QUINCY (WGEM) — For the first time in two months active COVID-19 cases in Adams County are in the triple digits.
There are 112 active cases after adding 12 new positive tests today.
Just a month ago active cases were in the single digits.
That rise in cases means hospital bed capacity is at 12% and critical care bed capacity is at 3%.
Here at Blessing Hospital, officials said while they’re always busy, much of that isn’t COVID-19 right now but they said they’re prepared for more COVID-19 hospitalizations if need be and they’re asking for your help to keep it that way.
“Just so that we can keep beds open,” explained Blessing Health System Chief Quality and Safety Officer Mary Frances Barthel “[we’re being] proactive about it, we’re actually going to reinitiate the bed status meeting that some of our leaders have every day looking at census.”
Dr. Barthel said right now they’re starting to keep an eye on the situation.
She said while they’re always taking patients in from other hospitals, right now it isn’t from outside of the region.
“Really our patients who are inpatient right now are from either Quincy or the surrounding areas that we would normally accept referrals from, so no places from, like, North by Peoria or Chicago or anything like that,” said Barthel.
She said with help from the community, they’re hoping to keep the beds open.
Emily Andrews, PIO at the Adams County Health Department said they’ve seen a rise in cases in the community, and they’re trying to fight it with the vaccine.
“So we’re definitely seeing that COVID is still circulating in our community and we’re just encouraging everyone who is able to be vaccinated to get vaccinated,” said Andrews.
She said the typical things that stop sickness are still important.
“We definitely are still encouraging people to wear their masks, social distance you know practice good hand hygiene, stay home, when you’re feeling sick and of course seek a COVID test if you if you need one,” said Andrews.
Dr. Barthel said as cases rise, they need your help to keep things under control.
She said rise of cases in the community could be people being more lax about wearing masks and social distancing, which is why it’s still important to do what you can.
“Help us maintain that,” said Dr. Barthel, “what we don’t want is to go back to having an entire floor full of COVID patients like we had in October November, December. So we really don’t want to put the medical community through that again.”
Andrews said the last day to get scheduled to get a first dose of the vaccine at the Oakley-Lindsay Center mass vaccination site is April 24th which is this Saturday.
Andrews said after Saturday you can still get a vaccine by calling your primary care provider or the health department to schedule an appointment at (217) 222-8440.
The health department is hosting mobile clinics however.
The next one is tomorrow at the county market on 48th street in Quincy from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
