PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria-Tazewell-Woodford tri-county region has reached 158 cases of COVID-19.
Peoria County reached the triple-digit mark after Saturday’s reported 103 total cases.
Tazewell checked in with 42, and Woodford remained at 13.
15 area intensive care beds were being occupied by COVID-19 cases or suspected cases, with 10 confirmed and five possible.
The area’s death toll remained at seven.
Friday marked the day some area municipalities began reopening. This occurred after a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker was signed by over 20 leaders.
Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis was not one of those leaders, and he explained why.
“One of my concerns was while [the letter] outlined the whole host of businesses they proposed opening at certain time frames, there wasn’t a level of understanding how it was going to be measured, that everything happening was happening safely,” he said.
“My thought for those folks was, did you coordinate that with public health officials who can help you formulate that [plan]?”
Ardis said he expected to propose a reopening plan to Pritzker during the upcoming week.
“I believe there will be the potential for [reopening],” he said.
“I don’t know that it would be next week or the following week. I’m very hopeful it would be sooner than the end of this month.
“Believe me, we’re hearing loud and clear how much the private side and public side want to get back to work, and we’re trying to comply with the governor’s orders. We are going to bring forward something I think will comply with the governor’s concerns for opening the economy up in a safe way.”
Ardis didn’t give specifics, but said the majority of the plan will revolve around safety.
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