The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) has announced it will begin scheduling COVID vaccine appointments for all eligible first-dose recipients starting at 11 a.m. for its clinics next week. That includes those in Phases 1A, 1B and 1B+ populations.The department has clinics scheduled March 23-27 at Grossinger Motors Arena in downtown Bloomington.
Registration is availableon the MCHD website.
About 52,150 vaccine doses have been put in people’s arms in McLean County. About 11.2% of the county’s population has received both doses. The state average of fully vaccinated is 12.6%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
McLean County Vaccination
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COVID cases
The county announced 29 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and a rolling positivity rate that dipped to 2.8%. That’s down one-tenth of a point from Wednesday.
According to the county health department, 215 people are isolating at home and 20 more people have been released from quarantine in the last day. MCHD said 14,511 people are considered recovered from COVID-19.
Twenty-three McLean County residents are reportedly in the hospital with COVID-19. That number is unchanged since last Friday.
Bloomington-Normal hospitals report 88% of their beds are full and 73% of intensive care beds are in use. While hospital capacity remains limited, administrators said it’s manageable because more beds are being used for elective surgeries and shorter hospital stays.
The county’s cumulative positivity rate held steady at 5.7% based on more than 262,300 coronavirus tests that have been conducted since the start of the pandemic.
Thursday is the first day there will be no COVID testing available at the Interstate Center in Bloomington. IDPH announced this week it was scaling back all of its community-based testing sites to four days a week to make testing more readily available at schools, processing plants and other facilities that have higher demand for tests.
McLean County has reported 175 COVID-related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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