health Department assistant director of community health, said in speaking to area Chamber of Commerce organizations as part of a Zoom webinar Friday. “Over the last seven days, just under one in five tests have been coming back positive.”

As of Jan. 18, Kane County’s seven-day positivity rate decreased was 17.9%, down from 19.4% on Jan. 17. The positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive out of all the people tested in a given time period.

Hospitalizations in the West Suburban region (DuPage and Kane counties) decreased or remained stable four out of the past 10 days. The region is down to 778 total COVID-19 patients in the hospital.

“Prior to this, for about 26 out of the last 30 days, we had an increase in the number of people in the hospital each day,” Isaacson said. “For historical context, we’ve had more people in the hospital in the last month than we’ve ever had, including the spike we had about a year ago.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health will release the latest COVID-19 statistics on Monday. Even though the omicron variant appears to have relatively mild symptoms for those who have been vaccinated, Isaacson said the variant is causing its share of deaths.

“A week ago, we lost 20 people to COVID,” he said. “Even though there’s a lot of mild cases, I just want to emphasize there’s still a lot of people that are getting seriously ill. Right now, unfortunately, we’re not only seeing a lot of cases, but we’re losing way too many people. So this is still very serious.”

As of Jan. 16, about 85% of the COVID-19 cases in Illinois are estimated to be attributed to the omicron variant, Isaacson said. He implored people to get vaccinated.

“Looking at a survey last month of 250 hospitals across the country, people 18 and older who are not vaccinated are 16 times more likely to be hospitalized than the vaccinated population,” he said. “Looking at even our younger population, 12 to 17-year-olds, they are nine times more likely to be hospitalized if they’re unvaccinated.”

For someone who is 65 and older and not vaccinated, they are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized, Isaacson said.

“The vaccines are working,” Isaacson said.

He noted that people can test positive for COVID-19 even after getting their booster shots.

“We’re seeing that happen quite a bit,” he said. “But those people are not becoming seriously ill. So that’s where you are getting most of your protection. People are less likely to be passing the disease on to other people. So to protect yourself, getting vaccinated is the absolute best thing you can do.”

In Kane County, about 64% of the county’s total population is fully vaccinated, Isaacson said.

“Eighty-six percent of our 65 and over population was fully vaccinated, so that continues to be great news,” he said.

Isaacson stressed that people need to continue to follow mitigation measures like social distancing and wearing a face mask as Kane County’s COVID-19 transmission level remains high.

“From a public health perspective, all of the data we’ve seen from around the world does show a reduction in transmission when people wear face coverings,” he said. ‘With this omicron variant, it seems to spread so much more easily that the CDC is making recommendations that a higher filtration mask is going to offer more protection.”