Mercer County approaching 50 COVID-19 cases. The latest two cases announced Monday involve a male in his 30’s and female in her 70’s. This brings the total number of residents testing positive since April 2nd to 48 individuals, according to the Mercer County Health Department. Currently, 11 cases are isolating at home and two cases are hospitalized and being followed by MCHD. All other cases have completed their isolation period set forth by the Illinois Department of Public Health and are no longer being actively followed by MCHD.
Public Health Officials work closely with these residents to identify and inform those considered to be close contacts. For COVID-19, a close contact is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.