When it comes to cases of COVID, Vermilion County’s COVID infection rate is now the second highest in the state, behind only Calhoun County in the St. Louis area. The Vermilion County Health Department reports that as of Friday, Vermilion County had a rate of 1,050 new cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days. This should be a warning of caution going into Christmas and New Year’s, as the Health Department’s Douglas Toole says the latest numbers could be a fallout from Thanksgiving.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: We’d been pretty good for a while, having about 50 to 60 new cases a day, which is a lot. But we hit December 1st with 154 new cases, December 2nd we had 127, then down to 111, some 90s, we had over 100 yesterday. It’s a lot of new cases. We’ve got a low vaccination rate, and we have a high rate of transmission going on right now. And that’s not a good combination.
In addition, Vermilion County’s number of residents hospitalized with COVID has been hovering in the 40s, after being much lower prior to Thanksgiving. Vermilion County’s percentage of those vaccinated against COVID remains in the low 40s.
Go vchd.org for COVID testing and vaccine clinic information, and stay home if you have COVID like symptoms such as loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, and fever, chills, and nausea.
MEAAWHILE, as of Friday evening December 10th, the Vermilion County Health Department reported 176 new COVID cases, including one resident in their 90s, four in their 80s, 11 in their 70s, 28 in their 60s, 28 in their 50s, 23 in their 40s, 26 in their 30s, 20 in their 20s, 16 teens, 16 grade-school-aged children, two preschoolers, and one infant.
Also reported were three COVID-related deaths, increasing Vermilion County’s total to 218. The additional deaths were a woman in ther 90s, a man in his 80s, and a woman in her 60s.
