PEORIA, Ill. — For the third consecutive day, a local person has died while being infected with COVID-19.
The Tazewell County man in his 80s passed away in a local hospital. The Peoria City/County Health Department said he had underlying conditions.
His death accounted for Tazewell’s ninth COVID-related death. Tazewell, Peoria, and Woodford have now combined for 46 such deaths.
77 people in total tested positive for the virus between the reporting periods of Wednesday and Thursday.
Five hospital beds were freed up between Wednesday and Thursday, as the amount of cases in local hospitals changed from 54 to 49.
15 of Thursday’s cases were intensive care-level. The other 34 were non-ICU.
The health department in its daily briefing also stressed its recommendation against using hydroxychloroquine.
“While chloroquine, later developed into hydroxyquine, is a useful antimalarial drug that is used to treat autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, it is not a treatment for COVID-19,” the department said.
