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McLean County shattered its record for daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday, while reporting four more COVID-related deaths.
According to the McLean County Health Department (MCHD) , the deaths include two men and one woman. They were all in their 70s and were not in long-term care. The other death involved a man in his 90s who was associated with a long-term care facility. That brings the county's death toll since the start of the pandemic to 313 — with 13 of those deaths reported since Dec. 29.
Bloomington-Normal hospitals have 60 COVID patients under their care, down two from Tuesday. The hospitals remain at near capacity. Carle BroMenn Medical Center and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center report 92% of the intensive care beds and 97% of all beds are occupied.
OSF Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria reported it has five COVID patients receiving care as of Tuesday.
"Census is high on all units, but we are managing capacity/keeping beds available by surging into a swing-bed unit that can serve adults and pediatric patients if needed and we are redistributing staff based on census, allowing us to expand and contract as needed," said OSF HealthCare spokesperson Shelli Dankhoff, adding that COVID vaccinations would reduce the strain on the health care system.
Data from OSF and Carle continue to show a vast majority of their COVID-19 patients are not vaccinated.
New cases
Forty-eight McLean County residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, up three from Tuesday. The county announced 1,032 daily cases and 3,556 new cases for the week. The weekly caseload is more than double the previous high mark set in McLean County.
More than 3,700 McLean County residents are isolating at home.
The largest share of new cases are among young adults. People in their 20s and 30s account for 41% of new cases. McLean County’s seven-day testing positivity rate soared to a record 22.9%, far exceeding the state average of 13.2%.
Also, the county's caseload since the start of the pandemic topped 33,000 on Wednesday, while just over 29,000 people are considered recovered.
COVID vaccinations
The state of Illinois has reached 60% fully vaccinated. McLean County is still at 58.4% according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
More than 5,100 COVID vaccine doses were put into arms over the last week in McLean County. That’s an increase over the previous week, but trails the first three weeks of December
Two additional mobile vaccination clinics are coming to McLean County. They are scheduled for 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7 at the Lexington Community Center and from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the ARC (Activity and Recreation Center) in Normal. The clinics are run by IDPH and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA).
