COVID: County back at orange warning level

Southern Seven Health Department reports the Illinois Department of Public Health, IDPH, on Friday, Nov. 12, announced that four area counties have returned to the orange warning level status on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk metrics.

Union, Alexander, Johnson, Pope, Pulaski, Hardin and Massac counties are served by Southern Seven Health Department.

Counties which returned to the orange warning level include Union, Alexander, Johnson and Massac.

Hardin, Pope and Pulaski counties remained stable for the week.

“The number of available ICU beds in the Southern Seven region has dropped once again and we’ve seen a slight increase in the number of positive cases,” Southern Seven Health Department COVID-19 community outreach coordinator Nathan Ryder said in a news release on Friday.

“Areas in the northeastern United States and even in Michigan are beginning to see what is believed to be a fourth wave of COVID infections, so this has the potential to increasing for us in the Southern Seven region as well.”

The amount of new cases per 100,000 people, test positivity percentage metrics and declining ICU bed availability at area hospitals are causing the elevated risk levels.

According to IDPH, an orange designation indicates warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the community. 

The health department is asking area residents to remain vigilant to slow the spread of the virus.

A warning for new case rate indicates the rate is greater than 50 cases per 100,000 people.  

A warning for test positivity indicates that the percentage was above 8 percent from the previous seven-day period. 

A warning for ICU availability shows the number of ICU beds has dropped below a 20 percent availability threshold.

The new cases per 100,000 people rate is a unit of measure calculated as a rate to compare the number of cases in large and small counties.  

Union County had 113 potential new cases (based on 19 positive cases) per 100,000 reported. The test positivity percentage for the county was 1.5 percent out of 1,298 tests. ICU availability was 16.8 percent.

Eight different indicators are used to determine a county’s designation.   

A county is considered at the orange warning level when at least two of the main indicators are going in the wrong direction.