Update 12:30 p.m. - Peoria County is now officially at warning level for COVID-19, along with LaSalle, Randolph, and Adams counties.
Original: Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson said she expects the state will soon flag Peoria County for signs of increased COVID-19 activity.Currently, the county is still considered "blue," or largely on target per state metrics like new cases, positivity rates, and ICU bed capacity. But Hendrickson said she expects an "orange" cautionary classification when the state updates its data.
"That's primarily due to the increase of cases that we saw," she said. "That spike that happened based on invididuals that were in contact with a known positive or came back with some travel-acquired COVID."
Last week, Peoria County officials convened a press conference to warn of the region's precarious standing. That warning still holds true, Hendrickson said, although it's too soon to tell if last week's event led to a uptick in precautionary measures.
The Tri-County region reported 1,238 COVID-19 cases on Thursday--more than double the 594 reported this time a month ago.
Thirty-nine new cases were reported in Peoria County on Thursday alone. Hendrickson said many of those weren't linked to an ongoing outbreak at the Peoria County Jail.
"A lot of 4th of July travel and a lot of large gatherings without social distancing, without face coverings, led to a lot of our cases," she said.
Hendrickson said in many new cases, a person hadn't personally traveled out-of-state at all, but was in contact with someone who recently returned from Texas, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, or another state with spiking COVID-19 numbers.
Hendrickson said many new cases in people ages 25 and younger were traced back to a large gathering a few weeks ago.
"Even those gatherings, even though they may have been within the 'size restrictions,' those precautions of social distancing and face coverings still apply," she said. "We highly recommend people to continue doing that, because that's going to be a key intervention as this continues to spread."
She also urged people to assume they are COVID-19 positive and stay isolated while awaiting test results. Hendrickson said the health department frequently finds out about people who get tested, then proceed to run errands and come into contact with numerous people, only to find out later they were positive.
Hendrickson said statistics are currently indicating the region could be trending toward a resurgence of COVID-19 that might require some of the additional mitigation efforts highlighted by the governor, such as selective closures or restrictions.
"That would be what steps of mitigation that we would put, and what that would mean to our community," she said. "I know it's already difficult for us and a lot of people to reopen, but right now, a lot of our indicators don't give us a good point in moving forward in that phase."
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