US Postal Service Dealing with ‘Historic Volume of Holiday Mail
If you mailed-out holiday gifts weeks ago thinking the packages would arrive in plenty of time for Christmas Day, you may want to check the status of the delivery.
“This negative impact is compounded by the temporary employee shortage due to the COVID-19 surge, as well as ongoing capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving this historic volume of mail,” said USPS spokesperson Tim Norman.
The American Postal Workers Union said nearly 19,000 postal employees are currently in quarantine after either contracting, or being exposed to, the coronavirus.
“You have to understand that we’ve had people exposed to the virus. They’ve had childcare issues or they’re not able to come to work,” said APWU Local 1 Chicago president Keith Richardson.
Illinois Reports 4,699 New Coronavirus Cases, 98 Additional Deaths Monday
According to the latest numbers from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois now has 905,069 probable or confirmed cases of coronavirus during the pandemic.
Monday s 98 additional fatalities bring the state to 15,299 deaths as a result of the pandemic, with another 1,228 deaths classified as “probable” COVID-19-related fatalities, according to IDPH data.
Over the last 24 hours, 86,454 test specimens were returned to state laboratories, according to IDPH data.
In all, 12,520,979 tests have been performed in the state since the pandemic began.
The state saw its hospitalization numbers continue to decline on Monday, with 981 currently in intensive care units and 546 of patients on ventilators.
Hospital officials say they conducted a “thorough internal review,” consulting with infectious disease and clinical experts, and decided to resume their vaccination program on Sunday.
According to officials, one of the four cases appears to be a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine. The individual who suffered the reaction was hospitalized overnight for monitoring, but officials say that the person has been discharged.
Because of privacy laws the hospital couldn’t go into specifics about that person’s medical history.
The other three individuals were dealing with more typical reactions to the vaccine, and all were doing well on Saturday, officials say.
ZION Aug 31, 2020
Four people were shot, including an 8-year-old boy, Sunday in north suburban Zion. Two people in a dark-colored SUV fired shots at a group of adults just before 1 a.m. outside a home in the 2300 block of Joppa Avenue, Zion police said. One of the bullets flew into the boy’s bedroom and hit him in the hand. The. Chicago Oct 24, 2019