Dana Vollmer / WGLT
Two more McLean County residents have died from COVID-19 complications, as the county climbs past 16,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
The latest fatalities are two men one in his 40s and the other in his 60s. Neither was associated with a long-term care facility. The death toll from the pandemic is now up to 210.
The McLean County Health Department (MCHD) added 48 new confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 16,041 since last March. The county’s testing positivity rate dropped to 5.2% down one-half of a percentage point overnight.
The number of McLean County residents hospitalized with COVID held at 43. Just 1% of all Bloomington-Normal hospital beds are open. That’s the most constricted bed capacity since MCHD started reporting those figures last November. Intensive care bed use remained at 96%.
PEORIA â In a historic moment, health care workers in Chicago and Peoria on Tuesday became the first groups in Illinois to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, marking what Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike called âthe beginning of the endâ of the pandemic.
The vaccine, developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week and is now being shipped throughout the United States. Early studies have shown that after two doses that are given 21 days apart, the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the disease.
PEORIA â In a historic moment, health care workers in Chicago and Peoria on Tuesday became the first groups in Illinois to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, marking what Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike called âthe beginning of the endâ of the pandemic.
The vaccine, developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week and is now being shipped throughout the United States. Early studies have shown that after two doses that are given 21 days apart, the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the disease.