WGLT
Cathy Beck, acting director of the McLean County Emergency Management Agency, said she has relied on volunteers and outside agencies to help manage the county s pandemic and flood responses.
First there was the coronavirus pandemic. Then came flooding.
The McLean County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has had to manage two prolonged emergencies over the last year with one staff person.
Assistant director Cathy Beck took over as acting EMA director last October when Bob Clark took medical leave. Beck said she has relied on about 30 volunteers to help with storm damage assessments and various other tasks, including response vehicle repairs and two-way radio maintenance. But Beck acknowledged there have been a lot of long days.
McLean County Stays In COVID Warning Area Due To New Cases, Hospital Stays wglt.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wglt.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
WGLT
McLean County reported its biggest surge in new coronavirus case since mid-May on Wednesday with 130 new weekly cases.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) also announced one of its youngest COVID-related deaths to date: a woman in her 30s who was not associated with long-term care.
The health department also said it will resume daily COVID-19 updates on weekdays.
MCHD urges the public to follow the CDC’s new guidance that calls for fully vaccinated people to wear masks in indoor public settings in areas where there is significant or high coronavirus spread. McLean County meets the definition for “substantial” community spread, with a seven-day average of 62 new cases per 100,000 residents.
McLean County Resumes Daily COVID Updates; 36 Cases Added wglt.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wglt.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AP In a reversal of its earlier position, the CDC is now recommending that some fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they live in areas with significant or high COVID-19 spread.
The CDC released new guidance Tuesday calling for fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in public indoor settings if they live in areas with significant or high spread. That includes McLean County.
The CDC move comes as the highly transmissible Delta variant fuels a surge in cases around the country, and multiple cities have reinstated indoor mask mandates, including in Los Angeles County and St. Louis. For weeks, many public health experts had been nudging the agency to change its policy, arguing that fully vaccinated people should wear masks in indoor settings, especially in areas where transmission of the virus is high.