Despite additional COVID-19 mitigation restrictions going into effect for the region last week, the number of positive cases and the amount of reported deaths for the local area has continued to climb.
Over the past week, Randolph County Health Department Administrator Angela Oathout reported four additional COVID-19 related deaths – two on Oct. 30, one on Oct. 31 and then another on Nov. 3. This brings the county’s total up to 19 deaths.
On Nov. 2, Monroe County Health Department Administrator John Wagner noted an increase of six deaths, bringing the county’s total up to 34 deaths.
However, he commented about these deaths, “All additional deaths were from Integrity over the past five weeks. These were not counted at time of deaths because they were located outside the county. (The) state has adjusted reporting to make sure these are captured. Positive cases at Integrity in Monroe County were shipped to Alton or Carbondale Integrity and if (the) case died they were not being captured. That has now been corrected and resulted in the increase.”
For more COVID-19 updates, please see this week’s print edition.