Coronavirus trends for Sangamon County, Illinois
If you’re someone who keeps track of coronavirus data in your local area, you may find that not all your questions are answered. For instance, in Sangamon County, Illinois, the Department of Public Health (scdph.org) publishes current totals of new positive test results, patients hospitalized, and persons in isolation, among other data. But some readers wonder whether the latest counts represent good news or a warning about the current situation.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled available data to produce graphs illustrating trends over time. The first graph below is similar to the Department’s graph of new positive cases together with a moving average, except focused on recent weeks (mid-August through Oct. 14).
We see that there’s been a definite upward trend in the number of positive test results over the last few weeks.
What about hospitalizations? On October 14 the number of patients hospitalized was 11, but how does this compare with prior weeks? The graph below shows the number of hospitalizations over the same time period, and for reference includes the moving average for new positives shown above.
We see that the most recent hospitalization totals are less than in prior weeks. This is in spite of the definite increase in new positive test results. Hopefully the increasing number of cases does not also lead to an increase in hospitalizations.
We plan to update these graphs as new information is available, as well as add to them. The latest will be on our Sangamon County Coronavirus page.
You may also be interested in trend data made available by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Their COVID-19 County & School Metrics include a different set of trend data for the county level. For instance, the graph of ICU Availability is an interesting complement to the hospitalization trend above.