The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) reported Monday two more people have died of COVID-19 complications.
The deaths include a man in his 70s who was in long-term care and a man in his 80s who was not associated with long-term care.
The county has reported six COVID deaths this month and 281 since the start of the pandemic. Twelve McLean County residents are hospitalized with COVID and 289 people are isolating at home, according to MCHD. That pushes the county’s active caseload over 300 for the first time since Oct. 18.
The county’s seven-day testing positivity rate dipped to 2%.
School cases
Unit 5 and District 87 both saw an uptick in new coronavirus cases last week, but both are below the number of cases seen earlier this fall.
Unit 5’s COVID dashboard indicated 28 students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus during the week of Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, while 119 people are quarantined. Those totals are up from 21 and 75, respectively, from the previous week.
District 87 reported 12 student and three staff coronavirus cases last week, compared to 10 student cases the previous week, according to its COVID dashboard. The district also noted 210 students were in quarantine last week due to COVID-like symptoms, though the district no longer includes that data on its dashboard. It only tabulates students and staff who are quarantined because they are a close contact.
"We decided to consolidate the data on the COVID dashboard because those numbers are pretty comparable to students out sick for the usual flu/cold illnesses from this time of year,” District 87 communications director Julia Perez said.
The district also had 28 students in quarantine because they were a close contact to a positive case.
Children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. MCHD plans to hold its first COVID vaccination clinic for younger children on Tuesday.
