PEORIA, Ill. – Even Peoria City/County Health Department administrator Monica Hendrickson is feeling pretty good about COVID-19 in the area right now, versus just a couple of months ago.
How good?
“For the first time in, I would say, two years, I feel comfortable going into a grocery store without a mask on,” Hendrickson said Friday at a media briefing on COVID.
Hendrickson says the average number of new cases per day in the Tri-Counties is now at 24, and in Peoria County it is just 13.
But, that doesn’t mean the health department is putting its guard down.
“We’re always going to be on alert,” said Hendrickson. “We’re always going to be monitoring and watching surveillance. That’s our job.”
Out of 104 active cases of COVID in the Tri-Counties, only six in the hospital, which Hendrickson says is a “great sign.”
But, Hendrickson says if you don’t yet feel comfortable returning to normal, that’s okay.
“Overall, in the Tri-County, the general population can get back to normalized activities, recognizing that people will have different risks, and will act accordingly,” said Hendrickson. “We hope you respect their decisions to act accordingly.”
The Tri-Counties have a total of 93,380 cases since the pandemic began, with more than 1,100 deaths.
Doctors are learning more about the BA2 subvariant of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, and it still looks to be not as big a deal as the main Omicron variant.
That’s according to Doctor Sharjel Ahmad, an Infectious Disease specialist with OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois College of Medicine — at a local COVID-19 briefing.
“What the scientists are anticipating is that while BA1 has already peaked at high levels, we may not see a lot of big surges of BA2,” said Ahmad. “An example is in South Africa, where they had the huge Omicron wave in December. Then, the BA2 in the country is not that much of a problem right now.”
But, Ahmad says, other factors may help or hurt the transmission of BA2: vaccine and booster coverage, the average age of the population, and how public health is able to respond.
There are only certain groups of people who are likely eligible for a second COVID-19 booster, based on current guidance.
The largest of those groups is those who are over the age of 50 and who may be immunocompromised. If you are in that category, should you consider getting another booster?
“If you are above the age of 50, you can look at your own individual risk, look at your own medical comorbidities, and then decide if you want to have the booster,” said Ahmad. “Obviously, the older you are, the more medical issues you have, especially if you’re immunocomppromised, you may want to consider the second booster.”
Ahmad does say the three-dose method most people have received has proven very effective against further disease.
