Coronavirus Latest: Daily updates from NBC 5

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In the Know: Your Daily Coronavirus Update It's Sunday, Sep. 18th Here are today's top stories. 1 How Long Is COVID Contagious? Here's What to Know If You Test Positive If you are battling with a bout of COVID currently, you may be wondering how long you will be contagious. During a Facebook Live last month, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady reported that recent studies have shown the incubation period — which is the number of days between infection and the onset of symptoms — for COVID has dropped to three days with recent, extra-contagious variants. "So if you go back to like alpha variant, beta, delta — early on, it was about a five-day incubation period on average. So, if you were exposed to COVID, on average, we were seeing people take about five days for someone to end up testing positive — and remember that went from four to five, out to 10, out to 14," she said. "The reason … we only use 10 days now, it is because that timing has shortened. And so, more recently with BA.4, BA.5, that's all the way down to about three days now. So on average, people are testing positive about three days after, but you can have someone positive up to 10 days." Read More → 2 Coronavirus in Illinois: Nearly 18K New Cases, 74 Deaths Reported in Last Week Illinois health officials reported 17,584 new COVID-19 cases over the past week, along with 74 additional deaths, marking a decrease in cases from a week prior, as 20 counties within the state remain at a "high" community level for COVID-19. The previous week, Illinois reported 19,933 new cases and 64 deaths. The week before that, 26,127 new cases and 70 deaths were reported. The latest numbers come as reformulated vaccines that target the latest omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, began across the state. Read More → 3 Illinois Coronavirus Updates: Change in State COVID Guidelines Take Effect Changes to Illinois' COVID guidelines take effect Friday, one day after the governor announced them. Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic across Illinois today: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration on Thursday announced a change to the state's COVID mitigation strategies. Read More → 4 Could Early Surge in Respiratory Illnesses Signal Even Worse Fall and Winter? An uptick in respiratory illnesses and other viruses is expected and often observed as the seasons change and the weather gets cooler. Yet in 2022, a significant spike in hospitalizations in the Chicago, particularly among children, has surfaced much earlier than anticipated. Hospitalizations have climbed drastically in recent weeks, causing concern among health experts that an even more pronounced surge could be in store for a winter where COVID-19 cases are once again expected to climb. Read More → 5 Gov. Pritzker Announces Change to COVID-19 Requirements in Illinois Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration on Thursday announced a change to the state's COVID mitigation strategies. Among the new guidelines was an update to testing requirements for school and childcare employees. Unvaccinated employees in those settings will no longer be required to test twice weekly. The change goes into effect Friday, according to the governor's office. Read More → 6 Will COVID Symptoms Shift Heading Into Fall and Winter? What Experts Say to Expect As COVID symptoms have shifted since the start of the pandemic, many are wondering what to expect next as the variant is expected to continue mutating heading into fall and winter. What are experts watching for? With the pandemic heading into its third winter, Chicago health experts noted on Tuesday that newer variants can bring changes in symptoms – in fact, they already have. The latest BA.5 variant remains the top driver of cases in the United States, but as new omicron-specific booster shots become readily available, health officials are watching for if a new variant will emerge. Read More → Got a tip or story idea? tips@nbcchicago.com Follow Unsubscribe | Unsubscribe from this mailing: WMAQ_coronavirus | Change email preferences | Privacy | Terms ©2021 Copyright NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations 30 Rockefeller Plaza - New York, NY 10112