Coronavirus Positivity In Will-Kankakee Region Lowest In A Month

WILL COUNTY, IL — The Will-Kankakee region is finally showing lower coronavirus positivity rates for the first time since Aug. 16, according to public health data. As of Tuesday, Region 7 has a positivity rate of 6.9 percent, which is a significant decrease from last week's 7.5 percent.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a set of new restrictions in the Will-Kankakee region on Aug. 24, triggered by regional coronavirus mitigation metrics, and as state public health officials announced the week before that the county had reached a COVID-19 "warning level." If the positivity rate continues to decline, the restrictions could be lifted.

The region is currently showing 2 consecutive days of positivity increase. The region also has days of hospital admission decrease over a 10-day period. However, it has increased by 1 as of Tuesday. Currently, there are 34 percent of surgical beds and 36 percent of ICU beds available across the two-county region, which has increased from last week.

This will reach a warning level if there is less than 20 percent availability for either types of hospital beds.

Any region that sustains an 8 percent positivity rate for three days in a row or sees an increase in positivity rates and simultaneous decrease in hospital capacity will need to implement additional community mitigation interventions, the Illinois department of Public Health website states.

Due to these metrics, new mitigations took effect in the county starting Aug. 26, according to which, indoor dining has been suspended and outdoor services can only be available until 11 p.m. According to the release from the governor's office, these mitigations do not apply to schools.

Coronavirus positivity in Will County alone has also started to move in the right direction, according to public health data. As of Friday, the county has a positivity rate of 7.5 percent. This comes after IDPH reported that the positivity rate was at an all-time high of 9 percent as of Aug. 4, putting the county at a warning level for this metric.

State health officials on Tuesday announced 1,466 new cases of the coronavirus and 20 additional deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. The statewide totals now stand at 264,210 confirmed infections and 8,332 known deaths.

As of Monday night, 1,584 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, including 373 in intensive care and 144 on ventilators, according to IDPH. All three of those numbers have been on the rise in recent days.

For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Plainfield Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!