This is a joint news release issued by the Northern Illinois Rockford Region Public Information Officers (NIR-PIO). NIR-PIO serves Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle,Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago Counties. – read full statement:
Northern Illinois Rockford Region – For the first time since Illinois entered phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan, a county in the Northern Illinois Rockford Region is at the warning level for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced Jo Daviess County is considered to be at a warning level for COVID-19 today. This increase in community spread of COVID-19 is associated with travel to hotspots including neighboring Iowa and larger social gatherings.
“As a community, we must heed the warning and work together to adhere to the social distancing and masking guidance that will help slow the spread of COVID-19 while moving our community forward toward recovery,” said Sandra Schleicher, Jo Daviess County Health Department Public Health Administrator. “Our individual actions impact our local community’s ability to prevent further morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 and will impact the safety of activities in our communities like the opening of schools.”
The Health Departments in the Northern Illinois Rockford Region (NIR-HDs) express concern that the spread of COVID-19 will continue to increase in communities throughout the region and will require additional strategies to protect the public’s health. The public is urged take steps to protect our communities and reduce the need to adhere to stricter guidance.
The public can to do their part to protect their community by consistently taking the following actions:
WEAR A FACE MASK: Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth covering
WATCH YOUR DISTANCE: Keep at least 6 feet apart from others
WASH YOUR HANDS: Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for 20 seconds
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additional information:
For Illinois to issue an “Official Warning” status to a county, more than one metric needs to exceed the Target value.
Whiteside County is within Warning for New Cases Per 100,000, which is not a surprise given the number of cases identified last week. This does does mean we should have some concerns about our COVID-19 trajectory. However Whiteside’s remaining metrics are below the target threshold, preventing the State from issuing an official warning.
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more additional information
IDPH uses numerous indicators when determining if a county is experiencing stable COVID-19 activity, or if there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county.
- New cases per 100,000 people. If there are more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county, this triggers a warning.
- Number of deaths. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly number of deaths increases more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
- Weekly test positivity. This metric indicates a warning when the 7-day test positivity rate rises above 8%.
- ICU availability. If there are fewer than 20% of intensive care units available in the region, this triggers a warning.
- Weekly emergency department visits. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly percent of COVID-19-like-illness emergency department visits increase by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
- Weekly hospital admissions. A warning is triggered when the weekly number of hospital admissions for COVID-19-like-illness increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
- Tests perform. This metric is used to provide context and indicate if more testing is needed in the county.
- Clusters. This metric looks at the percent of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks and is used to understand large increase in cases.
These metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do. The metrics are updated weekly, with data from the Sunday-Saturday of the prior week.
A map and information of each county’s status can be found on the IDPH website at https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics.
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