St. Clair County sees lowest COVID rate since Nov. 6, officials say restrictions working
St. Clair County officials called Friday the “best day” the county has seen since Nov. 6, COVID-19-wise, at a daily briefing Friday.
According to officials, St. Clair County had a daily COVID-19 positive rate of 6.9%, the lowest its been since Nov. 6. No new deaths were announced Friday, and 127 new COVID-19 cases were reported, down from Thursday’s total of 224.
The county’s seven-day rolling average was 10.1%.
County Board Chairman Mark Kern said the county is headed in the right direction but needs to stay the course. He emphasized wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and washing hands to prevent the spread of the virus.
“We’re kind of grinding back and getting to where we were a month ago. The mitigations are working,” he said. “We’re headed in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.”
Meanwhile, in St. Clair County 106 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 11 patients are on ventilators.
ICU availability in metro-east continues to fall
The metro-east intensive care unit availability continued to drop Friday, as the state surpassed 15,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 16.8% of staffed intensive care beds in the metro-east were available as of Friday, down from 18% Thursday. Additionally, 17% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, up from 16% 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.
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.
Region 4’s rolling seven-day average positivity rate was 12%, the same as Thursday. The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Dec. 15. 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% 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.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday numbers are heading in the right direction, but stopped short of saying he’d allow regions to begin reopening, even if they meet metrics.
“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.”
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 10.3% on Friday, down from 11.3% on Thursday.
Illinois reports new cases, deaths Friday
This information is provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health. The number in parentheses shows the difference from the previous day’s increase or total.
New cases: 7,377 (-1,491)
New deaths: 181 (No change from Thursday)
New tests: 112,292 (+20,277)
Total cases: 886,805
Total deaths: 15,015
Total tests: 12,259,595
Hospitalizations: 4,690 (-61)
People in ICU: 1,023 (-33)
People on ventilators: 589 (+14)
Statewide positivity rate (from Dec. 11-17): 8.0% (-0.6)
Friday’s COVID-19 breakdown for Region 4
New cases: 557
New deaths: 6 (Madison County reported four new deaths and Randolph County reported two new deaths)
Daily positivity rate (as of Tuesday): 10.3% (-4.0%)
Seven-day rolling average positivity rate (as of Tuesday): 12.0% (No changes from Thursday)
Regional hospitalizations: 213 (-13) (Provided by St. Clair County)
Regional patients on ventilators: 20 (-1) (Provided by St. Clair County)
Hospital bed availability: 17.0% (+1.0%)
ICU bed availability: 16.8% (-1.2%)
New cases from nearby counties outside Region 4: 65
New deaths from nearby counties outside Region 4: 2 (Jersey County reported two new deaths)
ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 127 new positives, 253 new recoveries, 1,849 new tests administered
Total overall: 18,891 positives, 294 deaths, 190,407 tests administered, 16,611 recoveries, 106 patients hospitalized with 11 patients on ventilators
Additional data: New positives include residents who ranged in age from under 1 up to the 90s. Of the 127 new positives, 79 were individuals under the age of 40.
Congregate living facilities: Freeburg Care Center reported 4 new cases and Morningside of Shiloh reported 1 new case
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 8.9% (-3.9%); 7-day average — 10.4% (No change from Thursday)
MADISON COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 265 new positives, 4 new deaths, 1,713 new tests administered
Total overall: 18,528 positives, 333 deaths, 176,156 tests administered, 9,785 recoveries, 78 patients hospitalized with 9 patients on ventilators
Additional data: New positives include residents who ranged in age from under 9 up to the 90s. Of the 265 new positives, 176 were individuals under the age of 40.
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 10.9% (-3.1%); 7-day average — 12.8% (+0.2%)
CLINTON COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 47 new positives
Total overall: 4,117positives, 73 deaths, 3,541 recoveries, 11 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 14.6% (-9.4%); 7-day average — 13.8% (-0.5%)
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 18 new positives, two new deaths
Total overall: 2,958 positives, 38 deaths, 2,717 recoveries, 7 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 10.1% (+2.0%); 7-day average — 10.6% (-1.3%)
MONROE COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 79 new positives
Total overall: 2,746 positives, 56 deaths, 19 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 8.4% (-8.7%); 7-day average — 14.3% (+0.7%)
BOND COUNTY
Friday’s new data: 21 new positives
Total overall: 1,371 positives, 11 deaths, 34,223 tests administered
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 7.9% (-4.0%); 7-day average — 12.5% (-0.5%)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Friday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 1,031 positives, 10 deaths, 864 recoveries, 6 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 16.1% (-8.5%); 7-day average — 21.8% (-1.1%)
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Friday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 3,081 positives, 72 deaths, 1,011 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 11.9% (+3.4%); 7-day average — 8.9% (+0.5%)
JERSEY COUNTY
Friday’s new data (Dec. 16-18): 65 new positives, two new deaths
Total overall: 1,740 positives, 26 deaths, 16,784 tests administered, 1,568 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 9.4% (-4.0%); 7-day average — 11.7% (-0.4%)
PERRY COUNTY
Friday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 1,617 positives, 45 deaths, 1,346 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 14.6% (-11.6%); 7-day average — 17.6% (-1.3%)
CALHOUN COUNTY
Friday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 362 positives, 1 death, 307 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Tuesday): Daily — 16.7% (+4.9%); 7-day average — 19.7% (-2.4%)
Editor’s note: The number of new COVID-19 cases for ZIP codes in each county are reported on Mondays. Information comes from county sources and the IDPH website.
State, nation, world COVID-19 statistics
Here are the latest available statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus map as of Friday afternoon:
- Illinois: 886,805 cases, 15,015 deaths, 12,259,595 tests
- U.S.: 17,392,784 cases, 314,581 deaths, 10,170,788 recoveries
- World: 74,534,747 cases, 1,655,234 deaths, 52,373,134 recoveries
Testing sites in southwestern Illinois
Here are some upcoming coronavirus testing options:
- Friday, Dec. 18: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Annex, 901 Illinois Ave., Waterloo
- Saturday, Dec. 19: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Washington County Fairgrounds, 810 E. Holzhauer Drive, Nashville
- Saturday, Dec. 19: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Macedonia Baptist Church, 1400 E. Broadway, East St. Louis
- Sunday, Dec. 20: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at New Life in Christ Church of O’Fallon, 689 Scott Troy Road, O’Fallon
- Sunday, Dec. 20: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Madison County Health Department, 101 E. Edwardsville Road, Wood River
- Monday, Dec. 21: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Annex, 901 Illinois Ave., Waterloo
- Wednesday, Dec. 23: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Annex, 901 Illinois Ave., Waterloo
- Saturday, Dec. 26: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Expo Center, 200 S. Belt E. #2650
Monday, Dec. 28: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Annex, 901 Illinois Ave., Waterloo
- Wednesday, Dec. 30: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Annex, 901 Illinois Ave., Waterloo
- Thursday, Dec. 31: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Expo Center, 200 S. Belt E. #2650
- Saturday, Jan. 2: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Expo Center, 200 S. Belt E. #2650
- Every Tuesday and Thursday: 9-11 a.m. COVID-19 rapid testing at the Clinton County Fairgrounds, 1899 Methodist St., Carlyle
In addition, the testing site at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis has been moved to the St. Clair Square Mall behind Dillards. It is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
St. Clair County Health Department Executive Director Barb Hohlt said it is a four-tent drive-thru where people can stay in their cars. It will continue to serve as a COVID testing site and will also be a vaccine site once that’s available to the general public, she said.
The Illinois Department of Public Health will continue to deploy mobile testing teams to locations in East St. Louis, including to 4601 State St., from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Sunday and Monday.
Capacity is limited. Hours of operation are subject to change based on available equipment. For more information, visit.
Touchette Regional Hospital and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation also offer daily testing in Belleville and Wood River. Call 618-646-2596 for an appointment.
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This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 4:12 PM.