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WGLT's reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, which began in McLean County in March 2020.

MCHD Reports 25 Hospitalized COVID Patients; Amends Previous Data

Emily Bollinger
/
WGLT
In this file photo, Noe Salas Bernal of the Illinois National Guard prepares to distribute vaccinations at the Grossinger Motors Arena clinic.

The McLean County Health Department reports 25 residents are hospitalized with COVID-19—less than half the 61 patients reported on Wednesday.

MCHD officials said they reached that number after auditing the data with Bloomington-Normal’s two hospitals. Health officials said a number of patients were discharged, but that information had not yet made it into the contact tracing database.

MCHD data show 177 COVID patients were admitted from January through April. Since then, 152 have been released. April saw the highest number of hospitalizations, with 77 patients admitted. January was the second highest with 45 patients. Twenty four patients were admitted in February and 31 were admitted in March.

Previous health department data indicated hospitalizations had been climbing the entire month of April. The county started the month with a then-record 39 COVID patients. That number grew and reportedly held above 50 for the past two weeks, prior to the audit.

MCHD reported 47 new confirmed or probable COVID cases Thursday, bringing the county’s total to 17,449 since the start of the pandemic. The county’s testing positivity rate (seven-day rolling) rose slightly to 5.2%.

The active caseload is now 474, with 449 people isolating at home. That’s the lowest the active caseload has been since April 1.

An additional 90 people completed their time in isolation and are now considered recovered. The death toll remains at 218.

Hospital bed capacity held mostly steady. Currently, 73% of intensive care beds are in use. Just 8% of all Bloomington-Normal hospital beds are open.

More than 120,000 doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered in McLean County, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. That’s an increase of about 1,300 doses in the past day. About 30.5% of the county’s population is now fully vaccinated.

Registration is open for county-run vaccine clinics in the first week of May. That includes three dates with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, which the county recently resumed distributing. Also, walk-in appointments are now accepted. More information is available on MCHD’s website.

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Dana Vollmer is a reporter with WGLT. Dana previously covered the state Capitol for NPR Illinois and Peoria for WCBU.
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