A new covid variant is spreading through Illinois, leading to new mask mandates in hospitals and other public places and leading to renewed calls for wider mask mandates to halt the potential spread of the new offshoot virus. Illinois as covid numbers have begun to spike again as the year nears its end. In Illinois, 1,225 new COVID-19 hospitalizations were reported last week, up 22 percent over the previous week. The number of counties listed at the “high” level for COVID-19 hospitalizations has doubled from five to 10 Illinois counties in central Illinois, including Sangamon, according... Read More

At long last, the state of emergency due to covid-19 is coming to an end in Illinois. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in a statement Tuesday that the statewide public health emergency declaration will end on May 11, in line with Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government state of emergency will end that same day. This isn’t to say that covid numbers have hit zero or that the virus is a thing of the past. Despite all its mitigations, Illinois remains a hotbed for covid spread in some spots, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy, which has been tracking each... Read More

With covid numbers spiking in Illinois, one state college has asked community members to make changes to help prevent the spread of the virus. As another semester comes to a close, Western Illinois University encourages all University community members to continue to follow CDC and campus guidance to assist in the mitigation of the COVID-19 virus. University Testing Clinics The University Testing Clinics, located in the basement of the University Union Student Organization Center (SOC) at the Macomb campus and the Riverfront Reception Desk on the Quad Cities campus, will continue to operate next... Read More

It finally caught up with me, the jerk. For the last three years, I’ve been dodging covid. I’ve written about it, I’ve known dozens of people who have gotten it, and spent an entire week at home around my son 24/7 while he had it, and throughout it all, I never caught it. Until this week. It hit pretty hard and fast, and unexpectedly. I’m double-vaxxed, although didn’t get boosters, and I’m in pretty good health overall. I don’t have any mitigating factors, no diabetes or anything like that. I also like long walks on the beach, sushi, and good conversations... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: The Quad-Cities area is at risk of going back to a mask mandate with covid numbers spiking in the area and reaching a “high” level in neighboring Knox County, which includes Galesburg, as well as neighboring Warren County. Knox and Warren, surrounding the Quad-Cities’ Rock Island County, were both seeing spiking numbers the previous few weeks, ramping up into the high range this week. In addition, Saline County in Southeastern Illinois is also in the high range. Counties at a “high” community level are seeing elevated levels of COVID-19 hospitalizations, percentages... Read More

Businesses have begun to shut down across the state as spiking covid numbers have hit their workers hard, causing the places to close temporarily as workers recover. In Rock Island, for example, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse was forced to shut down for two weeks, delaying the opening of a new show, “Disaster!” due to a number of the cast and crew testing positive for covid. Other businesses around the state have likewise been hit with the same dilemma as statewide numbers continue to surge, as previously reported on QuadCities.com. Statewide numbers have continued to rise over the... Read More

Due to several more positive Covid cases in the Cast of DISASTER this morning, Circa ‘21 has made the difficult decision to cancel the next week of performances (07/27-07/31). With the number of artists that they would be forced to replace for ten days, the staff does not feel that they are capable of presenting the outstanding product that our guests have come to expect from Circa ’21. Their plan is to reopen with their double performance day on 08/03. If you currently have reservations for one of these performances you may call the Box Office at (309) 786-7733 to reschedule for any performance... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Covid numbers are rampaging again across Illinois, causing individual business shutdowns in the Quad-Cities and elsewhere, as there’s increasing nervousness over bigger statewide shutdowns especially as fall school start dates loom. Thursday, Illinois reported its single-highest daily total of new COVID cases since late May, with 6,636 new probable and confirmed cases. In addition, people are testing positive for longer periods of time, and are becoming infected again after infections much more quickly. “I wouldn’t say the incubation period is shorter… it’s... Read More

I thought we were going to make it through. As far as we knew, my son and I had not had covid. Early on in 2020, we were both incredibly sick with something that could’ve been covid, but we weren’t sure because, well, at that point, nobody was testing for covid, and it wasn’t until months later that the symptoms resonated with what was being reported. Both of us are vaccinated. Both of us were pretty darn careful. But as the months of this year started to unfold, and covid faded out of the headlines, we figured we were past it. Nope. About a month back, my son began a weekend... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois is in the midst of a massive covid-19 resurgence, as cases are up 174 percent over the last month and the state is averaging more than 6,000 new probable and confirmed covid-19 cases per day, with hospitalizations also beginning to climb across the state. Illinois is averaging 6,065 new cases of COVID per day over the last week, marking the first time the state has eclipsed the 6,000-case barrier since Feb. 9, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. In the last seven days, the state’s daily average of new COVID cases has gone up by 17.7%,... Read More