McLean County's active coronavirus caseload dropped to its lowest level in nearly two months on Friday, following a late summer surge. But COVID hospitalizations are still rising.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) announced 44 daily coronavirus cases. County data show 351 people are isolating at home, while 64 people were released from quarantine overnight and 21,563 people are considered recovered from COVID-19.
Thirty-one McLean County residents are in the hospital with COVID. That's up three since Thursday. The number of COVID patients at Carle BroMenn Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center dropped one to 22. Hospital bed capacity increased to 12% and intensive care bed capacity rose to 15%.
Data from Carle Health and OSF HealthCare show over 80% of their COVID-19 patients are not fully vaccinated.
There have been 257 COVID-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, including 12 in September.
McLean County’s active caseload of 382 is the lowest it’s been since Aug. 14. The 44 new positive cases came from a batch of about 2,900 tests conducted overnight. The county's seven-day positivity rate increased to 2.7% That's just above the state average. McLean County has surpassed 500,000 tests since the start of the pandemic, while its cumulative positivity rate dropped to 4.4%.
County risk alerts
McLean County remains under a risk alert based on metrics from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). The county level of new coronavirus cases (228 per 100,000 residents from Sept. 19-25 and) ICU bed availability of 19% have triggered the warning. Seventy-three of Illinois’ 102 counties are under a risk alert based on their COVID data.
COVID vaccines
IDPH reports more than 186,600 COVID vaccines have been put into arms, while 54.2% of the county’s population is fully vaccinated. In Illinois, 55.3% of the public is fully vaccinated.
