The COVID-19 region that includes Danville and Vermilion County could be headed for a major overhaul.
Brandi Binkley, the public health administrator for Macon County, said in a press conference Friday afternoon that Region 6 metrics will be changed to no longer include Champaign County starting sometime this week.
Binkley says officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health are concerned that Champaign County’s high testing rates are masking potential outbreaks in the region.
The state’s website lists Champaign County as having tested 8,975 individuals between Wednesday and Thursday of last week (the latest day figures are available), which amounted to 76 percent of the total tests done in Region 6 during the same 24-hour period. Macon County was the second-highest county in terms of tests performed, with 718 tests, or only six percent of the total tests.
Including Champaign County, Region 6’s daily positivity rate last Thursday would have been 2 percent, and without the county it would have been 5.7 percent. Restrictions are imposed when positivity rates exceed eight percent over three consecutive days.
Two counties in Region 6 (Crawford and Fayette) are among 24 counties statewide currently considered at risk of a COVID-19 outbreak.
