Morgan, and Schuyler Counties have been removed from the State’s COVID-19 warning list.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 24 counties in Illinois are considered to be at a warning level for COVID-19. A county enters a warning level when two or more COVID-19 risk indicators that measure the amount of COVID-19 increase.
Morgan County saw a significant drop in risk indicators, with a positivity rate of 7.2% compared to 14.% last week. Schuyler County had the biggest drop in the area going from a flat 10% positivity rate down to 4.2%.
It was not all good news from the IDPH however, as three of the four remaining counties in the WLDS listening area saw increases over the past week. Both Cass and Greene Counties remain on the warning list, while Scott County may be in danger of going into the warning level soon.
Cass County is headed the right direction going from 14.9% to 10.8%, with a 114 cases per 100,000 resident average, while Greene County continues to see increases going from 10.5% last week to 12.3% positivity. Greene did however lower the cases per 100,000 population metric to 192 after recording a 427 case per 100,000 count last week.
Scott County saw the biggest increase in the area over the week, going up from 2.6% last week to 7.1% and closing in on IDPH’s 8% warning threshold. Scott also saw a major jump in it’s case rate, going from just 6 cases per 100,000 last week, to 223. the increased numbers come despite just a slight drop in testing, as 140 tests were recorded compared to 153 the week before.
Pike County was the only county in our reporting area that had a higher number of tests over the last week, with 388 compared to 303 the week before. Pike County did see a slight increase in positivity, up three percentage points to 4.9%, however Pike’s case rate increased from just 9 cases per 100,000, sitting now at 122.
The county metrics information comes just as the CDC announced Friday a reversal on testing guidelines, returning to the recommendation that asymptomatic people who have come in contact with an infected person should get tested and quarantine for 14 days. Just last month the CDC said that testing might not be necessary for people without symptoms.
The 24 counties currently on the IDPH warning list include Bond, Bureau, Cass, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, DeWitt, Edwards, Effingham, Greene, Jasper, Jo Daviess, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Rock Island, St. Clair, Shelby, Washington, Wayne, Williamson, Wabash, and Union.