Chicago’s COVID-19 risk level remains high on the Centers for Disease Control’s risk level matrix, but daily new case rates are “beginning to gradually decrease,” and hospitalizations and deaths from the virus “remain low compared to other points in the pandemic,” according to an update from the Chicago Department of Public Health Tuesday. “The best news is that all of the variants we are detecting locally continue to be Omicron and thanks to vaccination, severe outcomes like hospitalizations and deaths remain low and our hospital system continues to have capacity,” health department Comm. Allison Arwady wrote in a statement. “This means we are unlikely to need to reinstate mask mandates in the near future.”