Bloomington-Normal hospitals are finding fewer beds available as coronavirus cases reach their highest mark in more than four months.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) announced 95 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. The county has reported 460 new infections over the last week. That’s the highest weekly total in the county since April 16.
Sixty percent of the county's weekly coronavirus cases are in people under age 30, while 15% of those cases (68) are in children under age 12. They are not yet eligible to receive the COVID vaccine.
Carle BroMenn and OSF St. Joseph medical centers report 6% of their hospital beds are unoccupied, while 96% of their intensive care beds are in use. They have 30 COVID patients receiving care, while 22 McLean County residents are hospitalized with COVID-19. That’s up from 20 on Tuesday.
The 95 positive tests came from a batch of about 2,700 positive tests returned overnight. The county’s seven-day testing positivity rate increased to 4.1%, while the county’s cumulative positivity rate is 4.7% based on more than 435,200 tests conducted since March 2020.
MCHD said 542 people are isolating at home and 17 people completed their time in quarantine since Tuesday, and 19,713 people are considered recovered from COVID-19.
McLean County’s COVID death toll is 245. That includes four deaths reported in August. That's the county's lowest monthly COVID death toll since the summer of 2020.
McLean County remains an area of high COVID transmission, based on metrics set by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The county has 262 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents from Aug. 24-30. Areas that have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents are considered to have high transmission.
COVID vaccines
Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) show more than 179,700 COVID vaccine doses have been administered in McLean County. The county’s rate of fully vaccinated is 52.1%. The state average is 53%.
