April 25, 2024
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La Salle County back to low COVID-19 risk

2 county residents die rom complications related to the virus

By Derek Barichello
Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order up to four free at-⁠home COVID-⁠19 tests. Log on to www.covidtests.gov to order your free test.

After a week of being elevated to medium risk for COVID-19, La Salle County is back to low risk, according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Scott Anderson)

After a week of being elevated to medium risk for COVID-19, La Salle County is back to low risk, according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fifty-nine of Illinois’ 102 counties are at an elevated risk for COVID-19.

There were two La Salle County residents, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 100s, who died from complications related to COVID-19 from Jan. 6 to 13. Their deaths are the first in 2023. There have been 509 COVID-19 related deaths in La Salle County since the beginning of the pandemic.

From Jan. 6 to 13, there were 130 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Also in that time period, 178 individuals who previously tested positive for COVID-19 were removed from quarantine.

La Salle County’s community level is based on three indicators.

Case rate/total cases, which due to a reporting cadence issue, Illinois’s aggregate case and death data will be reported as 0 on Jan. 12. As a result, case and death metrics will appear lower than expected in COVID Data Tracker’s Jan. 12 release. COVID-19 Community Levels and Community Transmission metrics may be underestimated and should be interpreted with caution.

There was a rate of 6 per 100,000 new hospital admissions of confirmed COVID-19 (last 7 days) and 2.8% of staffed inpatient beds are in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19 (last 7 days), according to the other CDC indicators.

The La Salle County Health Department schedules all COVID-19 tests online. Access the link at https://hipaa.jotform.com/220026540796151

The health department also urges everyone 6 months and older to get vaccinated and all eligible individuals to get a bivalent booster. The La Salle County Health Department has COVID-19 vaccine available at the health department by appointment only, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Residents who still need to be vaccinated or are in need of a bivalent booster dose should visit www.lasallecounty.org, click on the COVID-19 Resource Page and then the Vaccine information icon to schedule an appointment. To search for vaccine locations available, visit https://www.vaccines.gov/