SW IL positivity rate continues to drop while hospital bed availability remains low
The metro-east’s positivity rate continued to drop Monday, but the region’s hospital bed availability increased slightly.
The 7-day positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in southwestern Illinois fell Monday, marking the fourth consecutive day the rate has dropped.
The 7-day rolling average was 14.3% on Monday, down from 15.1% on Saturday. The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Nov. 20. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a 7-day period.
Meanwhile, 79% of staffed, intensive care unit beds in the metro-east are in use, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Monday. Only 21% of the region’s intensive care unit capacity was open, state health officials reported, the same as Sunday’s rate. However, 17% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, up slightly from 15% Sunday.
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, Nov. 20. 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 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 13.6% on Monday, up from 13.2% on Sunday.
State of Illinois announces new cases, deaths
Meanwhile, the state of Illinois announced 8,322 new COVID-19 cases Monday, bringing the total to 664,620. The state health department also announced 47 additional deaths, bringing the total to 11,552 since the pandemic began.
Also, within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 91,562 new tests for a total of 9,892,981.
As of Sunday night, 6,171 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 1,206 patients were in the ICU and 635 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary 7-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Nov. 16-22 is 10.9%.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 12:47 PM.