Monroe County recently crossed a milestone in cases, as there have now been 4,052 COVID-19 cases here since the pandemic began. 

There was just one new case Monday, three new cases Sunday, 11 new cases Saturday, eight new cases Friday and 17 new cases Thursday.

“Our numbers are looking good,” Monroe County Health Department Administrator John Wagner said. “Cases are going down.” 

The decrease may not totally reflect reality though, Wagner cautioned, because many people are simply quarantining themselves when they feel sick instead of getting tested for the virus first. 

“They are down, but I think a little bit of it is testing,” Wagner added. “People are done with testing.”

Roughly 235 of the county’s coronavirus cases are active, and 22 residents remain hospitalized with the virus.

The most recent COVID-related death was reported Feb. 13. It was man in his 90s who was not associated with a long-term care facility.

Monroe County’s death toll from the virus stands at 88. 

“The deaths really haven’t tapered off, but when we can’t (vaccinate) that elderly population, we’re not going to see the deaths taper off by more than 50 percent,” Wagner said, noting he has not received enough doses to inoculate that population. 

Monroe County is still coping with a vaccine supply problem. 

Per the Illinois Department of Public Health, Monroe County has administered 5,937 doses of COVID vaccine. There are 1,040 people fully vaccinated here, meaning 3.03 percent of the county has received both shots.

The Monroe County Health Department is now encouraging residents to get vaccinated at the mass vaccination site in St. Clair County, as it has been determined that any Illinois resident can get the vaccine there.

Illinois overall has administered 2,254,982 doses of the vaccine and received over 2.7 million doses. A total of 590,854 residents have gotten both shots, which means 4.64 percent of Illinois is fully vaccinated. 

There is no clinic scheduled here in the immediate future. To learn why, read our vaccine inequity story by clicking here. 

Overall, the Waterloo zip code has had 2,073 cases (22,927 tests performed), the Columbia zip code has had 1,539 cases (9,810 tests) and Valmeyer zip code has had 157 cases (870 tests), according to the IDPH.

Monroe County’s seven-day rolling average test positivity rate was 5.1 percent on Feb. 20.

The seven-day rolling average positivity rate for the metro east was 4.1 percent on Feb. 20. The region has 27 percent of its ICU staffed beds available.

In St. Clair County, there have been 27,644 total positive tests and 442 coronavirus-related deaths. A total of 279,732 tests have been performed there.

That county also had some vaccination issues, but not with supply, as roughly 80 percent of people who signed up for its clinic on Friday lived outside Illinois. They were all turned away. 

Randolph County has had 3,966 confirmed cases, 15 of which are active. Eighty-two people have died from the virus there.

Illinois overall is up to 1,177,320 cases of coronavirus and 20,330 deaths.

There are 1,488 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois, including 361 people in ICU beds and 172 on ventilators.

Missouri has recorded 475,791 confirmed cases and 7,885 deaths. That includes 73,726 cases in St. Louis County and 19,082 cases in St. Louis City, according to the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services.

Nationally, more than 28.2 million people have contracted the virus, while at least 501,044 people have died.

Worldwide, there are over 111.8 million cases of coronavirus and over 2.4 million COVID-19-related deaths.