As new year starts, COVID-19 has taken 26 lives in Forest Park

The death of an 85-year-old woman on Jan. 2 marks the first COVID-19 death in Forest Park in 2021 and the 26th COVID-19 death since the beginning of the pandemic.

In total, Forest Park has had 890 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Jan. 4. There were 26 new cases reported last week and, as of Monday, the percent change in confirmed cases over the past two weeks had decreased by 21.1 percent, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. More information is available at https://ccdphcd.shinyapps.io/covid19/.

Looking at a broader area, Forest Park is part of Region 10 in the state’s COVID-19 tracking and mitigation plan, along with the rest of suburban Cook County.

As of Jan. 4, in Region 10 the COVID-19 positivity rate has been under the 12 percent threshold for 11 days, and there has been a 10 day decrease in the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. However, ICU beds and medical/surgical beds have been over the 20 percent threshold for two consecutive days.

For more information on Illinois COVID-19 resurgence criteria, visit https://dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics.