Although much of suburban Cook County is currently experiencing sustained increases in COVID-19 cases, which caused the Cook County Department of Public Health to issue new mitigation guidance yesterday for bars, restaurants, indoor fitness facilities, personal care facilities and more, new cases of COVID-19 in Skokie remain low and the Skokie Health Department is not imposing any additional guidance or restrictions at this time.
“Skokie’s COVID-19 positivity rate remains at 3%, which is significantly lower than the 5.8% in the much of the rest of suburban Cook County,” said Skokie Health Director Dr. Catherine Counard. “Skokie also only has one-tenth the case rate, and Skokie area hospitals have good capacity to accept new patients. All of this data means that the Skokie community is doing a great job of taking measures to protect everyone’s health by wearing cloth face coverings in public places, practicing physical distancing, staying home when they feel sick and cooperating with contact tracing efforts when cases do occur.”
Individuals who live and work in Skokie are strongly encouraged to continue their outstanding efforts to comply with the important health protection measures. “Should the data change, with increases in Skokie’s positivity rate, decreased area hospital capacity or other indicators that Skokie is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, we will join the rest of suburban Cook County and implement stricter mitigation standards as needed,” said Counard. “The importance of individual actions to protect everyone’s health cannot be overemphasized.”
Please continue to practice all of these important health protection measures:
See information on local sources for cloth face coverings.