PEORIA With five deaths announced on Wednesday, December became the deadliest month so far for the Peoria area in the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 110 people have died as of Dec. 23 and there are still eight days left in the month. Overall, the Tri-County Area has seen 367 people die after contracting the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The previous monthly record was November, which saw 108. Prior to that, October had about 60 residents of the Tri-County Area die of the virus.
Those numbers coincide with a rise in cases across the area and the state. Health officials have said previously that as more people are infected, there will likely be a correlating rise in people getting seriously sick and dying.
PEORIA Eleven people within the Peoria area, including nine Peoria County residents, died over the weekend as the COVID-19 pandemic continues its brutal pace this month.
Of the nine Peoria County residents, only two lived at long-term care facilities. One was a woman in her 80s who lived at Cornerstone. The other was a man in his 90s who lived at Lutheran Hillside Village.
The others were two men in their 70s, two in their 80s and two women in their 80s. There was one death for which public health officials said they yet had no information regarding the person s age, gender or residency.
Tim Shelley / WCBU
While more than 17,000 people in the Tri-County Area have recovered from COVID-19 and the number of people in home isolation dropped by more than 5,000, the region’s death toll continues to climb.
Health officials on Monday reported 11 fatalities from the weekend linked to the novel coronavirus, including nine people from Peoria County. Since the start of the pandemic, 348 people in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties have succumbed to the disease.
Six of the nine victims from Peoria County were not associated with long-term care facilities; a woman in her 80s from Cornerstone Rehabilitation and Health Care and a man in his 90s from Lutheran Hillside Village also perished. Additional information on the ninth victim was not available.