Three on a map: COVID-19 across the state
Sen. Manar complains CDC is ‘boxing out’ rural areas on testing for coronavirus
State Sen. Andy Manar charges that the Centers for Disease Control are “boxing out rural communities” in testing for COVID-19. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Interactive maps are showing the steady spread of the coronavirus across the state as Sen. Andy Manar suggests they only hint at the problem, caused in part by “boxing out rural communities” on testing for COVID-19.
First, the welcome news: a series of interactive maps have sprung up online, showing the spread of the disease as well as the public response.
As Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike laid out the latest figures on the Illinois outbreak Thursday — 673 new cases, more than doubling the one-day high set only the day before, with 2,538 known Illinois infections total and seven new deaths, bringing the state toll to 26 — Western Illinois University was adding them to its interactive map showing the spread of the disease. That reflects not only the spread across the state to 37 counties, but also “hot zones” in neighboring states, such as the St. Louis area in Metro East and clusters in Milwaukee and Madison across the northern border in Wisconsin.
The Chicago Reporter also has a color-coded map of the state, showing the concentration of COVID-19 cases in the Chicago area, but also pockets in Springfield, Champaign, and Peoria, as well as Metro East.
Unacast has taken that a step further, putting together a national map that attempts to show how successful states are in adopting “social distancing,” altering habits to curtail the rampant spread of the coronavirus, based on data showing how travel has changed. Earlier this week, it graded Illinois with an A, but Friday saw the state slip to a C, with only a 28 percent drop in travel.
The maps are effective in displaying the known cases, but Manar, who represents the small town of Bunker Hill south of Springfield, suggests they’re only hinting at the problem in farming areas, because they’re not being tested at the same level as in cities like Chicago and St. Louis.
In a series of Twitter posts Thursday, Manar cited the governor in saying that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was adopting a “one size fits all” approach to testing for COVID-19, adding that is “boxing out rural communities.”
The main problem, Manar said, echoing health officials across the country, is that there aren’t enough tests to go around. That has resulted in health officials prioritizing people who “have traveled from affected geographic areas (overseas)” or “had close contact with a suspect or a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patient.”
Manar was quick to point out that “rural Americans don’t engage in overseas travel as compared to their urban counterparts,” and “we have massive clusters of rural counties (the geographic size of states) that don't have a single lab-confirmed case.”
He tweeted: “So according to (the CDC), how do the elderly in a small town with all symptoms and all signs … qualify for a test? Answer: they don't. At least they don't until their health has deteriorated enough to be hospitalized and in critical condition.”
As a result, the charts and maps showing the known cases as the spread of the disease “aren't showing you what is happening in rural communities. (The CDC) needs to first get more tests in hands of docs and adjust their criteria for testing to cover the invisible today.”
Manar emphasized that rural communities also tend to be the homes of older citizens. “Your testing clusters leave seniors in rural America behind,” he said. “Fix it.”
He cited a story from WGLT-FM, a National Public Radio outlet at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, warning Thursday that there were only eight confirmed COVID-19 cases in McLean County, but “public health officials say more cases could be out there that are unconfirmed.” The story stated that even patients showing COVID-19 symptoms were not being tested and were being told to quarantine themselves for two weeks. A story update Friday added another case, bringing the McLean County total to nine.
According to the story, the McLean County Health Department has conducted only about 130 tests since the outbreak began: “Communicable Disease Supervisor Melissa Graven said testing remains behind the curve as officials locally and nationally try to identify and isolate those infected.”
“That’s the million-dollar question we all would like the answer to,” Graven told WGLT about the timeline for more testing kits to arrive in Bloomington-Normal hospitals. “The testing supply is not meeting the demand. … We are doing what we can to ensure people have access to testing who meet the criteria.”
Later Friday, the Bloomington Pantagraph’s Paul Swiech reported that McLean County would launch drive-through testing Saturday morning at the county fairgrounds for “health-care workers with respiratory symptoms and a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, first responders with respiratory symptoms and a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, people 65 and older with respiratory symptoms and a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, and patients with underlying medical conditions with respiratory symptoms and a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher.”