COVID-19 Rates

St. Jacob Zip Code Shows

Highest COVID-19 Rate in County

County's Test Positivity Rate at 12.5 Percent

By Steve Rensberry
RP News

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EDWARDSVILLE, Ill., - 12/27/2020 - According to the latest COVID-19 Status Report from John Hopkins University, Madison County, Ill., has recorded 20,238 confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus so far, 373 of which have resulted in death. The county's fatality rate mirrors that of the state's, at 1.84 percent, with about 7,652 cases per 100,000 population.

    A Madison County Health Department

Note: Case totals are cumulative.

update of Dec. 27 shows a slightly higher number of cases based on contact tracing data, with 21,484, and a 7-day average case positivity rate of 12.5 percent. On Dec., 26, the 7-day case positivity rate had dropped to 11.90 percent, according to MCHD numbers.

A breakdown of cases per zip code made available on the department's dashboard shows residents in the St. Jacob zip code area with the highest percentage of COVID cases, at 11.64 percent out of 2,155 people in 62281. The Hamel area zip code, 62046, totaling 713 residents, was second highest with a rate of 11.07 percent. 

 Note: the percentage of COVID cases per zip code as a percentage of population is different than the 7-day positivity rate, which is based on the percentage of positive cases out of the number of people tested for that period of time.

The average preliminary 7-day statewide test positivity rate for the state of Illinois was 8.5 percent on Dec. 25, with approximately 17,336 people who have died from COVID-19 so far, and a total number of recorded cases of about 939,000

MCHD graphic. See: Status Report

   All 11 Illinois COVID Regions entered into Tier 3 Mitigations on Nov. 20.

Madison County, in Region 4, had zero days under the 12 percent threshhold on Dec. 24, ICU Beds at 1 day over the 20 percent threshhold, and med/surgical beds 1 day over the 20 percent threshhold.

"IDPH will continue to track the positivity rates and hospital capacity metrics in regions over 14-day monitoring periods to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place. For Tier 3 mitigation metrics to be relaxed (i.e., move to Tier 2), a region must experience less than 12% test positivity rate (7-day rolling average) for three consecutive days, AND greater than 20% percent available intensive care unit (ICU) and medical/surgical bed availability (3-day rolling average) for three consecutive days, AND decline in the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital (7-day rolling average) in 7 out of the last 10 days," the IDPH states.

Additional information can be found on the Illinois Department of Public Health's COVID page, and this page on region metrics. Other information about Madison County and testing options can be found at the MCHD's web page.