Will County Health Department Urging Residents To Mask Up

The Will County Health Department (WCHD) is reminding all Will County residents to be wearing masks indoors in public settings due to Will County being designated as a COVID-19 substantial transmission county by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  This applies to both vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals.

Substantial transmission counties are described by the CDC as having 50 to 99 new cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period.  Much of a recent substantial increase in Will County COVID-19 cases has been traced to the current Delta variant, which CDC data has shown to travel from one person to another more than twice as easily compared to other COVID-19 strains.  Please go to the CDC data tracker link for more information: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home.

“In the last few weeks we have seen positive COVID case numbers more than triple,” said WCHD Executive Director Sue Olenek.  “It is mostly due to the Delta variant, but it is still COVID-19, and those who are unvaccinated are at risk.  Please get your vaccination, and therefore limit the transmission of the virus.  As the number of vaccinated individuals increases, the virus has less people to infect, and therefore less of an opportunity to continue mutating.”

It was earlier this week that the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced that they are aligning with the CDC’s updated recommendations for masking, as well as their updated recommendations for fully vaccinated people.  The vaccinated people recommendations include both masking indoors in public places, as well as getting tested within three to five days after exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

For more information on COVID-19, and vaccination and testing opportunities, please go to https://willcountyhealth.org/covid-19/.