Almost 100 Positive Tests Since Last Week in County

Area hospitals are nearing capacity as COVID case numbers maintain the upward trend of the last several weeks.

Washington County saw an additional 91 cases since last Monday, upping the active case count to 82. Of those active cases, five have had symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization.

Rates of hospitalization have climbed steadily with the numbers of cases, and that is causing some strain at area hospitals.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Region 4 of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s statewide COVID response plan that includes Washington County and the Metro East, currently has 23 unused intensive care beds out of a total of 119.

In addition to decreasing availability of ICU beds, Region 4 also has only 16 percent of med-surge beds available. That is below the 20 percent threshold capacity in the IDPH Restore Illinois Plan, which was one of the statistics that caused new mitigation measures put in place last week.

Read the full article in this week’s issue.