Hospital bed availability continues to dwindle in southwest IL as positivity rate rises
The metro-east’s hospital bed availability continued to dwindle Thursday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, as the region’s COVID-19 test positivity rate hit record levels.
On Thursday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported the region’s hospital bed capacity — the percentage of beds available in the region — fell to 15% from 16% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, just 24% of the region’s intensive care unit capacity was open, down from 25% on Wednesday.
Under rules set by the Restore Illinois plan, if a region reaches or falls below the 20% threshold, the state may impose tighter restrictions to avoid the possibility of the region running out of hospital and ICU beds.
That means the metro-east now has reached two prerequisites for tightened restrictions. The region was also tasked with keeping its 7-day positivity rate below 8% over a 14-day observation period. That rate has been over 8% for 30-straight days.
Over the past weeks, officials have warned about the possibility of the region running low on hospital and ICU beds, prompting some area hospitals to temporarily cease elective surgeries.
The 7-day positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in southwestern Illinois increased after two days of falling slightly. The decreases came after 22 consecutive days of increases, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The 7-day rolling average was 16.4% on Thursday, up from 16% on Wednesday. Thursday marked the highest the rate has been since the pandemic began. The previous high of 16.3% was set Friday.
The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Nov. 16 A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a 7-day period.
The state classifies the metro-east as Region 4, which covers seven counties: St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Bond, Washington, Clinton and Randolph. County-by-county data is available on the state health department’s website.
On Oct. 28, the state re-implemented tier 1 restrictions from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan after the metro-east reported three consecutive days with an 8% positivity rate or higher. Currently, all 11 regions in Illinois are under tier 1 restrictions or higher.
Additionally, the region reported a daily positivity rate of 20.4% on Thursday, up from 15.1% on Wednesday.
State of Illinois announces new cases, deaths
Meanwhile, the state of Illinois announced 14,612 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total to 621,383. The state health department also announced 168 additional deaths, bringing the total to 11,178 since the pandemic began.
Also, within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 103,569 new tests for a total of 9,359,227.
As of Wednesday night, 6,037 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19 — up from 5,887 the day prior. Of those, 1,192 patients were in the ICU — down from 1,146 — and 587 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators — up from 547.
The preliminary 7-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Nov. 12-18 is 12%, up from 11.9% on Wednesday.
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 12:32 PM.