The Tri-County area eclipsed 19,000 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday as health officials reported the second-highest increase in infections in one day since the start of the pandemic.
The region has added 429 new cases in the preceding 24 hours, pushing the tally to 19,075 – a gain of nearly 1,099 in the last three days.
Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson gave a snapshot of just how much worse November really was compared with previous months.
"To give perspective, in terms of numbers, the Tri-County saw an increase of 9,214 cases," she said. "That is three times what we saw in October, which was 2,936."
Hendrickson said the region reported a little over 2,000 cases in September.
The deaths of five more Tri-County residents have been linked to the coronavirus. They include three Peoria County residents: a man in his 50s from Sharon Elms Healthcare; a woman over 100 from Lutheran Hillside Village; and a woman in her 70s.
Additionally, Woodford County reported the death of a man in his 70s and woman over 100 from the Apostolic Christian Home in Eureka.
Peoria-area hospitals have 168 COVID-19 patients, including 49 in intensive care units, while 6,121 individuals with the coronavirus are isolating at home.
"Where we have seen the hospitals is continued ICU usage increases," Hendrickson said. "From last week, we are now at 54, while previously, we were at 44. Our med surge has slightly declined to 122 beds in use (for COVID)."
Dr. Samer Sader, the chief medical officer for UnityPoint Health's central Illinois hospitals, said there's a marked trend of surging COVID-19 hospitalizations.
"This has been going on for the last few weeks. Every few days, we seem to get a little bit better, and then we have another spike again," Sader said.
He said there hasn't been a shortage of ventilators or beds yet, but that's requiring some wise resource maneuvering by doctors and hospital staff to maintain. Sader said about 100 to 125 UnityPoint staff are out of work in COVID-19 isolation at any one time, on average.
The Illinois Department of Public Heath added 10,959 new cases and 192 more deaths on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 759,562 infections and 12,830 fatalities linked to the virus since the start of the pandemic.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate is 12.3% Of the 5,653 coronavirus patients hospitalized across the state, 1,170 are in ICUs and 693 are on ventilators.COVID-19 in Tri-County
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