Local health officials are offering several thoughts on digesting data coming from the State of Illinois' Department of Public Health when trying to decide if we have flattened the curve.

According to CEO of Warner Hospital and Health Services, Paul Skowron, you need to examine at least a week's worth of data to make any determinations on trends and he believes that data is suggesting the curve has been flattened.

As he looks at the data each day, Executive Director of the DeWitt/Piatt Bi-County Health Department Dave Remmert, the number of cases of coronavirus is very distorted because there are so many we don't know. He feels the focus of the data should be on how many fatalities it is causing.

The two veteran health officials offered their thoughts on the Governor's reopen Illinois plan. Skowron says while many may not like the plan the Governor offered up, he needed to establish some benchmarks and is optimistic Governor Pritzker might just loosen some of those if numbers in Illinois improve.

Many are critical that the Governor wants the eradication of the coronavirus or a vaccine, both of which could take well over a year by many experts estimations. Remmert, however, did not hear the benchmarks of reopening like that, he believes a suitable remedy would allow us to reopen and there are positive trends in that part of the battle against the coronavirus.

Both Remmert and Skowron point out, as testing figures continue to increase, the number of cases could continue to be higher but again stress, examining at least a week's worth of data is the best practice in determining any trends on the virus.