COVID-19 Cases See Spike Following Summer Holiday

PEORIA (25 News Now) - New numbers for the Illinois Department of Public Health are showing a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in the past few months.

Now nearly a majority of the state is under a HIGH risk.

In the latest release from the Illinois department of public health. There are more than 33,000 new cases in the past week.

That puts a majority of the counties in this area at HIGH risk.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is reporting that 94 of Illinois’ 102 counties are either HIGH or MEDIUM case level.

50 are at a high level including Livingston, Peoria, Tazewell, Putnam and Fulton counties.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, cases spiked last week, reaching a single-day total of more than 11,900 on Monday, July 11th.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, IDPH says more than 3,400,000+ people were diagnosed with COVID-19.

The McLean County Health Department tells us many positive cases are now being found with at-home self-testing, “last week McLean county was at high so we had a lot of people that were calling their doctors, going into their doctors, going to the hospitals. We had a lot of hospital admissions, so our hospitals and our healthcare system were very burdened,” explains Marianne Manko, the Public Affairs Coordinator with the McLean County Health Department.

Manko says with the increase of cases, they are reminding people of the importance of staying up-to-date with vaccines and boosters, “what’s wonderful is the CDC does have a Coronavirus symptom calculator so you can take a look at those symptoms by reading about it online and seeing what you can do and when you should seek medical attention if you have any more questions about that.”

According to John Hopkins University, the average daily cases tripled in the US over the past three months.

The CDC is recommending those living in a high-risk county to wear a mask while indoors.

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