DIXON — All persons within Lee County are being asked to wear masks indoors at public venues, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.
The Lee County Health Department and KSB Hospital jointly issued the strongly-worded recommendation on Saturday.
The heightened risk to children of contracting the coronavirus — because those under age 12 are not eligible for the vaccine — was specifically cited.
“It is our duty to protect the future generations in our community,” said the joint statement, which was issued by Cathy Ferguson-Allen, the county health department administrator.
“The pandemic is not over and we must continue to be vigilant in our individual behaviors and our collective behaviors as a community,” the statement continued.
The statement said the recommendations were consistent with those made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The health department and the hospital said employers, retailers, restaurants and bars, fitness and recreational centers, libraries, government entities, healthcare facilities and other public venues should require universal indoor masking of their staff and patrons.
The reasons for the recommendation were two-fold.
Firstly, the rise in coronavirus cases in the county is now at the rate of 53 per 100,000 people.
Secondly, there is a declining availability of intensive care ward beds in the hospitals serving the region.
IDPH data shows ICU bed availability as of July 24 to be at 20% in Lee County — which is at the threshold of a key metric for determining spread of the disease in a community.
Test positivity has been on the rise since June 21 and is at 1.3%.
According to the IDPH, 2.8% of all visits to county emergency departments were for persons exhibiting or reporting COVID-like illnesses. That number falls below a risk factor. According to IDPH historical data on emergency department visits for COVID-like illnesses, the jump from July 17 to July 24 represents an increase of 276.8%.
According to the IDPH, the new case rate classifies Lee County as having a substantial level of transmission of the virus.
The announcement said that in addition to children under the age of 12, the virus poses a risk to people who are not vaccinated. According to IDPH data, that is more than half of Lee County’s population.
According to IDPH data from July 18 provided to Shaw Local Media and published in Saturday’s edition of the Gazette and Telegraph, the city of Dixon has 11,053 fully vaccinated persons, which is 48.4% of the estimated 22,848 people residing within the 61021 zip code.
As a whole, Lee County has 15,982 fully vaccinated persons, which is 46.7% of the population.
In addition to masking, the health department and the hospital’s first recommendation is for vaccination.
Other recommendations are for people to observe social distancing, frequently wash their hands, stay home when sick and to sanitize frequently touched surfaces.
The alert issued by the health department and the hospital did not mention the delta variant of the coronavirus. However, the delta variant accounts for 733 of the coronavirus cases reported by the state since June 8.
According to Yale Medicine, the delta variant is a highly contagious strain of the virus. It is more transmissible than the common cold and the flu, as well as viruses that cause Ebola, smallpox, MERS and SARS.
According to Yale Medicine epidemiologist F. Perry Wilson “delta will certainly accelerate the pandemic.”
Wilson warned in a release issued Friday and posted online that “hyperlocal outbreaks” are a concern with the delta variant. A low-vaccinated town surrounded by high vaccination areas could end up with the virus contained within its borders that “allows the virus to hop, skip and jump” to other poorly vaccinated areas.
This story was updated 8:44 p.m. Sunday to reflect a clarification on emergency room visits for coronavirus-like symptoms.