Tri-County health officials on Thursday reported three more deaths linked to COVID-19, but just 19 new cases in the past day.
Active cases dropped below 250, with 42 patients in Peoria-area hospitals and 204 residents isolating at home. The 246 active cases are the fewest since 180 on July 9, the last time the Tri-County was below 200.
Two of the latest victims are from Tazewell County: a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s. The other fatality is a Woodford County woman in her 90s. The region's death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at 735 while the case count is up to 45,391.
Meanwhile, updated figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) show Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford counties with 136,717 residents fully vaccinated, or 38.9% of the population. Peoria County alone is up to almost 39.3% (70,892).
Over the past week, the region has added 3,471 fully vaccinated individuals and administered 8,404 vaccine doses. Those figures are down from 9,359 total shots and 6,895 new fully dosed residents over the previous seven days.
Illinois as a whole is up to 40.6% of the population fully vaccinated, with 11.1 million total injections administered.
IDPH reported 891 new COVID-19 cases and 42 more deaths statewide since Wednesday. Since March 2020, Illinois has logged 1.38 million coronavirus infections and 22,718 fatalities.
