SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Department of Public Health has placed Peoria County into a warning level because of recent COVID-19 statistics.
The IDPH gives a county a warning when two or more key metrics are considered to be below a safe level.
For Peoria, those metrics are new cases per 100,000 people and emergency department visits.
The county has reported 87 cases per 100,000 over the past seven days. The target is 50.
Meanwhile, the emergency department visit rate sat at 2.6%. The IDPH wants a county’s ED visit rate to be stable or decreasing over a Sunday-to-Saturday period.
The IDPH blamed Peoria County’s rising numbers on increases in cases among people 29 and younger, large gatherings over 4th of July weekend, and people’s travels to Florida, Iowa, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Peoria County joined three other counties in being issued warnings: LaSalle, Adams, and Randolph.
The Peoria City/County Health Department reported 646 of Peoria County’s 950 cases since the pandemic began had, as of Friday, recovered.
256 cases were in home isolation, while 18 were in area hospitals.
172 of Tazewell’s 258 overall cases have recovered. 71 were at their homes recovering, and seven were in hospitals.
Woodford doesn’t break its numbers down, but it reported no new cases, remaining at 68.
The region’s rolling 28-day hospitalization rate improved to 17% from 25%.
