PEORIA, Ill. — The local tri-county COVID-19 case count rose Monday to 77.
Peoria County had 42, Woodford had 11, and Tazewell had 24.
21 beds were in use for confirmed or suspected cases, and 29 confirmed cases were non-ICU.
“Since April 5th, we’ve maintained in our region anywhere between 40 and 50 beds, total, in use,” said Monica Hendrickson, Peoria City/County Health Administrator.
“It’s very consistent and actually a good sign of how the stay-at-home order has been positively impacting the spread of this virus in our community.”
A focus of Monday’s news briefing was how Peoria County schools will treat the rest of the school year, now that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has declared the rest of the year will be conducted virtually.
Regarding grading, “we’re using this time to do enrichment, and so we may look at a seven out of eight semesters’ worth of a GPA, looking at this having this as a time of pass,” said Regional Office of Education Superintendent Beth Crider.
“If we grade for equity, that means we are looking at students with no [electronic] devices. I know of meal deliveries showing up at homes with no pencils, no crayons, no paper, much less a device.
“So, we cannot harm our students and we cannot grade for equity.”
