COVID positivity rate in southwest Illinois drops to reduced-restrictions threshold
The metro-east reached the 12% COVID-19 test positivity rate threshold Thursday,
Region 4’s rolling seven-day average positivity rate was exactly 12.0%, down from 12.4% on Wednesday. The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Dec. 14. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a seven-day period.
For Tier 3 mitigation metrics to be relaxed or to move to Tier 2, the region must experience a less than 12% test seven-day rolling average positivity rate for three consecutive days while also seeing 20% available intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed availability for three consecutive days.
This marks the region’s lowest positivity rate since Nov. 5 when it also was at 12%. Thursday also was the seventh consecutive day the positivity rate has fallen.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the numbers are heading in the right direction, but stopped short of saying he’d allow regions to begin reopening even if they meet metrics.In November, the governor announced statewide restrictions would stay in place with no regional exceptions out of concerns about a surge. That policy will continue for the time being, Pritzker indicated during a news conference in Chicago.
“When you’re still talking about 8,000 plus cases in a day, that means, as you project forward, quite a number of people will still pass away as a percentage of that,” Pritzker said. “So we’re deeply concerned that we bring the numbers down to a level where we’re seeing much better numbers.”
Public health officials are still worried that holiday gatherings might reverse progress made in recent weeks. If people continue to avoid gatherings, wear masks, social distance and wash their hands frequently, Pritzker said he is hopeful the state could get to a point after the holidays when some restrictions could be lifted.
“We haven’t brought the numbers down to where we want them to be,” Pritzker said. “We need this to move downward at a continuing rate.”
Hospital beds still filling up
Meanwhile, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 84.0% of staffed hospital beds in the metro-east were in use as of Wednesday, down from 84.2% Tuesday. Additionally, 18.0% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, down from 22.6% 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.
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. More recently, officials have publicly worried that upcoming gatherings during the December holidays could lead to another spike in cases and deaths.
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.
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 14.3% on Thursday, up from 10.6% on Wednesday.
State of Illinois announces new cases, deaths
Meanwhile, the state of Illinois announced 8,828 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total to 879,428. The state health department also announced 181 additional deaths to bring the total to 14,835 since the pandemic began.
Also within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 92,015 new tests have been administered for a total of 12,147,303.
As of Wednesday, 4,751 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 1,056 patients were in the ICU and 575 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests from Dec. 10-16 is 8.4%.
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 12:39 PM.