New weekly COVID cases soar to more than 1K in Knox County
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GALESBURG — The number of new weekly COVID cases in Knox County doubled to a weekly high of 1,082 cases in the past seven days. The number of total cases has topped 10,000, now at 10,221.
The new weekly COVID-19 case numbers have jumped from 211 Dec. 27, to 529 Jan. 3 and finally to 1,083 new cases this week. OSF St. Mary Medical Center President Lisa DeKezel told The Register-Mail, the cases now being seen as the hospital are presenting as omicron, the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant. She said hospitalizations are as high as the peak period in the fall of 2020.
More: How's St. Mary handling Cottage patients, omicron, nursing shortage?
Intensive care unit bed availability is at 10.9% for the week ending Jan. 1.
Two more county residents died during the week brining the total deaths in Knox County to 186 since the pandemic began.
New coronavirus cases leaped in Illinois in the week ending Sunday, rising 81.6% as 232,889 cases were reported. The previous week had 128,246 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Illinois ranked eighth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 75.9% from the week before, with 4,967,431 cases reported. With 3.81% of the country's population, Illinois had 4.69% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 49 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.
More: Beleaguered Galesburg Cottage Hospital closes; letter Friday informed staff they're fired
The New Year's holiday weekend significantly disrupted who got tested, how many people got tested, what labs operated and what government agencies reported on time. Many of the New Year's weekend reports were shifted into the latest week, and the previous week was disrupted by late reporting from the weekend of Christmas. Consequently, week-to-week comparisons will be skewed and these numbers will be unreliable even as they're accurate to what states reported.
Vaccination clinics in Knox County
COVID-19 vaccines are widely available, registration links can be found at www.knoxcountyhealth.org:
• Tuesday, Jan. 11: Walk-in booster clinic at the Unified Command Vaccine Center 7:30-11:30 a.m. Boosters of Moderna for adults 18 years and up and Pfizer boosters for those 12 years and up.
• Tuesday, Jan. 11: at the Unified Command Vaccine Center 1:30-3:30 p.m. Clinic offers primary series, additional doses, and boosters of Moderna for adults 18 years and up and Pfizer boosters for those 12 years and up. Pfizer primary series is available to those 12 years of age and up.
• Thursday, Jan. 13: at the Unified Command Vaccine Center 8:30-10:30 a.m. Boosters of Moderna for adults 18 years and up and Pfizer boosters for those 12 years and up.
• Thursday, Jan. 13: Walk-in booster clinic at the Vaccine Center 1 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Clinic offers primary series, additional doses, and boosters of Moderna for adults 18 years and up and Pfizer boosters for those 16 years and up. Pfizer primary series is available to those 12 years of age and up.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: New weekly COVID cases soar to more than 1K in Knox County
