Chicago EMS Calls Went Down, Not Up, During Lockdown
...but not by as much as I expected
Unlike New York City, Chicago did not experience a sudden spike in calls to emergency medical services in spring 2020. The number of daily calls declined slightly with *Stay-Home* orders, and rose to normal levels at the end of May before sinking again in September.
Calls to emergency medical services tends to be higher in summer than in winter, due in part to patterns in criminal activity and other weather-related factors. December - January 2021/22 was an exception, with daily calls between 12/1 and 1/15 coming in at 10% - 38% above baseline.
March/April 2020 calls did not decrease as much as I expected, given the 40% drop in Chicago hospital emergency department visits.
I don’t yet have data for Chicago resident deaths occurring at home, but Cook County experienced a dramatic rise in such deaths, starting the week of Mayor Lighfoot’s “Shelter-in-Place” order.1
Related post:
Same is true for Illinois. I find it interesting that weekly deaths occurring at home (any cause) spiked before hospital inpatient or nursing home deaths.
This is completely off-topic, but if Twitter can reinstate Trump, it's looking good for @ewoodhouse7 to also light up Twitter's servers someday.