By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – The McLean County Health Department announced the third death caused by COVID-19 as the total confirmed coronavirus cases remains at 82.

“Unfortunately today I have to confirm our third COVID-19 related death, a female in her 80’s, so our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends,” Jessica McKnight McLean County Health Administrator Jessica McKnight said.

Of the 82 cases, 12 remain in home isolation, two remain hospitalized, and 65 people have recovered.

Dr. John Burr, a specialist in pulmonology and critical care medicine at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, said from what he has seen, Illinois is bending the curve.

“I think based on the initial onset and the initial cases versus what’s happened in the last few days; I’m hoping that we have sort of plateaued and we have rounded the other side of the curve. That’s my hope, I always feel a little bit superstitious saying it out loud, but I think the social distancing has begun to work in our community. I think people in this community have been very compliant compared to some areas with the recommendations.

Burr said the hospital has enough personal protection equipment (PPE) for the hospital.

“We have assigned one N95 mask per day, but we have not had to do multiple day use like some of the hospitals,” Burr added. “So, we take a paper bag at the beginning of the day and put the N95 bag in there with the person’s name on it. When we go in and out of the room, we use it for that day, but at the end of the day, we discard it. We’ve not gotten to the point here where we have had to make our own mask or do anything, we’ve been able to keep the supply at Advocate high enough that we’ve been able to take care of our hospital.”

Overall, health officials announced 1,350 McLean County residents had been tested for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Gov. Pritzker announced 1,140 new cases of COVID-19 with 125 additional deaths, moving the state total to 25,733 cases and 1,073 deaths.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].