St. Clair County sets new daily record for coronavirus cases
Two weeks after the July 4th holiday, St. Clair County officials announced on Saturday that a daily record number of coronavirus cases had been tallied with 105 persons testing positive.
The previous high had been 78 on Wednesday and before that, the high had been 63 on May 24, according to Herb Simmons, director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency. The first COVID-19 cases were announced on March 14 in St. Clair County.
Simmons said it’s possible the July spike in numbers is related to people spreading the virus during Fourth of July parties, but officials do not know for sure. St. Clair County also had seen a smaller spike after the Memorial Day holiday, Simmons said.
County officials hope the positive coronavirus numbers begin reducing this week.
“We’re trying to encourage people to get tested and trying to find out where the hot spots are,” Simmons said.
Overall, the county has had 2,976 positive cases and 148 deaths linked to the virus as of Saturday.
There were no new deaths announced on Saturday in St. Clair County. The positive cases were recorded in an age range of under 10 to the 90s.
Across the metro-east, Saturday was the sixth consecutive day in which over 100 coronavirus cases had been reported in the region.
Madison County announced 39 new cases, Monroe County had four, Macoupin County had two and Perry County had four.
Clinton County did not report statistics on Saturday, but on Friday the county health department administrator said hundreds of people who attended recent events in the county have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Officials believe the virus is widespread in all parts of the county now. And they are worried it could lead to restrictions again after bars, restaurants and other businesses reopened three weeks ago, Clinton County Health Department Administrator Sean Eifert said in a news release.
Simmons wants everyone to follow the “Three Ws”: Wear a face mask when in public places, wash your hands and watch your social distancing.
Simmons noted many county residents do not work a job which requires a mask to be worn their entire shift. Consequently, he said the amount of time that residents are being asked to wear a mask is not that long.
“The main thing is we just got to get these people to understand that the short time you got to wear a mask is not that many hours of the day,” he said.
Simmons said his agency on Monday will resume broadcasting a daily coronavirus briefing on Facebook at 3:30 p.m. because of the July spike in cases.
The briefing had been conducted on Thursdays in recent weeks after it had been broadcast daily since March after the first COVID-19 cases were reported.
This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 6:53 PM.
