Chicago's top doc: City still maintaining high levels of COVID transmission, encourages vaccines and boosters

CHICAGO - Chicago's top doc said she is concerned about the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, but believes the sky is not falling. 

Dr. Arwady says she believes there is more than likely a few cases of Omicron is already in the United States.

Chicago is still maintaining high levels of transmission — reaching about 500 new cases a day in the city.

The test positivity rate is currently at 3.5 percent. 

So, what is Chicago doing to stay on top of these variants?

Health officials say they have a system in place and work with local hospitals to do the sequencing. 

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Arwady also says a new variant is not unexpected. 

"Every week we're asking them to send us a random sample of positive COVID type so that we can do that genetic fingerprint on them. And the sample is representative of the city population in terms of demographics and geography," said Dr. Arwady. "We're asking these partner hospitals to double the number of samples that they're sending us and in addition to the routine surveillance, we also look for situations that might be concerning."

Arwady says there are still a lot more questions than answers — like, do you get sicker? Does the vaccine work? How effective are the vaccines against Omicron?

Dr. Arwady is also still pushing vaccines and boosters.

Currently, 77.2 percent of Chicagoans 12 and up have received at least one dose.