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Rock Island County Reports a Spike in COVID-19 Cases

The head of the Rock Island County Health Department is worried about a jump in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Michelle O'Neill has more.Radio story

The number of coronavirus cases in the Quad Cities has now reached 3,077, with about half in Rock Island County (1,550) and half in Scott County (1,527).

Administrator Nita Ludwig reports 49 new cases today, and 21 of them are from an outbreak at St. Anthony's Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rock Island. But she's worried about the other 28 cases, too and says, "We must get this number down" or risk overwhelming health care clinics and hospitals. 

Under the Restore Illinois plan, Rock Island County is in Phase 4, along with the rest of Region Two. Last week, the state health department put four counties on notice for being at a warning level, but not Rock Island County.

Screeshot from the IL DPH's county metrics page with Rock Island County information selected
Credit https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics / Illinois Department of Public Health
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Illinois Department of Public Health
Screeshot from the IL DPH's county metrics page with Rock Island County information selected

Ludwig says the state's regional statistics are from the week of July 18th.

And only one statistic is not within the targeted level (cases).

She says two of the county metrics must be outside the targeted ranges to be at the "warning level."

If that happens, the county will have to figure out why the numbers are rising and address it. (See press release below.) 

Even though Rock Island County has experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases, the infection rate has been slowly decreasing. It's currently at 4.7% compared to 6.5% a month ago. The number of deaths has been stable at 30 for a month, with 23 of the people who died living in nursing homes. 

Scott County's infection rate has been rising, and is currently at 6.8% compared to 5.3% a month ago. Eleven Scott County residents have died of coronavirus disease.

Credit Michelle O'Neill, graph / WVIK News
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WVIK News

21860-Four Illinois Countie... by Michelle O'Neill on Scribd

Michelle O'Neill, graph / WVIK News
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WVIK News

Copyright 2020 WVIK, Quad Cities NPR

Officially, Michelle's title is WVIK News Editor which really just means she wears many hats, doing everything there is to do in the newsroom and around the radio station. She's a multimedia journalist and serves as Assignment Editor, reporter, radio news producer, copy editor, announcer, news anchor/host, and photographer. She also writes and produces content for WVIK.org and social media. In recent broadcast journalism contests, Michelle's work contributed to WVIK winning various awards for excellence in both Illinois and Iowa. Tweets by MichelleONeilll