Seventy-eight percent of southwest Illinois’ ICU beds are currently in use, state says
Nearly 80% of staffed, intensive care unit beds in the metro-east are in use, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Friday.
Only 22% of the region’s intensive care unit capacity was open, state health officials reported, down from 24% on Thursday. Meanwhile, only 15% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, the same percentage as Thursday.
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.
Tier 3 restrictions went into place statewide on Friday. The third tier tightens restrictions on indoor dining, bars and social gatherings while adding restrictions to casinos, retailers, video gaming and museums.
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 fell Friday, following several days of ups and downs in the rate.
The 7-day rolling average was 16.1% on Friday, down from 16.4% on Thursday. Thursday marked the highest the rate has been since the pandemic began. The previous high of 16.3% was set last Friday.
The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Nov. 17 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.
Additionally, the region reported a daily positivity rate of 16.4% on Friday, up from 20.4% on Thursday.
State of Illinois announces new cases, deaths
Meanwhile, the state of Illinois announced 13,012 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the total to 634,395. The state health department also announced 126 additional deaths, bringing the total to 11,304 since the pandemic began.
Also, within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 116,024 new tests for a total of 9,588,698.
As of Thursday night, 6,111 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19 — up from 6,037 the day prior. Of those, 1,196 patients were in the ICU — up from 1,192 — and 604 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators — up from 587.
The preliminary 7-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Nov. 13-19 is 11.5%, down from 12% on Friday.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 12:56 PM.