COVID by the Numbers: Regional Metrics Soar as Illinois Sets Case, Hospitalization Records - NBC Chicago

covid illinois

COVID by the Numbers: Regional Metrics Soar as Illinois Sets Case, Hospitalization Records

Published January 3, 2022 • Updated on January 3, 2022 at 6:48 pm

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Illinois continues to set records in both new COVID cases and in hospitalizations related to the virus, with the state now averaging more than 23,000 new cases per day and reporting nearly 6,300 patients in hospitals as of Monday.

Illinois health officials reported 20,866 new COVID cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the state’s daily average to 23,069 new cases per day over the last seven days.

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In the last week, the state’s average number of new cases per day has increased by more than 58%, according to IDPH data.

Officials reported 30 new deaths in the last 24 hours, with 27,998 deaths now linked to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Another 3,214 deaths are considered “probable” COVID-19 fatalities.

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While the state did report 118,837 new tests in the last 24 hours, the state’s testing rate has decreased in the last seven days, falling to 180,669 per day.

Statewide, the positivity rate on all tests stands at 12.8%, while the positivity rate on individuals tested has risen to 17.5%, according to IDPH data.

Gov. JB Pritzker, along with Illinois health care officials, said in a COVID update to the state that they worry coronavirus numbers will get worse before improving again. NBC 5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern reports.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations hit a new all-time record in Illinois on Monday, with 6,294 patients currently testing positive for COVID while in Illinois hospitals. Of those patients, 1,086 are in intensive care units, the most the state has seen since Dec. 2020.

At the regional level, all 11 of the state’s health care regions are seeing rapid increases in positivity rates and in hospitalizations. In Region 7, comprised of Will and Kankakee counties, the positivity rate is at 20.7%, the highest in the state.

The region also has the lowest ICU bed availability, with just six ICU beds open out of 133 staffed beds.

In Region 2, comprised of counties in west and central Illinois, the positivity rate is at 19.1%, while in Region 4, located near St. Louis, the positivity rate is at 19.8%, according to IDPH data.

Region 5, located in southern Illinois, currently has seven ICU beds open for new patients, while nine are available in Region 1, located in the northwestern portion of the state.

The omicron variant has changed some of what many came to know about the coronavirus and how it spreads, but now with new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some are wondering when they are most contagious and for how long after contracting the virus?

Here are the latest metrics from each of Illinois’ 11 health care regions.

Region 1 (Northwest Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 16.1% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 6% (steady)

Hospitalization Trends – 9/10 days increasing

Region 2 (West-Central Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 19.1% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 12% (increasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days increasing

Region 3 (West Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 16.9% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 7% (increasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 7/10 days increasing

Region 4 (Southwest Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 19.8% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 14% (decreasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days increasing

Region 5 (South Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 11.8% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 10% (steady)

Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days increasing

Region 6 (East-Central Illinois):

Positivity Rate – 16.7% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 10% (increasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 8/10 days increasing

Region 7 (Will, Kankakee Counties):

Positivity Rate – 20.7% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 4% (steady)

Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days increasing

Region 8 (Kane, DuPage Counties):

Positivity Rate – 19.4% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 13% (decreasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days increasing

Region 9 (McHenry, Lake Counties):

Positivity Rate – 16.2% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 15% (decreasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 7/10 days increasing

Region 10 (Suburban Cook County):

Positivity Rate – 18.3% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 10% (decreasing)

Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days increasing

Region 11 (Chicago):

Positivity Rate – 18.5% (increasing)

ICU Bed Availability – 11% (steady)

Hospitalization Trends – 10/10 days increasing

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Prince Andrew's lawyers to ask US court to dismiss civil sexual assault case - BBC News

Virginia Roberts

The Duke of York's lawyers will argue in a US court later that a civil sexual assault lawsuit should be dismissed.

Virginia Giuffre is suing him for allegedly sexually assaulting her 20 years ago, when she was a teenager.

A document made public on Monday showed convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein paid her $500,000 (£371,000) to end her claim against him - and agree not to sue any other "potential defendant".

Prince Andrew has consistently denied the allegations.

While the settlement with Epstein does not mention the prince by name, his lawyers say the deal means she cannot sue him.

The interpretation of the 2009 document, disclosed by a New York court, will form a central plank of the argument in the civil case involving Prince Andrew.

Ms Giuffre alleges she was trafficked to the prince by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell - who was last week convicted of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be abused by the late financier.

Financier Epstein died in prison in 2019.

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Ms Giuffre's legal team say the terms of the Florida settlement are irrelevant to her case against the prince - which alleges sexual abuse by the royal in New York, London and the US Virgin Islands.

In her 2009 claim against Epstein, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said she was lured into a world of sexual abuse at his Florida home when she was a teenager.

They added: "In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy defendant's [Epstein] every sexual whim, [Ms Giuffre] was also required to be sexually exploited by defendant's adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and or other professional and personal acquaintances."

That case never went to trial because on 17 November 2009, Epstein agreed to pay her $500,000 to stop it in its tracks. That deal had been confidential but has now been made public because of its potential importance to the Prince Andrew case.

In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".

The settlement's wording says she discharges the potential defendants from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world".

The precise meaning of that wording is expected to be the subject of intense legal arguments in New York on Tuesday.

US Attorney's Office SDNY

In filings to the New York court last month, Andrew B. Brettler, the prince's lead lawyer, said of the settlement: "Epstein negotiated for this broad release, insisting that it cover any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits, regardless of the merit - or lack thereof - to any such claims.

"Giuffre's baseless claims against Prince Andrew... must be dismissed at this stage."

In a statement, one of Ms Giuffre's lawyers, David Boies, said the settlement was not relevant to her claim and "does not mention Prince Andrew".

"He did not even know about it," he added.

In a previous court filing, her lawyers said that the Epstein deal was "outside the four corners" of her action against Prince Andrew because it does not cover her claims against him.

Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who is presiding over the civil case, will hold a video teleconference later.

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Blaine County's COVID-19 case rate hitting new highs - Idaho Mountain Express and Guide

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Israel Records First Case of Patient with COVID and Flu - WebMD

IDC research makes the case for AI-driven supply chain forecasting - Logistics Management

Recently-issued research by Framingham, Mass.-based market research and consulting firm IDC highlighted the firm’s top 10 predictions and underlying drivers that the firm expects to have the biggest impact of manufacturers’ IT investments in 2022 and future years to come as well.

A top-level look at the predictions sees that they address remote operations, supply chain management, product and service innovation, security, data, and application sharing, B2B commerce, low code/no code, and sustainability.

Perhaps the most germane prediction, relative to our industry, was prediction number two, which was the following: “By 2023, 50% of All Supply Chain Forecasts Will Be Automated Using Artificial Intelligence, Improving Accuracy by 5 Percentage Points.”

That one really caught my eye, given everything that the supply chain has been through going back to the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. And while things have been uneven, to be fair, the pandemic really highlighted the need for better supply chain forecasting on myriad fronts, for things like supply chain resiliency, demand planning, inventory management, equipment and labor availability, among many others.

IDC’s analysis of the need for improved forecasting pulls no punches, in explaining that manufacturers have been running supply chains for centuries, and, for nearly that entire period, it is something that they have agonized over, with this zinger to complete the working thesis: “The only thing that has been universally true about any forecast is that it will be wrong.”

Maybe that is a little bit harsh (and humorous), but it is not incorrect either.

IDC goes on to observe that supply chain planning falls into three categories: short-term, focused on operational planning; medium-term, focused on tactical planning; and long-term, focused on strategic planning

The underlying theme of each of these categories, it observed, is that they each play a part in determining drivers such as capacity, suppliers, and inventory, with the caveat that as the supply chain gets closer to a particular event, it results in an improvement in precision, but not to the point of 100% accuracy either.

And that leads to this interesting observation made by IDC: “The ability for a supply chain to meet an unexpected demand ends up being about the decisions made earlier in the planning cycles. A supply chain tied too rigidly to a forecast will find itself unable to respond to material variations outside that forecast — because of a lack of either capacity, materials, or broad flexibility. We've talked in the past about supply chains ‘leaning’ themselves to the point of being ‘brittle.’

What’s more, this is helping to move the needle forward for manufacturers to “look outside the box” for what IDC described as innovative, technology-enabled new ways of approaching the challenge of replenishment, like AI, that are not limited to looking for “that next best algorithm.”

That was made clear in an interview with Simon Ellis, Program Vice President, Supply Chain Strategies, IDC.

When asked what needs to happen to get manufacturer buy-in to get supply chain forecasts automated using AI by 2023, as per IDC’s prediction, Ellis noted it is a broad recognition that the current ways of doing forecasting, particularly short-term, aren’t working.  

“For many companies, their forecast accuracy is worse today than it’s been for a while,” he said. “Mostly this is due to massive swings in demand that are hard to predict. So, let’s stop doing it. Not all companies have the point of sale (or comparable data) that they need, but it’s mostly out there, so it requires more extensive data collection efforts. Also there needs to be some recognition from companies that their responsiveness capabilities may be insufficient.”

As a follow-up to that, Ellis said data management is standardized and measured across the organization and decision automation tools are real-time and comprehensively deployed for tactical task replacement and process enhancement.

As for how manufacturers can counter the notion of forecasts becoming "brittle" in the event they are unable to respond to material variations outside that forecast, Ellis was direct, simply saying that if they are unable to respond, then they’re unable to respond.

The reason for that, he said, is that calibrating the supply chain rigidly to a forecast is not a best practice anymore.

“Companies need to balance forecasting with responsiveness (or agility) if they are going to be resilient to demand fluctuations,” he said. “Whether that means agile inventory, or manufacturing capacity flexibility.”

He also offered up a few thoughts related to that below:

• Application of digital procurement tools allows for better balance of cost and capacity across most items, with increased supply flexibility; 
• Broader prequalification of backup supply; 
• Flexible production plans based on forecast variations; 
• Modern postponement capabilities; and 
• Full integration with all enterprise systems, and new and legacy systems/equipment are connected providing a real-time view into supply chain performance and needs

Like a whole host of other things, it is fair to say supply chain forecasting is an inexact science. That said, there are things that can be done to narrow the gap on the road to improved accuracy and forecasting in the future. Will it happen by 2023? It is likely too early to say, but IDC’s research certainly helps to make the case for why it should.

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In Case You Missed It, Here Is What Posted Over The Weekend - The Newtown Bee

Published: Jan 03, 2022 09:00 AM

A number of stories were posted to newtownbee.com this past weekend. In case you missed them, here is a list of some of those stories.

"Year In Review: Keeping The Faith In 2021," by Shannon Hicks, published January 1. Read more at newtownbee.com/01012022/year-in-review-keeping-the-faith-in-2021.

"Year In Review: Nonprofit Council Creates Volunteer Hub," by Alissa Silber, published January 1. Read more at newtownbee.com/01012022/year-in-review-nonprofit-council-creates-volunteer-hub.

"Year In Review: The Year School Doors Reopened," by Eliza Hallabeck, published December 31. Read more at newtownbee.com/12312021/year-in-review-the-year-school-doors-reopened.

"Year In Review: ‘Coexisting In Harmony’ Series Helped Residents Share Newtown With Wildlife," by Alissa Silber, published December 31. Read more at newtownbee.com/12312021/year-in-review-coexisting-in-harmony-series-helped-residents-share-newtown-with-wildlife.

"Masks Will Stay On For Certain Competitions," by Andy Hutchison, published January 2. Read more at newtownbee.com/01022022/masks-will-stay-on-for-certain-competitions.

Education Reporter Eliza Hallabeck can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.

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Ron DeSantis under pressure as Florida breaks its COVID case record - Axios

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks after a bill signing on Nov. 18, 2021. Photo: AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File

As coronavirus cases surge in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis' absence in public and the press has been a source of national debate.

What's happening: While Florida broke its single-day COVID-19 record with 75,900 cases on New Year's Eve, DeSantis had made one public appearance in the prior two weeks — a Fox News spot, per Florida Politics.

• While rumors circulated on DeSantis' whereabouts, his office told Fox that the governor was accompanying his wife, Casey, to cancer treatments.
• DeSantis finally made an appearance at a New Year's Eve celebration at a Christian concert in Miami, not addressing the COVID spike but telling the crowd, "I'm glad we're going to be able to celebrate the new year in the freest state of the United States."

Why it matters: His media presence isn't the concern. It's his lack of responses to critics like Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who are both asking DeSantis to make testing more accessible and push for more booster shots in nursing homes.

• The Associated Press reported that three people collapsed while waiting in line at a testing site in Tampa on Friday morning.

Between the lines: Even during past COVID spikes, DeSantis has usually been quick with retorts to criticism. Now that the holidays are over and cases are rising, critics will be watching his response to officials calling for more tests and shots.

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