Illinois Department of Public Health

The state of Illinois is expanding eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine starting Thursday, but people with underlying medical conditions will likely still have a difficult time getting the vaccine in McLean County.

Five nursing homes and retirement communities in McLean County have now gone a month without a new case of COVID-19, leading the Illinois Department of Public Health to remove them from the list of active outbreaks.

The pace of new COVID-19 infections at long-term care facilities in McLean County has slowed as vaccinations increase in those facilities and among those over the age of 65. Seven facilities with previous active outbreaks have had no new cases in two weeks.

The start of high school basketball in central Illinois is on the horizon, and a timetable has been set for football, volleyball, soccer and other sports.

UPDATED 5:40 P.M. | Central Illinois is officially moving out of additional mitigations as the region's COVID-19 statistics continue to improve.

Nearly 4,000 people in McLean County have received their first dose of the COVID vaccine, based on new vaccination data provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

The Illinois High School Association has invited Gov. JB Pritzker’s office and representatives from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to discuss the association’s plans to hold a basketball season this winter, against the state’s recommendation.

The McLean County Health Department reported 28 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.

Gov. JB Pritzker has created new enforcement rules for mask wearing.

Pritzker said the statewide emergency order allows warnings and then fines of up to $2,500 against businesses and other organizations that do not ensure that people wear masks on the premises. He said Friday during a news conference many businesses already do this, but some do not.

State officials have set up digital medical programs with several partner outlets for people with COVID-19 symptoms to keep them in their homes until advanced medical services might be needed.

There are now 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in McLean County.

The McLean County Health Department released the latest tally Sunday afternoon. The new people with COVID-19 are a man in his 70s and a woman in her 30s. Both are self-isolating at home.

There has been one death and 120 negative tests in McLean County. There are 40 tests outstanding, according to the health department.

A woman in intensive care in Bloomington-Normal has died of COVID-19, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The McLean County Health Department said she was in her 70s and tested positive last week. The department said the woman died late last week.

Central Illinois Friends began 30 years ago in the height of the AIDS epidemic as a hospice center for patients dying of the disease.

Health officials in McLean County say flu season has been relatively mild this fall.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined a Bloomington nursing home $25,000 for letting a 49-year-old woman with dementia wander away from the facility in stockinged feet.

Public health officials say they‘ll work to increase vaccination rates across Illinois.

The announcement comes as the the U.S. is expected to have the worst run of measles cases since the disease was deemed eliminated in the year 2000.

The head of McLean County’s restaurant inspection program says the state’s new method of tracking violations could make it harder for the public to quickly understand a business' food safety performance.

Illinois public health officials warned Friday about an outbreak of salmonella traced to pre-cut melon sold at Walmart.

Records show that a top aide at the Illinois Department of Public Health took a leave of absence to work on political campaigns in the fall of 2016 while the agency faced the baffling return of deadly Legionnaires' disease at a state-run veterans home.

State records show that the flu season in Illinois appears to be peaking early this year.

Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal will pay a $55,000 fine for not having adequate staff on call at its emergency room last year and failing to follow state rules.