PEORIA, Ill. — Local health officials and professionals at Thursday’s weekly Peoria City/County Health Department briefing urged local residents to get vaccinated amid a COVID-19 case surge.
According to Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson, many of the new cases continue to fall within the 0-19 age range.
“In fact, 40% of our current active cases are under the age of 30,” said Hendrickson. “Just over 2,800 Peoria County residents under the age of 30 are considered fully vaccinated.”
Hendrickson said many of the new cases are coming from out-of-school activities such as sports teams, dance academies, group dinners, travel and family get-togethers.
However, she believes sports can be played safely, as they have been throughout the area, but discouraged large group gatherings at things like team dinners.
One hospital system in the area reported 20% of its hospitalized patients due to COVID-19 are under the age of 45.
“This is a different type of COVID fatigue,” said Hendrickson. “There is a silver-lining –this hope that we have — but this is not a time to let our guard down, and our numbers are showing that.”
Region 2 of Illinois, as of Thursday, is at 20% ICU capacity, the lowest possible available mark set by IDPH to remain in Phase 4 of Restore Illinois.
Luckily, a return to tiered mitigation doesn’t seem to be in the cards for the region.
“What [future mitigations] look like might be different,” said Hendrickson. “Now we’re sitting in a landscape where vaccine is available.”
Hendrickson said new possible mitigations, if any go into place at all, would look different due to the fact that the COVID-19 vaccine is now being widely distributed.
OSF Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Specialist Dr. Randy McCrea spoke Thursday about the importance of younger people being vaccinated, especially as cases surge in younger age groups.
“It’s very important for us, as a community, to think about 16 and 17-year-olds,” said McCrea. “They deserve that option to experience [their last years of high school] fully without interruption of their education.”
McCrea said those under the age of 18 must have parental permission to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but they don’t have to be present when their child receives the shot.
Parental permission slips can be filled out prior to to getting vaccinated, and the parent doesn’t have to be there when their child is vaccinated, according to McCrea.
McCrea also addressed a concern brought about on social media regarding the vaccine causing fertility issues later in the lives of those who receive it.
“Pretty much all of the expert committees and bodies on this, including the American College of Gynecology, have said there is no concern for fertility issues,” said McCrea.
While many older adults haven’t had hesitancy to receive the vaccine, McCrea says they are seeing the most hesitancy to get the shot in younger people.
“The widespread publicity the youth don’t get as sick — don’t seem to end up in hospitals and die — has been a negative,” said McCrea. “We’ve seen plenty of young adults that have seen very serious disease.”
According to McCrea, many younger people don’t think they should worry about getting the vaccine because they don’t believe they will get very sick if they catch the virus.
Hendrickson said more vaccination clinics, like those held this week throughout the tri-county area, would come up as more Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines are received.
However, due to production issues regarding the J&J vaccine, the area is not expecting to see many shipments of the single-dose shot in the coming weeks.
Hendrickson said Peoria County does have a couple clinics planned for J&J doses that will be received next week.
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