COVID-19 update

Next Monday will mark the 10th month anniversary of the Governor's stay-at-home order. Put another way, we are about to start our 11th month of our temporary two-week shutdown.

Vaccines are coming... eventually. They exist, anyway, and all we have to do is wait our turn. And wait some more. But remember when it was big news that there'd been a thousand tests administered in a single day? On November 25, the IDPH announced that there had been 10 million tests administered in the State of Illinois, 114,233 specimens having been tested in the 24 hours preceding alone. Vaccinations will ramp up similarly -- and the sooner the better, thank you.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Chief Judge has put out another COVID-19 update: Another employee, one who works at the Juevenile Temporary Detention Center, has tested positive for the virus. This brings to 100 the number of JTDC staff cases; there have also been some 80 resident cases there.

In total, according to this morning's announcement, 245 employees (out of a total of 2,600) of the Chief Judge's Office have tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, 18 judges, out of about 400, have tested positve.

The most recent COVID-19 update from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office is dated January 7. According to that announcement, an employee of that office, working at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, is the most recent person to report a positive test result. Some 71 employees of the SAO have tested positive for COVID-19, according to that announcement.