Tips? Email news@news-gazette.com
One line from Monday’s update from the Douglas County Health Department said it all:
*DCHD has confirmed 74 NEW CASES OF COVID-19 in the last 14 days!!*
A recent surge in cases continued Monday with seven newly confirmed positive tests, pushing Douglas’ total to 198.
The new cases include:
- A 17-year-old male
- A woman in her 20s
- A male in his 30s
- Two men in their 40s
- A woman in her 50s
- A woman in her 80s
Douglas County now has 198 confirmed cases and four coronavirus-related fatalities, the most recent one involving a man in his 80s, whose death was reported Saturday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The number of positive tests in Ford County grew by three Monday, to 98.
Of those, 69 are classified as “confirmed,” 29 as “probable.”
Seventy-nine county residents have been released from isolation while 17 are isolating at home.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker addresses the media during a visit earlier this month to Wood ‘n Hog in Urbana.
Jerry Nowicki and Rebecca Anzel of our Springfield-based news partner, Capitol News Illinois, report:
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state Department of Public Health on Monday announced increased restrictions for residents of Will and Kankakee counties as the COVID-19 positivity rate there remained at or above 8 percent for three consecutive days.
Bars, restaurants and gatherings in those counties, demarcated as Region 7 in the Restore Illinois Plan, are facing similar rules to those implemented over the past five months by state officials trying to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The new restrictions, which will take effect Wednesday, are stricter than ones being enforced in Region 4, or the Metro East area of Illinois along the Missouri border. They do not apply to schools.
Establishments serving food and alcohol cannot serve customers indoors, and all outdoor consumption must end at 11 p.m. Patrons must be served at tables placed six feet apart, in observation of social distancing guidelines. Reservations will be required.
Employees cannot allow customers to assemble inside or outside while waiting for a table, alcoholic beverages or to leave. Bars must remove stools to discourage patrons from congregating.
Other rules include limiting social events to 25 people, or one quarter of a space’s capacity. Party buses will be banned and casinos and other gaming establishments must close at 11 p.m.
According to a news release, the Department of Public Health “continues to monitor each region in the state for several key indicators to identify early, but significant increases of COVID-19 transmission in Illinois, potentially signifying resurgence.” Those include an increasing COVID-19 case count while hospital capacity concurrently drops.
If, over a two-week period, the virus positivity rate drops to 6.5 percent or below, both regions 4 and 7 can reopen to the degree allowed under the Restore Illinois Plan.
In Region 4 last week, the governor announced mitigation efforts requiring bars and restaurants to close at 11 p.m. and limiting seating in those establishments to six people per table. Bars are being instructed to seat people only at tables and to remove bar stools to prevent gathering around the bar.
While some of the restrictions were the same in both regions, indoor service for patrons was not yet prohibited under the rules in Region 4.
In a news release, the governor’s office said Region 4 “will have until Sept. 2 at their current mitigation level before the state must move to impose further mitigation in the region.”
As of Aug. 21, the positivity rate in the Metro East remained at 9.4 percent, while Southern Illinois dipped to 6.9 percent. East-central Illinois remained the lowest with a 1.6 percent positivity rate.
The other regions ranged from 4.9 percent in northwest Illinois to 6.7 percent in suburban Cook County. Chicago’s positivity rate was 5.2 percent.
An 80-year-old man is the third Vermilion County resident to die of COVID-19, county health Administrator Doug Toole said Monday afternoon.
It’s the county’s first coronavirus-related death mid-June.
Toole told The News-Gazette’s Deb Pressey that the man had been ill at home and wasn’t hospitalized until the very end.
Toole also reported three new positive tests Monday, involving two residents in their 30s and one in their 20s.
The status of Vermilion’s now-281 total cases:
- Released/recovered: 262
- Isolating at home: 16
- Deceased: 3
- Hospitalized: 0
Vermilion’s single-day positivity rate is 1.55 percent. Its seven-day rate is 2.7 percent.
On the first day of classes on the UI campus, Champaign County on Monday reported a new single day-high for most newly confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Of 6,675 tests, a record 68 came back positive, a rate of 1.0 percent. The county’s seven-day positivity rate remained low and unchanged for the fifth straight day — 0.3 percent.
The number of active cases grew by 44, to 236, while the number of people hospitalized in the county for COVID-19 remained unchanged at three.
County totals to date: 168,231 tests; 1,975 confirmed cases, 1,719 of them classified as recovered (up 22 from Sunday); and 20 fatalities.
While C-U Public Health District data doesn’t differentiate between student and non-student cases, 63 of the 68 new positive tests involved residents of Campustown’s two primary ZIP codes — 53 in Champaign’s 61820, 10 in Urbana’s 61801.
Fifty-one of the new positive tests were by those in the 11-to-20 age group, with another 13 between the ages of 21 and 30.
The University of Illinois’ own dashboard, separate from the one maintained by CUPHD, shows 59 cases emerging from 4,474 tests Sunday, a rate of 1.3 percent.
Here’s an updated rundown of county ZIP codes with active cases followed by their total number of cases, according to C-U Public Health District data:
- 61820/Champaign: 87 active (up 48 from Sunday), 383 total (up 53)
- 61801/Urbana: 42 active (up six from Sunday), 156 total (up 10)
- 61822/Champaign: 19 active (down one from Sunday), 183 total (up two)
- 61821/Champaign: 9 active (down three from Sunday), 321 total (up one)
- 61802/Urbana: 8 active (down three from Sunday), 254 total (up one)
- 61853/Mahomet: 6 active (unchanged from Sunday), 102 total (unchanged)
- 61874/Savoy: 6 active (unchanged from Sunday), 69 total (up one)
- 61866/Rantoul: 5 active (down one from Sunday), 265 total (unchanged)
- 61880/Tolono: 2 active (down one from Sunday), 38 total (unchanged)
- 61845/Foosland: 1 active (down one from Sunday), 9 total (unchanged)
- 61873/St. Joseph: 1 active (unchanged from Sunday), 30 total (unchanged)
- 61847/Gifford: 1 active (unchanged from Sunday), 7 total (unchanged)
- 61859/Ogden: 1 active (unchanged from Sunday), 3 total (unchanged)
- 61843/Fisher: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 30 total
- 61877/Sidney: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 15 total
- 61864/Philo: 0 active (down two from Sunday), 11 total
- 61875/Seymour: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 6 total
- 61863/Pesotum: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 6 total
- 61878/Thomasboro: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 6 total
- 60949/Ludlow: 0 active unchanged from Sunday), 6 total
- 61840/Dewey: 0 active (down one from Sunday), 5 total
- 61849/Homer: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 5 total
- 61871/Royal: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 5 total
- 61872/Sadorus: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 3 total
- 61816/Broadlands: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 1 total
- 61851/Ivesdale: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 1 total
- 61862/Penfield: 0 active (unchanged from Sunday), 1 total
A look at the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 positive tests on the UI campus.
Here’s an updated breakdown of confirmed county cases by age group, according to CUPHD data:
- 21 to 30: 494 cases (up 13 from Sunday)
- 11 to 20: 445 cases (up 51 from Sunday)
- 31 to 40: 335 cases (up one from Sunday)
- 41 to 50: 219 cases (unchanged from Sunday)
- 51 to 60: 177 cases (up two from Sunday)
- 10 and under: 131 cases (up one from Sunday)
- 61 to 70: 96 cases (up one from Sunday)
- 71 to 80: 40 cases (unchanged from Sunday)
- 81 to 90: 28 cases (unchanged from Sunday)
- 91 to 100 10 cases (unchanged from Sunday)
The 21-to-30 age group also is the most tested throughout the pandemic, representing 26.7 percent of all tests in Champaign County.
No. 2 on that list: 11 to 20 (20.1 percent).
A look at the number of newly processed COVID-19 tests on the UI campus.
Of 36,155 new tests, 1,612 came back positive statewide Monday, a rate of 4.5 percent.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 4.2 percent.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also reported eight new coronavirus-related deaths, including an Iroquois County woman in her 80s:
- Cook County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
- DuPage County: 1 male 70s
- Iroquois County: 1 female 80s
- Kane County: 1 male 50s
- Monroe County: 1 female 70s
- Winnebago County 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s
Administrator Dave Remmert said Piatt County’s only weekend case involves a student from Monticello “attending school in McLean County and exposed to an outbreak at the school.”
That student is “currently in isolation in McLean County and had zero exposures in Piatt,” Remmert wrote in an email Sunday.
Since the individual’s home address is in Monticello, the case was added to Piatt’s total, which now stands at 75, he said.