By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – As the number of positive COVID-19 cases continues to decline in McLean County, local health officials are “cautiously optimistic” as Illinois inches closer to fully reopening the state.
On Thursday, health officials reported three new cases of COVID-19 as the county’s rolling positivity rate remained steady at 5.2%. However, with Illinois fulling reopening come June 11th, health officials are concerned that cases could rise.
“We are cautiously optimistic. We are looking forward to seeing these numbers go down, and we certainly hope that that’s the case,” said McLean County Health Department Public Affairs Coordinator Marianne Manko. “We are cautious because, you know, we still have roughly only about 40% of our population that is fully vaccinated.
We want those numbers to be much, much higher. And we’re hoping that more and more people will return for that second vaccination and that we will get more of that younger 12-15 age category fully vaccinated earlier in the summer rather than later.”
As of Friday, roughly 149,769 doses of the vaccine have been administered in the county.
On the other hand, six McLean County residents remain hospitalized due to COVID-19 as 81% of ICU beds, and 91% of total beds are in use.
Health officials report the 7-day positivity rate is 1.5%.
There have been 230 COVID-related deaths in the county.
Blake Haas can be reached at Blake.Haas@Cumulus.com.
