PEORIA — Health officials on Tuesday announced two additional cases of the COVID-19 disease in Peoria County.

The results for both individuals were deemed positive within the last day in Peoria. That brings the total in the Tri-County Area to four. All four patients are at home and recovering in self-quarantine.

There have been 11 negative test results and 21 that are still pending, said Monica Henderickson of the Peoria City/County Health Department.

As with current guidelines, Henderickson did not provide any information regarding the gender or the age of the patients who tested positive. She also didn't comment on if the new cases were related to the previous positive cases or if they were new. Henderickson did say officials were going through the contact history of those who had tested positive to reach out to people who might at risk from the new strain of coronavirus, which has sickened or killed thousands worldwide.

The daily press briefing differed Tuesday in that speakers were shuttled in and out of the conference room to avoid having more than 10 people in the room at any one time. Each of the media organizations were limited to one representative.

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis announced that all public buildings within Peoria and Peoria County will be closed to the general public beginning Wednesday. Speaking at the briefing, Ardis said the city has declared the COVID-19 crisis a disaster and thus issued the order, which will expire at the end of the City Council meeting on March 24. All municipal and county buildings will be closed, but employees will continue to work.

City Manager Pat Urich said there were talks on how to handle next week's City Council meeting. He noted the governor suspended parts of the Open Meetings Act, which would allow council members to attend remotely and thus, limit the number of people in the chambers. Also, the agendas would be brief, handling only time-sensitive items, he said.

Ardis said Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties would be issuing similar disaster declarations. For more information on how to contact various city departments, go to the city's website. For more information on the Peoria County, go to www.peoriacounty.org.

In that same vein, the Peoria Police Department announced it would not take pictures for outside government ID cards, fingerprinting for non-urgent situations and clearance letters for prospective employers and adaptions. The ban on fingerprinting does not include fingerprinting for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulations for nurses or doctors, for instance, or other state departments requiring fingerprinting for licensing reasons.

The department announced it would not allow its lobby to used for the online sales as it has in the past. The visitor parking lot on Walnut will remain available for this purpose. The visitor lot is monitored by surveillance cameras.

Also Ted Bender, of UnityPlace, spoke about the need to talk to children about the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and how to prepare them for what is happening. UnityPlace, formed last year, is a cooperative effort by UnityPoint Health, Human Service Center and Tazwood Center for Wellness to address the region's growing behavioral health care needs. He also stressed that people try to take time to decompress by not focusing on the news around the clock, maintain human contact and not completely isolate and to get outside as much as possible to exercise.