By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Despite the mask mandate ending on Monday, McLean County’s top health officials warn the public of a possible uptick in hospitalizations as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

According to Jessica McKnight, McLean County Health Department Administrator, the department is concentrating on different aspects of the pandemic.

“What we are looking at now is more the severity, so hospitalizations and the burden on our health care system; which is something we have been looking at all along, but earlier in the pandemic, we were more focused on limiting transmission, limiting cases now. We know that we will see cases, but we’re trying, we’re doing our best to look at disease severity now – so things are starting to change now in the pandemic in what we’re looking at and concentrating on.”

McKnight reports ‘things are looking good’ as cases of COVID-19 are down in the county.

“Right now, McLean County is in a low level, and so things are looking pretty good. And with the mask mandate lifting in most settings (inaudible), we are still encouraging individuals to stay up to date with their vaccines.”

Meanwhile, Reditus Laboratories, based in Pekin, recently identified an omicron subvariant in Central Illinois called “BA2.”

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].