St. Clair County reports its second highest case count since COVID-19 pandemic began
St. Clair County on Thursday reported its second highest daily case count since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Officials announced 314 new cases during the daily briefing. The previous high was Nov. 27, when the county reported 415 cases. The county also exceeded 300 cases — 306 — on Jan. 1. Cases in St. Clair County now total 22,383.
Additionally, the county reported four new deaths for a total of 21 this week. The deaths included a man in his 80s, a woman in her 80s, a man in his 90s and a woman in her 90s, all with unknown health conditions, according to health officials.
“This is our holiday fallout from Christmas ... and to think we’ve still got a couple more weeks of the fallout from New Year’s,” St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons said during the briefing, the county’s 300th since the pandemic began. “The higher the numbers get, the longer it’s going to take to get us down to where we need to be. Team St. Clair, we say it every day, we appreciate you sharing this and trying to get the word out there. A lot of good people are calling and giving their condolences to the people that we’ve lost.
“Our citizens are getting sick, some are dying ... we’ve got to hold on until we get that vaccine here. I assure you, the health department is geared up for it. We’re ready to go.”
Added St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern, “High numbers. Community spread is out there. That’s why we’ve got to get this vaccination. We need more vaccine to be coming this way. And we need to make sure you’re ready.”
Kern said there’s talk that other counties in the state may have mitigations loosened soon, but that St. Clair County is nowhere near that threshold.
“Unless we band together and wear a mask, watch the social distance, wash the hands — do all the things that we’re asking — we’re not going to get those numbers where we need to get these mitigations lifted. Maybe next week, there’ll be talk of lifting of mitigations, but we don’t have the numbers to warrant that right now,” Kern said.
Vaccine informational update
Also during Thursday’s briefing, St. Clair County Health Department Emergency Response Coordinator Sam Bierman explained they will have a “Notification for Vaccine Availability” out for the public soon.
“It’s just going to be some questions we have you answer to give us an idea of what members of the population are interested in getting the vaccine,” she said.
Name, date of birth, address, phone number and an email address will be required fields on the form, Bierman said.
“You have to put something in those boxes; otherwise, you won’t be able to submit the form,” she said.
People also will have the choice to pick what occupation they fall under. Additionally, the form will have an “other” category people can click if their occupation is not listed and type it in there.
The form will list underlying health conditions provided by the state as well, and people can select multiple ones, if applicable. There also will be an “other” option for this category.
“Once we have that completed, we will put the link for everyone to fill that out not only on the health department page, we’ll send it over to EMA,” Bierman said. “Our goal is for everyone to fill that out. That really gives us a good idea of what the residents are thinking in St. Clair County as far as who is interested in taking the vaccine. It’s a way for us to compile all the information and be able to pull it out as we need it.”
Bierman noted all information is private.
Kern asked people to fill the form out once available.
“So fill out your name in the portal so you can be notified when we get to your category of vaccine so you can be one of the first to make a reservation and get out and get that needle in your arm,” he said.
Simmons also noted filling out the form will help the health department know how many vaccines are needed.
“That’s why it’s important, like Sam said, when this form gets posted, please fill it out. That’s going to be a way to help make the logistics a lot smoother of a transition,” he said. “Logistically it kind of helps the health department with the amount of vaccines that we know that we’re going to be needing as we move forward. We encourage everybody to fill that form out, and once Sam and the health department gets it over, we’ll have it up on the pages.”
Number of SW Illinois’ available hospital beds falls again
The number of available hospital beds in the seven-county metro-east took another drop Thursday, due to an influx of new COVID-19 patients, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As of Thursday, 11.1% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, down from 11.2% on Wednesday, according to state health department data. Additionally, 17.1% of the region’s intensive care unit beds were available Thursday, down from 20.9%.
Thursday also marked the 10th-consecutive day the region’s hospital bed availability has been under the state-set threshold of 20%, which plays a part in determining whether COVID-19 restrictions need to be tightened or relaxed. Currently, the entire state is in Tier 3 mitigations.
For Tier 3 mitigation metrics to be relaxed or to move to Tier 2, the region must experience a seven-day rolling average positivity rate of less than 12% for three consecutive days while also seeing 20% available intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed availability for three consecutive days.
Region 4’s rolling seven-day average positivity rate, meanwhile, was 13.5% on Thursday, up from 13.3% on Wednesday. Additionally, the region reported a daily positivity rate of 16.6% on Thursday, up from 15.1% on Wednesday.
The new testing positivity rate is based on data recorded as of Jan. 4 and the hospital and ICU bed availability is based on data recorded as of Jan. 6. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a seven-day period.
Restrictions on Illinois businesses may be lifted as early as Jan. 15, depending on the level of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in their communities, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday. Illinois officials had paused any removal of restrictions through the end of year holidays, even as statistics improved in some areas of the state.
Officials picked Jan. 15 as the earliest date for that to happen because it is outside of the time frame when the state may see any potential surge in COVID-19 diagnoses from holiday gatherings.
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.
Officials in the metro-east have continuously warned about the possibility of the region running low on hospital and ICU beds, prompting some area hospitals to temporarily cease elective surgeries. Officials also worry a spike of new COVID-19 cases could be on the way due to Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
On Monday, St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said the effect of those celebrations should start to show up in the coming weeks.
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.
Illinois reports new cases, deaths Thursday
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: 8,757 (+1,188)
New deaths: 177 (+38)
New tests: 105,518 (+24,544)
Total cases: 1,008,045
Total deaths: 17,272
Total tests: 13,803,946
Hospitalizations: 3,921 (-8)
People in ICU: 783 (-29)
People on ventilators: 450 (-1)
Statewide positivity rate (from Dec. 31-Jan. 6): 8.5% (+0.1%)
Thursday’s breakdown for Region 4
New cases: 637 (+80)
New deaths: 5 (-6) (St. Clair County reported 4 new deaths and Madison County reported 1 new death.)
Daily positivity rate (as of Monday): 16.6% (+1.5%)
Seven-day rolling average positivity rate (as of Monday): 13.5% (+0.2%)
Regional hospitalizations: 199 (-1) (provided by St. Clair County)
Regional patients on ventilators: 11 (-3) (provided by St. Clair County)
Hospital bed availability: 11.1% (-0.1%)
ICU bed availability: 17.1% (-3.2%)
New cases from nearby counties outside Region 4: 58 (-61)
New deaths from nearby counties outside Region 4: 1 (-1) (Jersey County reported 1 new death.)
ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 314 new positives, 4 new deaths, 2,212 new tests administered, 304 new recoveries, 9 fewer patients hospitalized, 2 fewer patients on ventilators
Total overall: 22,383 positives, 351 deaths, 217,810 tests administered, 19,999 recoveries, 111 patients hospitalized with 7 patients on ventilators
Additional data: Individuals who tested positives ranged from under the age of 10 to their 90s. Of the 314 new positives, 144 individuals were under the age of 40.
Congregate living facilities: Cedar Trails in Freeburg reported 1 new death; The Colonnade Senior Living in O’Fallon reported 2 new cases and 2 new deaths; Freeburg Care Center reported 32 new cases; Four Fountains in Belleville reported 3 new cases; Mercy Rehab and Care Center in Swansea reported 1 new case and 1 new death; Joe’s Place in Shiloh reported 2 new cases; and St. Paul’s Home in Belleville reported 6 new cases.
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 14.4% (-0.8%); seven-day average — 12.9% (-0.3%)
MADISON COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 184 new positives, 1 new death, 1,583 new tests administered, 211 new recoveries, 5 additional patients hospitalized
Total overall: 21,810 positives, 383 deaths, 200,640 tests administered, 12,778 recoveries, 59 patients hospitalized with 4 patients on ventilators
Additional data: Individuals who tested positives ranged from under the age of 10 to their 80s. Of the 184 new positives, 105 individuals were under the age of 40.
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 15.9% (+0.9%); 7-day average — 14.0% (+0.5%)
CLINTON COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 32 new positives, 65 new recoveries,
Total overall: 4,695 positives, 76 deaths, 4,278 recoveries, 12 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 15.7% (+2.0%); 7-day average — 12.6% (+0.9%)
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 51 new positives, 32 new recoveries, 1 fewer patient hospitalized
Total overall: 3,514 positives, 60 deaths, 3,262 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 20.1% (-1.7%); 7-day average — 12.2% (-0.7%)
MONROE COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 56 new positives, 1 additional patient hospitalized
Total overall: 3,356 positives, 61 deaths, 39 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 31.7% (+22.7%); seven-day average — 14.6% (+0.4%)
BOND COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 1,698 positives, 16 deaths, 35,318 tests administered
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 17.4% (+7.4%); seven-day average — 11.3% (+1.2%)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 1,331 positives, 23 deaths, 1,208 recoveries, 5 hospitalizations
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 40.0% (+10.3%); 7-day average — 26.8% (+2.8%)
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 3,629 positives, 89 deaths, 2,117 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 6.4% (-8.0%); 7-day average — 9.2% (+0.4%)
JERSEY COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 11 new positives, 1 new death, 150 new recoveries, 10 new recoveries
Total overall: 2,057 positives, 31 deaths, 19,541 tests administered, 1,937 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 13.0% (-4.2%); 7-day average — 9.9% (-0.2%)
PERRY COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: 47 new positives, 52 new recoveries
Total overall: 2,532 positives, 52 deaths, 2,012 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 23.7% (+5.3%); 7-day average — 14.3% (-0.2%)
CALHOUN COUNTY
Thursday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 421 positives, three deaths, 372 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Monday): Daily — 8.8% (-34.1%); 7-day average — 12.6% (-4.1%)
Editor’s note: The number of new COVID-19 cases for ZIP codes in each county is 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 Thursday afternoon.
- Illinois: 1,008,045 cases, 17,272 deaths, 13,803,946 tests
- U.S.: 21,857,616 cases, 369,990 deaths, 13,024,142 recoveries
- World: 87,643,563 cases, 1,891,700 deaths, 63,132,543 recoveries
Testing sites in southwestern Illinois
Here are some upcoming coronavirus testing options:
- Every Tuesday and Thursday: 9-11 a.m. COVID-19 rapid testing at the Clinton County Fairgrounds, 1899 Methodist St., Carlyle
The testing site at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis has been moved to St. Clair Square mall, behind Dillards. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. It’s a drive-thru with four tents, allowing people to stay in their cars.
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, and hours of operation are subject to change based on available equipment.
Additionally, St. Clair County has a new service center at 330 W. Main St. in Belleville. The regular hours for the location are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays; and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays.
Touchette Regional Hospital and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation also offer daily testing in Belleville and Wood River. Call 618-646-2596 for an appointment.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:11 PM.