Cook county sees record number of COVID-19 cases

Cook county received a one-week record of 58 new case of COVID-19 in the first week of January 2022, by far a one-week record for the county.

That brought the total to 456 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Over the last two months the county has received an increase in cases, rising from about seven new cases per week to double that.

As of December 30, 2021, Cook County had received notice of 398 cases of COVID-19. There was a report of 17 new cases in the seven previous days of the December 30 report. The week before that was similar with 17 cases reported. Cook County Public Health reports that 4,324 Cook County residents have had both vaccinations. Statewide, at the start of the new year, 3,764,738 folks have had at least one dose and 3,530,683 have completed their vaccine series.

Minnesota recorded 874 deaths reported in December, making it the deadliest month in 2021.

Meanwhile Minnesota Governor Tim Walz—who has just recovered from COVID-19—announced he is deploying specially trained National Guard personnel to nursing homes to help alleviate the strain on those medical staffs. The state is also issuing 1.8 million rapid at-home tests to distribute to schools and 150,000 test kits to communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

The fully vaccinated Governor told the Minneapolis Tribune that, “What starts out as a sore throat and a little bit of sniffles and a backache, assume in the environment we are in that that is omicron. Get a test. Find out… The sooner you find out, the sooner you are able to isolate and the sooner you are able to break the chain of spread.”