PEORIA, Ill. — With just 17% of intensive care unit beds available throughout Region Two of Illinois, the Peoria City/County Health Department made the recent jump in hospitalized COVID-19 cases a focal point of Thursday’s news briefing.
Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson said the Peoria-Tazewell-Woodford tri-county in the past seven days has averaged 43 patients in intensive care, while med/surg bed usage has jumped from 106 to 130 on average.
Hendrickson partially blamed these metrics on what she called a “complacency” with regard to safety measures and getting vaccinated. A mere 30% of the tri-county, she said, had been fully vaccinated.
“Remember, for us to get to Phase Five [of Restore Illinois], we need 50% of our population to be fully vaccinated. That means there’s a lot more work to be done,” she said.
“We are nowhere close, and we’re starting to see communities plateau. People are under this assumption ‘well, at least those at high-risk are getting vaccinated, so now we can take a deep breath and be more relaxed and more complacent,’ and with that, we saw our cases increase, and now our hospitalizations increase, and our deaths starting to increase.
“I was recently on a call where we asked a group what they would do when they reached Phase Five, and a lot of them talked about going to see a concert in person, going to a full-capacity sports event, or just gathering with family. If we really want to help our community, our businesses, get back to normal, and to the capacities we want to enjoy, we have to all get vaccinated, and really, there is no excuse.”
Hendrickson pointed to the numerous clinics throughout the tri-county offering the shot, both walk-in and by appointment.
“And, let’s not forget our pharmacies and grocery stores all have access to vaccine. There really should not be an excuse.”
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria Section Head of Infectious Disease Dr. Doug Kasper shared additional statistics.
The daily case rate within Central Illinois over the last three weeks, he said, is among the highest in the United States.
“We have set in-patient admission records over the past week for hospitals within our community,” he said. “And what we’re seeing is patients are of a younger age than what we saw within in the winter, and are primarily unvaccinated or have not yet completed their vaccine series.”
Specifically, he said, the more recent average age of hospitalized patients has been in the 40-to-60-year-old range.
Kasper reminded residents of the two-to-four week grace period after receiving the vaccine the body needs for immunity to build.
“Please remember that when you’re choosing your activities in the coming weeks as we are seeing COVID spread within the family unit as a dominant way people are becoming sick and later hospitalized within our community.”
