The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) have announced that 59 counties across the state are at an elevated level for Covid-19 spread. That number is down from 73 the previous week. Of those, 3 were at a High level, down from 28 the previous week and 56 counties including Lawrence, Crawford and Wabash are at Medium level, down from 45 the previous week. The IDPH reported there were 16,602 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the state in the week ending January 8th with 113 deaths. The latest statistics from the Lawrence County Health Department indicate that there were only 9 individual cases reported between January 9th and 13th locally. IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra stated it was encouraging to see COVID community levels declining and hospital capacities remaining stable.