The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is advising unvaccinated travelers to take special precautions if they plan to travel in the coming week to areas of the United Statessuch as parts of the upper Plains, upper Northeast and Kentuckythat have higher COVID-19 risk levels than the rest of the country, based on the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC's) COVID-19 Community Levels (CCL).
CDPH is adjusting its travel advisory to align with this new county-level guidance from the CDC and will provide its travel guidance every Friday going forward.
The CCL tool is designed to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Levels can be low, medium or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used by COVID-19 patients, new COVID-19 hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. The CDC measures COVID-19 Community Levels in counties from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 78 counties in Puerto Rico.
Most states have low COVID-19 levels, but a couple states, such as Montana and Kentucky, have significant clusters of medium-to-high COVID-19 levels.
Six Michigan counties, all in the upper northwest portion of the state around the Traverse City area, have high COVID-19 levels. No Wisconsin counties currently have high COVID-19 levels.