McHenry County reports 114 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday

Region still isn’t meeting threshold for hospital beds required to move to less restrictive phase

This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses

The McHenry County Department of Health reported 114 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and no additional confirmed deaths Wednesday.

This brings the county’s totals to 20,995 confirmed cases, 208 confirmed deaths and 16 deaths where the cause likely was COVID-19 but not confirmed. The county’s recovery rate currently sits at 98%.

The county’s latest death tied to COVID-19 was a man in his 50s, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

McHenry County residents have been tested a total of 211,886 times since the pandemic began, according to county-specific data collected by the IDPH.

As of Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported a total of 384,658 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered statewide and 7,196 in McHenry County. So far, 0.53% (1,628 of 308,570) of county residents have been fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all of the doses recommended for the vaccine they received.

To see definitions of key terms used in all COVID-19 updates, read this article: “Feeling lost in keeping up with the news?

In order to move to Tier 2, which is less restrictive, Region 9 (McHenry and Lake counties) must meet three metrics tracked by the IDPH.

First, the region must report a seven-day average test positivity rate of less than 12% for three consecutive days. As of Wednesday, McHenry County’s positivity rate was 13% and Region 9 was at 9.8%. Region 9 now has seen 32 straight days below the 12% threshold.

Second, both intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed availability must be greater than 20% for three consecutive days.

As of Wednesday, Region 9 was satisfying this metric for ICU beds (25.4%), but not for medical/surgical beds (18.9%). The availability of both in McHenry County was at 25% and 6.5%, respectively.

Third, the region must show a decline in average COVID-19 hospitalizations for seven out of the past 10 days. On Wednesday, Region 9 reported six days of decreases in hospital admissions for COVID-19 out of the past 10 days.

Confused about the different tiers and phases of the governor’s COVID-19 response? Read this explanation of the Restore Illinois plan and its metrics.

The Kane County Health Department reported a total of 44,160 confirmed cases and 615 deaths Wednesday.

The Lake County Health Department reported a total of 48,827 confirmed cases and 803 related deaths.

Statewide, the IDPH reported a total of 1,046,030 confirmed cases and 17,840 related deaths. So far, Illinois has conducted 14,339,584 COVID-19 tests. The statewide recovery rate is 98%.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 3,153 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 2,488 cases.

The McHenry County health department reports only ZIP code data that is located within McHenry County, a department spokeswoman said. Any discrepancies between county and IDPH numbers likely are because of the data’s provisional nature and because each health department finalizes its data at different times, she said.

The following is the rest of the local breakdown of cases by ZIP code: McHenry (60050) 2,195; Lake in the Hills (60156) 1,855; Algonquin (60102) 1,555; Huntley (60142) 1,505; Cary (60013) 1,424; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 1,396; Harvard (60033) 1,325; Marengo (60152) 903; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 762; Wonder Lake (60097) 705; Spring Grove (60081) 514; Island Lake (60042) 296; Fox River Grove (60021) 240; Richmond (60071) 230; Hebron (60034) 123; Barrington (60010) 94; Union (60180) 86; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 48.