Active COVID cases at 100 or under third consecutive day

While Illinois saw a record 238 deaths from COVID-19 virus on Wednesday, locally for a third consecutive day the number of active cases within The Sentinel area of coverage has remained at 100 or less.

Wednesdays figure from the Illinois Department of Public Health surpassed the high of 191 set back in mid-May. Health officials admitted that the new high could be from delayed reporting of data over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"Today marks a solemn milestone, with 238 lives lost to COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours," Governor J.B. Pritzker said during his Wednesday coronavirus update. "We'll continue to watch these numbers closely in the coming weeks to have a better picture of our trajectory, but a life lost, reported late, following a holiday, is still a life lost."

As of today the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is reporting the six villages The Sentinel covers has 97 active case, up three from Wednesday's 94.There are 11 active cases in Ogden, 9 in Philo, 2 in Royal, 5 in Sidney, 45 in St. Joseph and Tolono has 25 reported cases.

On Tuesday, the CUPHD reported 100 cases, a number our area last witnessed on November 15 when the area went from 69 to 110 cases overnight. The rolling average the last seven days of November was 127 cases.

Photo of the Day - December 3, 2020

Victory Dance

St. Joseph-Ogden dance team member Kirsten Dalton performs during halftime of the Spartans' football game against Iroquois West with the SJO Dance. The Spartans improved to 3-2 on the season after rolling to 34-14 homecoming victory over the visiting Raiders on September 26, 2008.

PhotoNews/Clark Brooks

The Giving Place helped Unit 7 families

The Giving Place is a community outreach program that helps those going through hard times economically. Designed to help families in the Unit 7 school district, the ministry provides food and clothing for those in need.

In the past week, The Giving Place provided assistance to 12 families, 25 adults and eight children.

The charitable organization thanked Pastor Catherine Thomas and several volunteers for serving those who sought help during the past week and for their help in cleaning, sorting and stocking racks on Wednesday. They also thanked everyone who generously donated food or money to the ministry to make their work possible.

"We are in need of the following items: canned fruit, (especially pears, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, pineapple & applesauce), snack items of all kinds, and peanut butter," wrote Mike Williams in an email.

Normally, The Giving Place does not accepting clothing items, but with cold, winter weather now settling in East Central Illinois, they are now accepting donations of new or gently used, clean winter coats, hats and gloves/mittens. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the organization is not accepting new volunteers at this time.