(WSIL) -- The COVID-19 Delta Variant may not be in Southern Illinois yet. But, health officials are asking residents to remain vigilant.
The Southern Seven Health Department, is working under the notion that the variant is in the area, says community outreach coordinator Nathan Ryder. Ryder says the Delta strain is more dangerous than COVID-19.
"People need to know about [the variant] and be able to weigh that against the risk of what they perceived as a relatively low risk of getting COVID-19 before and not being vaccinated," Ryder said.
About three-quarters of new COVID-19 cases in Missouri are from the Delta variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Southern Seven has recorded a steady increase of COVID-19 cases. The department tracked 47 new cases last week, 40 new cases two weeks ago and 11 new cases three weeks ago.
Ryder says the best thing people can do is to get vaccinated. Southern Seven has plenty of doses of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, Ryder says.
This comes as Chicago Arkansas and Missouri to its travel advisory list. That means unvaccinated people traveling from those states to Chicago must quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test. Ryder says Southern Seven doesn't institute travel advisories and relies on state guidelines.
