IDPH: 1 Illinois county at ‘high’ COVID-19 risk; 14 at medium risk

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced that one county is considered at “high” risk for COVID-19, up from zero a week ago. An additional 14 counties are at “medium” risk, up from five last week. Richland County, in southeastern Illinois, is the one county at “high” risk. Only Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties in northern illinois are at “medium” risk.

“We are seeing a slight increase in COVID-19 community levels this week,” IDPH director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a news release. “However, as COVID-19 community levels are relatively low and the State of Illinois plans for the end of the statewide disaster declaration in May, IDPH remains dedicated to staying vigilant and protecting the most vulnerable Illinoisians. This is why we are excited to announce the launch of the new STATeam. This innovative new program will provide additional layers of support for our local health departments and long term care facilities, protecting our most at-risk residents and keeping them safe from COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.”

The STATeam is designed to strengthen IDPH’s county health department partners in their efforts to support long term care facilities, according to a news release. The support will include testing, vaccinations, contact tracing and treatments.

IDPH has recorded a total of 4,040,139 cases and 36,229 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the beginning of the pandemic. The department is reporting 10,234 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois in the week ending Feb. 5, and 62 deaths.

As of Thursday night, 834 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 100 patients were in the ICU and 34 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 6,344 doses, including the bivalent booster and first doses. Since Feb. 3, 44,411 vaccine doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 79% have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, more than 71% have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, and more than 19% have received the bivalent booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.