Nine employees of the Peoria City/County Health Department play a vital role in the community's COVID-19 battle. They're contact tracers--tasked with figuring out how the virus is spreading in Peoria County, and containing it.
Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson said they're keeping a close eye on Bradley University to see if the two-week all-student quarantine is getting the COVID-19 spread on campus under control.
Food insecurity and the invasive Asian carp are two familiar, longstanding issues in Peoria. But a new stakeholder group believes they've discovered a way to use one problem to solve another.
Peoria County has dropped out of the state's list of "coronavirus warning level" counties. But Peoria City/County Health Department Monica Hendrickson said that's not necessarily good news.
Bradley University said a COVID-19 outbreak among 12 students was traced back to a small, off-campus gathering where no mask-wearing or social distancing happened.
The Peoria City/County Health Department is issuing a health advisory after state public health officials declared the county one of four statewide currently at a "warning level" for the coronavirus.
The Peoria City/County Health Department is warning restaurants against flouting the governor's executive order prohibiting indoor dining as the state gradually reopens.
Morton Mayor Jeff Kaufman said while he likes both the Restore Heart of Illinois and Tri-County regional reopening plans, there's a major stumbling block that makes him wary of adopting it without the governor's blessing - liability.
The 11-county "Heart of Illinois" subregion plans to implement its own, speedier reopening plan independently of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "Restore Illinois" plan, which lumps Peoria in with the Quad Cities and Rockford in reopening phases.
The closure of Bloomington's drive-thru COVID-19 testing site this Thursday means more traffic from Bloomington-Normal may come through the Peoria area's four community-based testing sites.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker's newly unveiled "Restore Illinois" plan splits the state into four "health regions" which could potentially reopen at different paces.
A week after the first Heartland Health Services COVID-19 testing site opened, nearly half of all new cases diagnosed in Peoria County are stemming from swabs collected at the new community clinics.
Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said it's time for the governor to talk with downstate leaders about a process to begin reopening their economies before the end of May.
