McLean County health officials announced 180 new coronavirus cases from the weekend and an additional COVID-related death.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) said Monday the latest death was of a woman in her 80s. She was not associated with a long-term care facility. It marks the county’s third COVID-related death in the last week and 245th since the start of the pandemic.
While coronavirus caseloads keep rising, the county did see a drop in hospitalizations. There are 26 McLean County residents in the hospital with COVID — down from 29 on Friday. Carle BroMenn Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center report they have 30 COVID patients receiving care. That total was as high as 41 last week.
MCHD said 503 people are isolating at home, 175 people have been released from quarantine since Friday, and 19,610 people are considered recovered from COVID-19.
McLean County’s seven-day testing positivity rate fell to 3.6%, while the county’s cumulative positivity rate stands at 4.7%, based on more than 431,400 tests conducted since the start of the pandemic.
High COVID transmission
McLean County remains an area of high community transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID data tracker. The county has averaged 259 new COVID infections per 100,000 residents in the last seven days.
Any county with a rate of 100 new cases per 100,000 residents is considered high. The CDC has recommended counties with a rate of 50 new cases per 100,000 residents to encourage people to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
Illinois reinstituted an indoor mask mandate for public places that took effect on Monday.
COVID vaccines
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), more than 180,000 COVID vaccines have been administered in McLean County and the county has topped more than 90,000 residents fully vaccinated. The county’s rate of fully vaccinated is 52.2%. The statewide rate is 53.2%.
