Recent Trends

The top chart shows that the weekly number of new cases per 100,000 in Evanston, suburban Cook County, Chicago, and the State are each below 20. The lower chart shows that the test-positivity rates in each region are below 1.5%.  The low rates indicate that the amount of testing in each region is adequate.

The number of people in the State who are being vaccinated continues to grow, but at a much slower pace than in April. As of June 15, 61.15% of Illinois residents 12 and older had at least one dose of a vaccine; 52.72% were fully vaccinated.

As of June 7, 86% of Evanston residents 12 and older had received at least one dose of a vaccine; 72% were fully vaccinated.

Evanston – COVID

In the last six days, the City has reported no new COVID-19 cases of Evanston residents.

There has been a total of two new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, for an average of 1.4 new cases per day.  

There has been a total of 4,650 COVID-19 cases of Evanston residents during the pandemic, seven of which are active. 

No Evanstonian has died due to COVID-19 since May 31. The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 118.

Impact of Northwestern University. Northwestern University has posted data on its website reporting that between June 7 and June 13, there was one new confirmed COVID-19 case of an NU student or staff member. If the student or staff member resides in Evanston, the case would be included in the City’s numbers.  

FOOTNOTES

1/ The State moved to Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois Plan on June 11. Going forward, the RoundTable plans to cover COVID-19 metrics on a more limited basis. Specifically, we plan to provide charts showing: 1) the trends in the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in recent seven-day periods for Evanston, Chicago, Suburban Cook County; and 2) the most recent test positivity rates for these areas.  Each chart will also provide the State’s numbers on June 10 as a baseline to gauge whether cases and test positivity rates are going up since the move to Phase 5.

As discussed in footnote 2 below, the CDC recommends that these two measures be used to determine the level of risk of transmission.  If we see a surge in new cases or in the test positivity rates, we will consider covering additional metrics.

We will also report the most recent percentages of vaccinated people, 12 years and older, in Evanston and Illinois.

2/ On Feb. 12, the CDC issued a K-12 School Operational Strategy. As part of that strategy, the report says CDC recommends the use of two measures to determine the level of risk of transmission: 1) the total number of new cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days; and 2) the percentage of COVID tests during the last seven days that were positive. The CDC provides a chart to assess whether the risk of transmission is low, moderate, substantial, or high. If the two indicators suggest different levels of risk, CDC says the higher level of risk should be used. The table below, reprinted from CDC’s report, provides CDC’s Indicators and Thresholds for Community Transmission of COVID-219.

CDC’s guidelines are available here: Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention | CDC

Larry Gavin was a co-founder of the Evanston RoundTable in 1998 and assisted in its conversion to a non-profit in 2021. He has received many journalism awards for his articles on education, housing and...