Southwest Illinois sees surge of COVID-19 cases as Delta variant spreads
Officials in the metro-east are worried COVID-19 may be clawing its way back after the region’s case rate surged back to a level not seen since February.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported the seven counties that make up the metro-east — defined as Region 4 by state agencies — saw its new COVID-19 7-day average testing positivity rate rise to 5.1%. That’s the highest the positivity rate has been since Feb. 11, roughly a week after restrictions on indoor dining had been lifted in the metro-east.
In St. Clair County, the 7-day average of new cases had reached 7.1% as of Tuesday. That’s up from 2.9% on May 28 with the county reporting 715 new cases and two new COVID-19 deaths over the intervening time.
In Madison County, the 7-day average stood at 5.2% Tuesday, up from 2.8% on May 28. The county has reported 607 new positives since 607 and three new deaths since then.
St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Director Herb Simmons, who has acted as a spokesperson for the county on COVID-19 and helped organize its response to the pandemic and vaccination effort, said he’s concerned about the current trend.
“I’m worried about it every day because we’re not out of the woodwork here. This is an ongoing thing,” he said. “We keep stressing to people each week now that if you haven’t been vaccinated, you need to consider doing so.”
Nearly 49% of Illinois residents — or 6.2 million people — has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In St. Clair County, the percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated falls to 40.3%. In Madison County, that rate stands at 42%.
As of Tuesday, 47.6% of U.S. citizens have been fully vaccinated and 55.1% have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Simmons said vaccination is more important than ever due to the surge of the Delta strain across the country and, especially, in Missouri, which has seen a 45% increase in new cases and 24% increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 over the last two weeks.
The Delta Variant is a form of COVID-19 that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Disease, recently described as the “greatest threat” to the effort of stopping COVID-19.
The variant was first detected in India late last year and is 50 to 60% more transmissible than the alpha strain of the virus. States with below-average vaccination rates have almost triple the rate of new COVID-19 cases compared to states with above-average vaccination rates, according to new data from Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.