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Whiteside County announced 32 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, with six of those new cases involving people under 20, six more people in their 20s, six people in their 50s, five in their 30s, four in their 60s, three in their 40s and one case in their 70s and one over 80.
Lee, Ogle and Carroll counties did not report updated statistics on Saturday.
Whiteside County has had 1,186 cases and 21 deaths. Lee County has had 567 cases, 416 recoveries and one death. Ogle County has had 1,005 cases, 832 recoveries and seven deaths. Carroll County has had 353 cases, 259 recoveries and eight deaths.
The North region (Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties) has seen eight days of positivity increases and four days of hospital admission increases. The region's positivity rate increased from 10.6% to 11.0%, still the highest rate of any of the state's 11 regions. Currently, 33% of medical/surgical beds and 42% of ICU beds are available.
The North region (Region 1) is under additional COVID-19 mitigation measures from the IDPH as of Oct. 3. If Region 1 continues to report positivity rates above 8%, further mitigation efforts may be taken. To return to the standard Phase 4 restrictions, the region will need to maintain an average positivity rate of less than or equal to 6.5% over a 14-day period.
The region's counties that are reporting the highest positivity rates are Lee (12.4%), Jo Daviess (12.3%), Boone (12.2%) and Winnebago (12.0%). DeKalb County's positivity rate increased to 8.9%, while Whiteside County's increased to 11.0%.
Illinois had 3,629 new cases Saturday and 27 COVID-related deaths. The state has had 339,803 cases and 9,192 deaths.
Sterling has had 5,076 tests and 386 cases. Rock Falls has had 2,731 tests and 243 cases. Dixon has had 6,535 tests and 374 cases. Rochelle has had 4,445 tests and 520 cases.
For more local news, visit SaukValley.com at https://www.saukvalley.com.