March 29, 2024
Coronavirus | Sauk Valley


Coronavirus

Lee County reaches warning level as Sauk Valley reports 2 deaths, 60 new cases Wednesday

The Whiteside County Health Department announced the death of a resident in their 70s on Wednesday, the 21st COVID-related death in the county. Carroll County also had an additional COVID-related death on Wednesday, an individual in their 70s.

Lee County will be placed on the Illinois Department of Public Health warning list due to the new case rates and test positivity rates. IDPH wants to see counties with fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents each week. Lee County has had 131 cases per 100,000 people. Lee County's test positivity rate is 9.4%.

Lee County announced eight new cases, with one a resident of the Jack Mabley Center. Lee County's new cases include two people under the age of 14, one in their 30s, one in their 40s and four in their 50s.

Two additional Lee County residents have recovered.

Whiteside County had 23 new cases on Wednesday. Seven of the new cases were people in their 50s, five were in people under 20, five where people in their 40s, four were people in their 20s and two were people in their 60s. Whiteside County also had three additional recoveries on Wednesday.

Ogle County had 13 new cases Wednesday.

Carroll County had 16 new cases Wednesday, with seven of those from Thomson Prison. Carroll County's new cases involve four people in their 20s, three people in their 30s, two int heir 50s, one in their 70s, one in their 90s and one teenager.

Whiteside County has had 811 cases and 21 deaths. Lee County has had 396 cases, 296 recoveries and one death. Ogle County has had 780 cases and six deaths.

Carroll County has had 249 cases and six deaths.

The state announced 2,273 new cases and 35 deaths Wednesday. Illinois has had 293,274 cases and 8,672 deaths.

Sterling has had 3,772 tests and 286 cases. Rock Falls has had 2,066 tests and 146 cases. Dixon has had 5,269 tests and 286 cases. Rochelle has had 3,767 tests and 376 cases.

Announced Tuesday, additional COVID-19 restrictions will be placed on Illinois’ Region 1, which includes the Sauk Valley, starting Saturday to mitigate the resurgence of the virus there after the region met two of the IDPH's criteria for stricter measures.

This means bars and restaurants can no longer offer indoor service, must require reservations for each party and must stop service at 11 p.m., according to the IDPH mitigations plan. Capacity limits on events will also be changed from 50 to 25 people.

The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen nine days of positivity increases – meeting one of the criteria for stricter mitigation measures – and four days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased to 8.4%, the highest rate of any of the state's 11 regions. Currently, 39% of medical/surgical beds are available and 53% of ICU beds.