Richland County resident faces charges after breaking COVID-19 quarantine

And thanks for joining us.

A covid-19 patient is facing misdemeanor charges in richland county, illinois.

Officials say the patient broke quarantine and endagered the public.

The case is just part of a big problem that richland county has begun to see in a few weeks.

News 10 bureau chief gary brian tells us what's going on in the land of lincoln.

Gar} "on july 20th, richland county only had 10 positive cases of covid-19 reported since the pandemic began.

Now just one month later that number has more then quadrupled."

Thursday morning the richland county state's attorney announced a woman in her 20's is facing class a misdemeanor charges.

The woman tested positive for covid-19.

The state's attorney says she broke quarantine and endangered the public.

"if a person chooses to break isolation and is no longer communicating with our office and being cooperative, we don't know where that person has been, where they are going, what they are doing.

And that's a concern for the community at large and it endagers the lives of others."

Wednesday richland county recorded it's first covid-19 death.

The number of positive cases is up to 48.

Richland county public health nurse micah drummond attributes this rise to a couple of different factors.

"we've had community spread, we've had cases related to travel, and we've also had an outbreak in a residential care community."

Early in the pandemic the newton care center in jasper county suffered an outbreak of it's own.

Drummond says they are taking lessons learned to deal with their own outbreak.

"we learned a lot from what happened in jasper county and they have helped us tremendously throughout the last week to make sure that we are following the idph and cdc guidelines and that we're keeping others safe."

The health office is working hard to protect the community's vulnerable groups.

This means contact tracing.

"we're just doing our best to stop this disease and hopefully protect those are most vulnerable.

The older population and those who are immuno-compromised.

We just want to help save as many people as we can."

In richland county, gary brian news 10.

Money for internet connectivity is coming at an important time for hoosier schools.

At 5 o'clock, we told you the vigo county school district is getting "1-point-3 million" dollars.

It'll help buy wi-fi hotspots buy wi-fi it'll help dollars.

Point-3 million" getting "1-district is county school the vigo we told you at 5 o'clock, schools.

For hoosier important time coming at an connectivity is internet money for brian news 10.