PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria City/County Health Department announced four new cases of COVID-19 in the Tri-County area Thursday at their daily briefing.
There are now nine cases in Peoria County, six cases in Tazewell County, and six cases in Woodford County. This brings the Tri-County total to 21.
The two new cases in Tazewell County came from travel, said Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson. The new case in Woodford County comes from contact with a known positive case.
There are currently nine people under investigation in area hospitals in ICUs and four people confirmed to have COVID-19 receiving care in area ICUs.
Peoria City Mayor Jim Ardis reminded Peoria residents that the toughest days in the fight against COVID-19 are ahead. He encouraged people to follow stay-at-home orders to lessen the impact.
“If we all do our part to follow social distancing and strictly minimize movement throughout the community, unless it is absolutely necessary, the pain may not be as bad,” Ardis said. “Don’t go to the grocery store or the home improvement store every other day just to get out of the house. Go as infrequently as possible.”
Ardis said when individuals go to the store, get what is needed for about a week or more.
“Young people, you are not immune to COVID-19, your body might be stronger but you can be infected with in and still carry and transmit COVID to your family, to your friends, and other people in the community,” Ardis said.
To forecast future cases and fatality rates of the Peoria area, Census data was able to be combined with state forecasts to get an idea of numbers locally according to Hendrickson.
“Most of the modeling is done, that we are seeing, at a state level, some suggesting that Illinois is still having the peak for weeks to come,” Hendrickson said.
From the reports ran before the stay-at-home order went into affect it was forecasted that those ages 20-44 could see 14,000-21,000 hospitalizations in a month period. In the age group of 65-74, 9,000-14,000 hospitalizations are expected over a month.
Those numbers, however, were forecasted before current restrictions, such as the stay-at-home order were put in place. Hendrickson said that they will have to wait for a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) to run different numbers and see if the curve has been flattened.
