PEORIA, Ill. – The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Tri-County region keeps going sharply higher.
Authorities say the area now averages more than 1,000 new cases per week — which means one thing is important now more than ever.
“Even if you already had the vaccine — and thank you so much for stepping up and thinking about your community — we are now asking you to step up once more again and get the booster,” said Monica Hendrickson, Administrator, Peoria City/County Health Department.
Hendrickson says about a third of all new cases are among those younger and now just eligible to get vaccinated, and while some new cases are in those already vaccinated, the majority are in unvaccinated people.
The Tri-Counties are now up to 57,580 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, up more than 1,000 cases in a week’s time. Peoria County is at 28,981 cases, up 510 in a week. Tazewell County is at 22,139 cases, up 505 in a week. Woodford County is at 6.460 cases, up 152 cases in a week.
The Tri-Counties are up to 868 confirmed COVID-related deaths, up five in the past week, with local hospitals reporting three deaths in the last 24 hours as of Tuesday afternoon. Peoria County has 422 deaths, Tazewell County has 340 deaths, and Woodford County is at 106 deaths.
The seven-day rolling average is now at 167 new cases per day, up from 150 last week. 1,353 cases are in home isolation, up 200. 34 people are hospitalized, up 5 from last week. 13 cases are in local intensive care units.
As it may be too soon to tell how severe the new Omicron variant will be, if at all, one infectious disease physician says just get vaccinated.
“Studies…suggest that people can boost their protection against any variant, by having three doses of vaccine,” said Dr. Sharjeel Ahmad, OSF HealthCare, who also believes vaccines aren’t an end-all, be-all.
“Vaccinations are actually one of the most important, effective public health tools for preventing all kinds of infections,” said Ahmad. “But, nothing in life is one-hundred precent.”
Ahmad says while it will take time before the extent of the Omicron variant will be known, the Delta variant is still the primary variant of concern in the U.S.
