COVID-19 Press Release: March 22, 2020
COVID-19 Update: March 22, 2020
This is a daily joint communication from the Sangamon County Department of Public Health along with Memorial Health System, HSHS St. John’s Hospital, Springfield Clinic and SIU Med-icine updating you on the status of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Sangamon County. This commu-nication will come at approximately 6 p.m. each day as necessary.
At the time of this press release, the total number of confirmed cases between our five organiza-tions is four, including one death. Currently, all of the active cases are no longer hospitalized.
*These numbers indicate current inpatient numbers at hospitals in Sangamon County. They do not include the status of testing conducted in private labs.
| March 22, 2020 as of 3 pm | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 Positive new today | COVID-19 person(s) under investigation (PUI) | COVID-19 Deaths | |
| Memorial Medical Center | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| HSHS St. John's Hospital | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Donations from the Community
Thank you so much for your willingness to help our hospitals and healthcare providers at this time! We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of messages and support we have received. To-morrow we will announce more information about where and when community members can drop off donations and what will be accepted.
COVID-19 Hotline Update
The Sangamon County Department of Public Health has a phone line dedicated to answering questions about COVID-19. Beginning Monday, March 23rd, County Health personnel will an-swer calls between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.,7 days a week. County Health will look into expand-ing hotline hours if necessary. After 4:30 p.m. a test through County Health can only be author-ized under extreme circumstances.
After hours if you do not have a medical emergency, and you suspect you could have been ex-posed and/or infected by the COVID-19 virus, call the IDPH 24-hour hotline at 1-800-889-3931 for further guidance.
If you have a medical emergency and you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or are being eval-uated for the virus, dial 911. Notify the dispatcher of your medical emergency first, and tell themthat you have COVID-19 or are being evaluated for the virus. If possible, put on a face mask be-fore medical personnel arrive.
*The discrepancy between total number and County Health number is created because the hospitals are caring for patients from outside counties and at multiple locations, and because some of the tests are being done by independent labs, rather than by IDPH/County Health.
Private/Independent Testing
As these updates continue and private/independent testing becomes more common, anticipate testing from private labs to be included in the daily totals. County Health will be working with
private labs to develop a tracking system with the most up to date numbers. In the coming days when we can provide an exact count and details of private lab test results we will update our re-porting charts to include all tests issued within Sangamon County.
