PEORIA Tri-County Area health officials are increasingly focusing their efforts on getting younger residents vaccinated as the average age of COVID-19 patients continues to drop.
“The 23 deaths in the Peoria area this week included two Tri-County residents in their 30s. Likewise, in our hospitalizations right now for Peoria County, two-thirds of our hospitalized patients are under the age of 70, with 25% of them under the age of 50,” said Monica Hendrickson, administrator of the Peoria City/County Health Department, during the weekly press briefing Thursday afternoon.
There is some good news, however. Hospitalizations are down about one-quarter over the last two weeks from 174 to 133. And the rolling positivity average has dropped about one-third in the last week, from 10.4% to 6.9% in Peoria County, and from 9.5% to 6.1% in Tazewell County.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 37% of American adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As more people roll up their sleeves to help end the pandemic, the CDC is continuing to study vaccine effectiveness, to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are working as expected.
One of the things under the CDC’s microscope is vaccine breakthrough. Douglas Kasper, M.D., is the section head of infectious disease at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and a leader in the OSF HealthCare response to COVID-19. He defines vaccine breakthrough in this case as someone contracting COVID-19 and needing medical care, despite receiving the full course of the vaccine.
PEORIA – The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 rose this week, even as the number of new cases dropped slightly in the Tri-County Area.
“We are currently sitting in our region at only 17% of ICU capacity available. We currently have 46 ICU beds in use, and 121 non-ICU beds in use,” said Monica Hendrickson, administrator of the Peoria City/County Health Department, during the weekly press briefing Thursday. ICU capacity was at 18% last week.
While the number of new cases was down slightly this week, with an average of 200 positive cases each day compared to 269 last week, it’s only a slight dip in a trend that has been moving steadily upward in the last month.
Midwest Communications
PEORIA, Ill. Peoria has become a nationwide “epicenter” for COVID-19 over recent weeks, according to Dr. Doug Kasper, Interim section head of infectious disease at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria.
“Peoria over to Bloomington are unique,” said Kasper on WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show.” “We are increasing rapidly.”
Kasper says new variants that have been reported to be more contagious are driving the spike in cases, not the traditional strain seen in the community.
“It’s much easier to become infected when you are exposed to a case, especially if you are not vaccinated,” said Kasper.
Share this article
Share this article
PEORIA, Ill., April 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Seven research projects are sharing slightly more than $400,000 in funding through the Jump ARCHES research and development program to address challenges and expand on lessons learned about COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. The Jump ARCHES program is a partnership between OSF HealthCare and The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I) and its College of Medicine in Peoria.
The funding supports research involving clinicians, engineers and social scientists to rapidly develop technologies and devices that could revolutionize medical training and health care delivery. A requirement of the grant applications was for solutions that could be deployed quickly, within four to six weeks. Investigators were also encouraged to consider how to best mitigate the impact of age, location, and social barriers in delivering quality health care to vulnerable population