Vermilion County Health Department Administrator Douglas Toole says he is not surprised that our county has moved into the high-risk level for COVID-19….
{AUDIO: ‘’We’re seeing the number of new cases come up. Now these are just the lab-confirmed ones. It’s not counting the people who take a home test and get positive and find out that way. But at the start of the month seeing 15 new cases – 19 new cases a day – was not that uncommon. We’re up in the 35 to 50 range (now). We had a really bad day on July 13th. We had 76 new lab-confirmed cases.’’}
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced late Friday that 50 counties in the state are now considered to be at the High Community Level for COVID-19. And now that we are in the high-risk category, Toole offered this advice during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News…
{AUDIO: ‘’Certainly being a bit more cautious. We’re recommending – as well as the State – mask wearing for indoor activities in common areas. And also, those who are immune compromised – those who are most at-risk of severe illness – should really give a hard thought to any sort of a large gathering or event indoors. And as always we’re always encouraging people to get vaccinated and boosted.’’}
Champaign, Edgar, Douglas and Coles counties are also in the high-risk category.
And what are the symptoms for what is hitting our area now? Toole tells us…
{AUDIO: ”We’re still seeing a lot of the same symptoms. Folks tend to get run down – upper respiratory type things. We’re seeing less of folks losing their sense of taste and smell, but it does still happen. Luckily for the last couple of months we’re only seeing a person or two every week get hospitalized with this – which is too many. But it’s nowhere near the kind of numbers that we had before.”}
Toole notes a Shield Illinois testing team from the University of Illinois is still providing tests for COVID-19 at the Vermilion County Health Department on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hours are from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Although walk-ins are welcome Toole says it’s best if you register first on the Vermilion County Health Department’s website at www.vchd.org.
