Many of the awards were presented at this week s Illinois Press Association virtual convention.
The work includes five first-place awards four from the Illinois Press Association, one from the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors during contests judged by journalists from the North Carolina Press Association. It also includes an award from the nationwide Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
The Journal Star also placed second in the sweepstakes category for medium-sized daily papers, based on the strength of its individual awards. The paper competes against suburban and downstate media outlets including the (Springfield) State Journal Register, Rockford Register-Star, the (Bloomington) Pantagraph and the Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake. The News-Gazette of Champaign won the division s trophy for the seventh consecutive year.
PEORIA Even though the Tri-County Area s positivity rate is higher than those of some counties in the state, Peoria is still in a good position to move into the bridge phase of reopening on May 14, said Monica Hendrickson, administrator of the Peoria City/County Health Department.
Now sitting close to 5%, the positivity rate and new cases of COVID-19 continue to drop with the seven- and 14-day averages of new cases now at 125 and 141, respectively.
“That is down from the previous week, where we were at 157 and 178 cases as our seven- and 14-day averages, said Hendrickson during the weekly news briefing Thursday afternoon. “After two weeks, we are finally seeing an improvement in the number of ICU beds in use related to COVID-19. Our seven-day ICU usage has dropped from 44 in the last two weeks to 38 beds in use.
PEORIA Tri-County Area health officials are increasingly focusing their efforts on getting younger residents vaccinated as the average age of COVID-19 patients continues to drop.
“The 23 deaths in the Peoria area this week included two Tri-County residents in their 30s. Likewise, in our hospitalizations right now for Peoria County, two-thirds of our hospitalized patients are under the age of 70, with 25% of them under the age of 50,” said Monica Hendrickson, administrator of the Peoria City/County Health Department, during the weekly press briefing Thursday afternoon.
There is some good news, however. Hospitalizations are down about one-quarter over the last two weeks from 174 to 133. And the rolling positivity average has dropped about one-third in the last week, from 10.4% to 6.9% in Peoria County, and from 9.5% to 6.1% in Tazewell County.
By the end of the day, 99 students had been vaccinated for COVID-19.
“I found out about the vaccination clinic a week ago, and I pretty much jumped on the opportunity right away,” said Elizabeth McDonald, 16, while waiting for her turn at one of the four vaccination stations set up in the school’s library. “I m getting my vaccine just because I want to get back to normal. I want to be able to see my family and friends more.”
Brant Adreon, 16, expressed similar sentiments.
“I run cross country, and the meets were definitely a little smaller. They went from at least 50-team meets to like five. It was disappointing; the competitiveness has definitely gone down. And obviously the running with the masks, well, it’s difficult, he said.