Stay Safe During the DNC

The 2024 Democratic National Convention is kicking off in Chicago on Monday, August 19 and will continue through Thursday, August 22. With a major event like the DNC comes tens of thousands of visitors to Chicago, so make sure to use best practices to keep yourself safe from respiratory illnesses like COVID-19. Stay up to date on your vaccines and consider masking in crowded spaces and on public transit, especially if you experience any symptoms.

Those who have COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses should stay home and away from others until their symptoms have been getting better overall for 24 hours, and if a fever was present, it has been gone for 24 hours without use of a fever-reducing medication. Once you resume normal activities, you are encouraged to take precautions for the next 5 days to curb disease spread including: wear a well-fitting mask, enhance your hygiene practices, take steps for cleaner air and keep a distance from others.

For more information on the Democratic National Convention and how the City has been preparing for it, visit the website of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

New Healthy Chicago Podcast

In the latest Spanish-language episode of the Healthy Chicago podcast, Dr. Jorge Cestou, Director of Research, Strategy, and Development at the Syndemic Infectious Disease Bureau at CDPH, joins Dr. Geraldine Luna to discuss the Get to Zero Illinois Plan 2.0. This ambitious initiative aims to diagnose HIV as early as possible, improve the quality of life for those living with or at risk for HIV, and address structural and institutional barriers to care, among other key objectives. They emphasize the goal of achieving zero new HIV infections by 2030 and detail how CDPH is collaborating with various organizations to reach this milestone, offering resources in both English and Spanish.

Tune in to the latest episode on the CDPH website and all major platforms:

YouTube / Spotify / Apple

City and Partners Release Air Temperature Study

On Wednesday, August 14, Elevate, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), Department of Environment (DOE), the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University's Buffett Institue for Global Affairs and the Defusing Disasters Working Group, published a report showing that families without central air conditioning are exposed to dangerous indoor temperatures during increasingly hotter summers.

The study was conducted concurrently with Heat Watch 2023, which measured ambient outdoor air temperatures at three different times of day for a one-day snapshot last summer. While limited to points in time, both studies highlight what has been identified anecdotally from residents around how they experience heat, and as the Defusing Disasters Working Group works to build the City's first community-driven public health heat vulnerability index, the City will be able to work toward developing policies, programs, and strategies to improve heat resiliency in Chicago communities and prevent hospitalizations and deaths of at-risk residents.

Data Brief on Adults with Disabilities

In collaboration with the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), CDPH is releasing a 2-page data brief focused on the experiences of individuals with disabilities in Chicago. The brief highlights the substantial population of Chicago adults with disabilities and the importance of healthy accessible neighborhoods. Key findings include the prevalence of disability in Chicago, a map of where people with disabilities live, and information about the demographic groups with the highest prevalence of disability. The data brief also presents insights into community belonging, trust in public institutions, neighborhood safety, and access to community resources for people with disabilities in Chicago. The information included in this brief is a sample of data that will be published in a collaborative report between CDPH and MOPD later this year.

For more information, the data brief is available on CDPH's Public Health Reports, Data, and Publications webpage

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