North Cook News

Illinois residents opposed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest vaccine mandate are planning a noon protest in front of Skokie Village Hall on Jan. 12.

“Let’s bundle up and join our voices together, regardless of our vaccination status," organizer Emma Woodhouse posted on Twitter. It’s time to stand united against the insanity, for each other, for our children.”

Since Jan. 3, Chicago residents are required to provide proof of vaccination for indoor public spaces which include restaurants, bars and gyms in the new year. Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the policy, putting the city alongside other big cities like New York and Los Angeles in adding the requirement as protection against rising COVID-19 infection rates.

The mandate applies for anyone age 5 and older and will also extend to entertainment venues where food and drinks are being served. Employees at those facilities will also be required to be vaccinated or wear a mask and show proof of weekly negative COVID-19 tests.

"Despite our diligent and equitable vaccine distribution efforts throughout this year, unfortunately our city continues to see a surge of COVID-19 delta and now omicron cases," Lightfoot added in a statement. "New steps must be taken to protect the health and wellbeing of our residents. This public health order requiring proof of vaccination to visit certain indoor public places is a necessary measure to ensure we can continue to enjoy our city's many amenities as we enter the new year."

Across Illinois, cases and hospitalizations continued to rise as the holiday approached. According to NBC5 Chicago, Illinois recently hit a new single-day record for COVID-19 cases, with over 44,000 residents testing positive between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6.  

In New York, the picture is much the same, with cases recently hitting a daily record, in large part stemming from an increase in cases involving the omicron variant, CBS New York reported. In the face of the spike, New York city officials enacted two new vaccine mandates that stand to impact thousands who make their living working with kids.

Over the last month, 11 workers at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Polar Station caught the virus, despite workers being fully vaccinated and situated in one of the world’s most remote regions, BBC reported. International Polar Foundation officials said that the first positive test was recorded on Dec. 15  and involved a team that had arrived a few days earlier from Cape Town in South Africa.

Finally, a Harvard study of 68 nations and 2,947 counties across the country published in the European Journal of Epidemiology recently raised questions about the overall effectiveness of vaccines, concluding there was "no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days."