'Omicron and delta are coming to your party': Pritzker warns against big New Year's gatherings

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other health officials are asking Illinois residents to reconsider any significant New Year's holiday plans that may include large gatherings.

"Omicron and delta are coming to your party," Pritzker warned at a news conference Monday in Chicago, "so you need to think twice about how many people will be gathered together."

Pritzker was joined by Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike as well as hospital officials throughout the state who shared dire warnings about the growth in hospitalizations from COVID-19 infections the state is currently experiencing.

"Every single event being held during this holiday season will have one or two uninvited, unwanted guests - delta and omicron," Ezike said. "One or both could be there. And I'm not saying this to scare, I'm saying it for people to be aware. How we entertain that guest depends on us. If everyone wears a mask, we might not take that virus home."

Hospital officials said the explosion in cases over the last few weeks is putting significant pressure once again on hospital staffing.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Illinois are up 11.3% since Thursday, the last time those figures were reported by state health officials.

Illinois Department of Public Health records showed 4,755 COVID-19 patients were being treated in hospitals statewide, including 925 in intensive care.

Hospitalizations rose by 484 patients over the past four days, IDPH records show.

IDPH figures also showed that COVID-19 patients were more than 15% of all patients being treated in Illinois hospitals, the highest level in more than a year. The records also showed more than 31% of those in ICU beds were there because of COVID-19 infections.

Pritzker noted that unvaccinated residents make up the largest portion of COVID-19 patients, and the surge was limiting medical resources to those who might need care for heart attacks, strokes, cancer and other serious health emergencies.

"If you are unvaccinated and you get very sick, you'll be filling a bed that would have been available for your ailing spouse or your parent or your child or someone else's child, someone with cancer or a heart attack or seriously injured in a car accident," Pritzker said. "If we are forced to move to a crisis standard of care in our hospitals, it will be because massive numbers of unvaccinated people chose to let others go without quality care, and even more people will die."

Hospitals have begun restricting visitors as well because of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

Northshore University Health Systems, Edward-Elmhurst Health and Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights have announced new visitor guidelines.

The governor also urged municipal leaders around the state to enact similar vaccination mandates as the measures that will go into effect Jan 3. in Chicago and Cook County. The new rules require proof of vaccination to enter and stay in certain establishments including restaurants, bars, fitness centers, sports venues, concert halls and movie theaters.

"I want to call on local leaders to do what's right for their communities," he said.

Pritzker also said the state is reintroducing mass testing sites beginning Jan. 3 at many of the same locations that were used before.

In the suburbs, that includes an Aurora location at 4250 N. Farnsworth Ave. near the Premium Outlet Mall; at Arlington International Racecourse at 823 Wilke Road in Arlington Heights; and 102 W. Water St. in Waukegan. The free testing sites will operate from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

Pritzker and other governors met with President Joe Biden in a video call earlier Monday to discuss the increase in cases. Biden pushed for more testing capabilities and offered any support the federal government could give to states.

"Seeing as how hard it was for some people to get tested this weekend just shows we have more work to do," he told governors on the call.

According to IDPH figures, 55,958 new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the past four days. Since the outset of the pandemic, 2,077,260 cases have been diagnosed statewide.

IDPH records also show 153 more Illinois residents died from COVID-19 since Thursday, bringing the state's death toll from the respiratory disease to 27,588.

The state's seven-day case positivity rate is now at 7.8%, up from 6.3% when it was last reported by state health officials Thursday.

Case positivity is the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests. A seven-day average is used to account for any anomalies in the daily reporting of those figures.

Meanwhile, vaccine providers in Illinois were averaging 49,226 inoculations daily over the past week.

Over the past four days, vaccinations were limited because of the holiday and the usual decline on weekends. Only 131,863 doses of the vaccine were administered since Thursday, records show.

IDPH officials report 60.3% of the state's 12.7 million residents are now fully vaccinated.