COVID-19 numbers continue to ebb and flow across the state and currently, Illinois is experiencing a slight uptick in numbers after several weeks of decrease. Currently, the seven-day positivity rate is sitting right above 3%. Michigan is also seeing an uptick in the midwest. Lori Grooms, a director of Infection Prevention and Control for OSF Healthcare says that seasonal upticks are normal but she doesn’t think there will be another surge like we saw last year.

Grooms says that we won’t see a spike due to the number of people who have gotten vaccines and boosters. She also says that as far as COVID goes, the next step is to downgrade it to an endemic, which is different than an epidemic.

A disease is considered an endemic when it is manageable or not causing a burden on the health care system. It allows the community to go back to normal activities. Grooms compares it to the flu outbreak of 1918.

Exposure can come either through infection or through vaccination. A recent study of COVID-19 infections among people who were previously infected with the virus shows that unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were vaccinated.  Grooms says she agrees with those findings. 

For more information on how to get your vaccine or booster for COVID-19, contact your primary care physician.