DAVENPORT, IOWA – It was another terrible COVID-19 week in the Quad-Cities. And the effects of Thanksgiving haven’t even truly surfaced yet.
A total of 37 people died from Sunday through Friday, 29 of them in Rock Island County. Rock Island and Scott counties are also approaching a total of 21,000 positive cases since the pandemic began.
- Scott County reported two more COVID-19 deaths Friday and 131 more positive tests. Rock Island County results were not available.
- Unemployment rates were up in 14 Illinois counties in October, but jobs were down. The number of non-farm-related jobs decreased in all 14 Illinois metropolitan areas. For the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island area, unemployment increased to 4.6% in October 2020 from 3.8% in October 2019. Total non-farm employment decreased 11,400 compared with October 2019.
- Central Illinois animal shelters are seeing fewer adoptions during the pandemic.
- Rural Iowans response to the pandemic now is much different than in March, at least in terms of their churches. Now, people seem to understand as the virus numbers are rising in their area. Churches are volunteering to take precautions such as wearing masks or not singing compared to protesting any restrictions as was often done in March when the pandemic barely touched rural Iowa.
- Rock Island County added 252 positive COVID-19 cases in three days. It now has 8,287 cases. Scott County added 104 cases Saturday for 11,046 total.
- A number of factors from the living room to the workplace to the bars point to the rise in COVID-19 cases in November.
- Strong incentives are being offered to get more employees at the Thomson Federal prison amid the pandemic. As of Friday, the prison has nearly 1,300 inmates.
- Illinois is expecting to receive less than one-fourth of the COVID-19 vaccines it sought in its first shipment, according to the state’s department of public health director.
- Donated blood, through its antibodies found in plasma of recovering COVID-19 victims, is helping fight the pandemic.
- A victim of COVID-19 is Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley with only about 33,000 guests in its warm-weather season compared with more than 135,000 a year ago. In addition, all of its zoo-related fundraising events had to be canceled.
- A new software program to help contact tracing related to COVID-19 is actually slowing the effort in Iowa. The new program was implemented Nov. 5. One health director said it had slowed things “significantly.”
- The Illinois EPA remade its curriculum for virtual use because of the pandemic.
- Scott County health officials reported eight COVID-19 related deaths Monday, seven in Rock Island County. Rock Island County now has 148 deaths. Scott County has 86.
- A free temporary COVID-19 testing site will be offered Saturday and Sunday at the TaxSlayer Center parking lot for Illinoisans.