Active COVID-19 cases in the Tri-County are down to the lowest number in two months, while vaccinations in the region over the past seven days have reversed three weeks of declining figures.
Public health officials on Thursday reported 79 patients with COVID-19 in Peoria-area hospitals, along with 449 residents isolating at home. Those 528 active cases are the fewest since there were 378 on March 15.
Tri-County health officials reported four new deaths linked to COVID-19 and 64 more coronavirus infections since Wednesday. The region's death toll since the start of the pandemic is up to 699, while the case count stands at 44,875.
The latest victims are two Tazewell County men in their 50s, a Tazewell County woman in her 80s, and a Peoria County man in his 60s with underlying health issues. The area has now recorded 102 fatalities since the start of April.
Meanwhile, updated figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) show Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford counties combining to administer 10,231 vaccine doses over the last week. While that’s still less than half the high of 21,083 shots from April 8-14, it is a gain of 1,690 over the previous seven days that represented the lowest number since late January.
The region has recorded 264,418 total shots in arms; 126,351 residents are fully vaccinated, or 36% of the population. Illinois as a whole has logged nearly 10.2 million injections, with 36.5% of residents fully vaccinated.
The IDPH announced an addition of 1,795 COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths statewide in the past day, bringing Illinois’ counts since last March to 1,359,748 illnesses and 22,285 fatalities.
