McLean County has gone three days without a new COVID-19 case, even as the statewide total has more than doubled over that time.
McLean County Health Department Communicable Disease Supervisor Melissa Graven said while testing has slowly ramped up to about 130 in the county, many still can't get tested for the coronavirus.
“I think it’s probably the criteria in which we are bound to for sending to the Illinois Department of Public Health that at this point, you have to be hospitalized with a respiratory issue,” Graven said.
Patients who report only mild symptoms are told to be home and self-quarantine. Health officials have consistently said they lack the testing kits to use them on a broader scale, though she added commercial labs have tended to follow more relaxed guidelines for testing. They are only required to report to the state their confirmed cases, not the total number of tests.
McLean County has eight COVID-19 cases so far; the latest came on Monday. One person has died. Results are pending for approximately 32 of the cases.
Illinois has reached 2,538 after a record high 673 new cases on Thursday. Tazewell and Franklin counties are reporting their first cases. Twenty-six people have died in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reports the cases range in age from one to 99 years.
Coronavirus in McLean County
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