MCHD announces new cases of COVID-19, moving county total to 83

Posted on April 17, 2020
The McLean County Health Department made the announced during a daily press briefing. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – The McLean County Health Department announced only one new case of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Friday, moving the county total to 83.

“It’s certinantly encouraging that we only had a handful of new cases between Sunday’s case count and today’s case count we only had an increase of six new cases,” Cathy Covertson Anderson, McLean County Health Department Assistant Administrator said. “That’s very encouraging, but it’s too early to say where that places us.”

Of the 83 cases, McLean County Health Department Communicable Disease Supervisor Melissa Graven said three are workers of long-term care facilities. However, no long-term care facility residents have been affected by COVID-19.

“I think what that speaks too is the preparedness of our long-term care facility and the investment they have done to ensure their staff and residents are safe. I can tell you that I talk with several facilities several times a day before we even had cases in McLean County. They were on the ball to make sure they could do everything they could to have the PPE and protection control measures in place.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Pritzker announced 1,842 new cases and 62 additional deaths, moving the state total to 27,575 cases and 1,134 deaths.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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