St. Clair County has a higher COVID-19 case rate than Chicago, new Illinois map shows
St. Clair County met all of the state public health department’s goals Friday for controlling coronavirus except one: the case rate.
For every 100,000 people, there were 64 new cases in the week from June 14 through June 20, according to a new county metrics map from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The state’s target for new cases is 50 cases per 100,000.
The county’s rate was higher than Chicago’s, which reported 42 cases per 100,000 people in the same time period.
But as long as the county remains “blue” on the map rather than “orange,” the color for counties showing signs of increased spread, residents should remain cautiously optimistic, St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern said.
The county has decided to change its news briefings from daily to weekly, partly because of its “blue” status with the state. The briefings will happen weekly on Thursday, starting next week.
If the county moves to an “orange” status, daily briefings will resume, Kern said.
While St. Clair County met all its other targets in stability for slowing the spread, Kern urged residents to remain cautious as the state moves into Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois reopening plan Friday. The phase is marked by the reopening of indoor dining and movie theaters, among other loosened restrictions, but it also raised concerns about a return of the virus.
“A lot more things are going to be open, a lot more opportunities out there, but there’s also an opportunity then to maybe let down our guard. We don’t want to do that,” Kern said during a daily news briefing Thursday. “Let’s continue to wear masks. Let’s continue to wash our hands, continue to social distance, all those things we’ve been talking about so the numbers stay low.”
Among other metrics in the county, deaths were stable or decreasing, the number of tests coming back positive was low and testing was sufficient. Additionally, hospitalizations reached an all-time low since mid-April on Thursday, according to Samantha Bierman, emergency response coordinator for the St. Clair County Health Department.
Only one county, Cass in central Illinois, was showing warning signs of increased spread as of Friday with 191 new cases per 100,000 people.
Public health officials created the map to “help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions and promote healthy behaviors,” according to the state’s website.
If a county is labeled as at risk of increased spread, the public health department recommends asking the following questions: “Should I still attend or host a large gathering? Are there additional precautions I should take given my personal/family health risks? Should I wait to dine out or go to a movie?”
“We expect the journey ahead to be difficult,” Pritzker said Thursday. “The virus hasn’t gone away.”
State public health officials announced 857 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 39 deaths Friday for a total of 140,291 cases and 6,847 deaths since the pandemic began.
