Morgan County Down to 2 Active COVID Cases

By Benjamin Cox on May 28, 2020 at 12:33pm

Morgan County has had a streak of two weeks without a new positive case of COVID-19. There are currently only 2 active cases out of the 34 that have been recorded, with 1 death attributed to the virus. Dale Bainter of the Morgan County Health Department says that residence have done well following health and social distancing guidelines: “I think we’ve done a really good job of that here in the area. We haven’t seen any recent surges in cases. Our hospitals are returning to some elective procedures. I know they are gearing up. They want the community to know that they are back in business to a certain capacity and wanting to take care of your health needs.”

The last positive test reported in Morgan County was on May 14th. Bainter says that the county has returned 1057 negative tests returned. He says there is caution to follow after the Memorial Day weekend and warmer days ahead: “I know there is a lot of unrest. There are many states around us that are loosening up restrictions and opening up more. I can tell you from a public health standpoint that I’m a little nervous about June 15th. You might wonder why that date looms to me. With Memorial Day this past weekend, I’m thinking incubation period and people traveling and maybe going out against restrictions a little bit. I think that date is really going to tell the story. I hope our residents and our community team members can be as responsible as possible so that we don’t lose sight of what we’ve accomplished so far.”

Bainter says that the drive up testing facility at the Health Department in Jacksonville has worked really well. Cass County reported 1 new case yesterday after nearly a week-long streak without any new cases. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported yesterday that the state’s 7-day rolling positivity rate is at 8.6%.