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.
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.
Peoria, IL, USA 104.9 The Wolf
Midwest Communications
PEORIA, Ill. With a positivity rate of 12%, Peoria County has more new cases of COVID-19 than any other area of Illinois.
Dr. Doug Kasper, with the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, confirms the recent announcement that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was being put on hold definitely has slowed vaccination rates nationally and locally.
Despite a rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations, Kasper told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show”, we haven’t seen any new mitigations.
“We are finding a way to continue to be open and to move forward. So, it’s definitely a different mind set than how we did it in the past,” Kasper said.
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