PEORIA, Ill. – The head of the Peoria City/County Health Department says the good news is that the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in the area continues to trend downward.
Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson says the bad news, is that the majority of new cases cotinue to be in those under age 39, but also another group.
“We are seeing increases in the number of cases in our over-60 population,” said Hendrickson.
Hendrickson says that’s important to note because that’s an age group that officials believe is most vulnerable to getting COVID-19, and for which there are plenty of all three types of COVID vaccines and booster shots available.
Locally, the Tri-County region now has 53,860 confirmed of COVID-19 as of Thursday, an increase of 370 from the week before. The seven-day average, however, has declined to 53 per day, down from 61. 58.8 percent of local confirmed COVID cases are under the age of 39.
Seven Intensive Care Unit beds at local hospitals are in use for COVID patients currently, along with 49 non-ICU beds. Both are considered to be down on average.
455 cases are currently in “active isolation” at home, down from 552 the week before.
The number of deaths has increased to 832, up four in the last week.
Meanwhile, local health officials say they’re getting plenty of questions about, and trying to stop the spread of misinformation for, the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, especially now that five-to-eleven-year-olds are close to being eligible.
Doctor Nora Philbin is the Assistant Director of Pediatrics for UnityPoint Health, and says no, the vaccine wasn’t rushed.
“There were no shortcuts taken in making these vaccines,” said Philbin. “There was a collaboration of scientists all over the world, and a great amount of teamwork, energy, and impetus to get these vaccines made.”
The other point of concerns, Philbin says, is that the technology investigating MRNA vaccines and also Coronaviruses are decades old, not new as some believe.
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