Knox County reports first COVID death in two months, remains in high transmission

GALESBURG — Knox County remains in high transmission for COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Knox County reported its first death due to COVID-19 symptoms since the week of April 15. That brings the death toll to 216 since the pandemic began.

The number of new weekly cases held steady at 144, four more than reported the week prior. The county reported 188 cases the week of May 31. The 144 cases this past week is still the highest total, except for the May 31 week, since February. Throughout the pandemic Knox County has reported 13,289 cases.

Of surrounding counties, Henry and Mercer counties remain in low transmission. Warren and Stark counties are medium transmission, and Fulton and Peoria counties are in high transmission.

According to the CDC, residents in counties with a high transmission rate should wear masks indoors in public and on public transportation. Transmission rate for Knox County is at 334 per 100K people.

New coronavirus cases increased 4.3% in Illinois in the week ending Sunday as the state added 34,001 cases. The previous week had 32,601 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Illinois ranked ninth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 0.9% from the week before, with 753,773 cases reported. With 3.81% of the country’s population, Illinois had 4.51% of the country’s cases in the last week. Across the country, 31 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Within Illinois, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Sangamon County with 586 cases per 100,000 per week; Cass County with 552; and Fulton County with 527. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Cook County, with 13,873 cases; DuPage County, with 2,589 cases; and Lake County, with 1,984. Weekly case counts rose in 67 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week’s pace were in Madison, Sangamon and Cook counties.

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The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Knox County reported 144 additional COVID-19 cases this week this week