Hospitalizations up in McHenry, Lake counties two days in a row after week of declining, stable numbers

An additional 300 McHenry County residents now are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the total to 150,955, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, the McHenry County Department of Health reported 19 more cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths Thursday. That brings the total number of cases among residents to 29,343, including 296 confirmed deaths and 30 deaths in which the cause likely was COVID-19 but could not be confirmed.

The county’s recovery rate remains at 99%.

As of Thursday, the IDPH reported a total of 12,895,755 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered statewide, including 310,315 in McHenry County.

So far, 48.92% of the county’s 308,570 residents have been fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all of the doses recommended for the vaccine they received.

The state moved to Phase 5 on June 11, which means state capacity restrictions tied to COVID-19 were lifted. The state continues to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning those fully vaccinated can go without masks in most cases.

Statewide, 70.6% of those age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, the IDPH reported Thursday. That rate is 72.9% for those 18 and older and 90.5% for those 65 and older.

As of Thursday, the Illinois Department of Public Health is no longer categorizing the metrics it had used in determining whether to reopen the state. All of the metrics had been declining until recently.

The number of new COVID-19 cases statewide hit 861 Wednesday, the highest count since May 28. The number of new hospital admissions has also been increasing, from a low of 37 on July 3 to 52 admissions Monday, the last day data is available for.

As of late Wednesday, Illinois had 509 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. This is the first time in one month the state had more than 500 total hospitalizations tied to COVID-19. Of those, 110 were in intensive care units, and 35 were on ventilators.

[ To read more about the statewide COVID-19 picture Thursday, click here. ]

McHenry County’s positivity rate fell to 1.6% Thursday, and the rate for Region 9, which is composed of Lake and McHenry counties, decreased to 1.4%.

Region 9 had 27% of its intensive care unit beds available as of Thursday, and the state reported hospital admissions related to COVID-19 decreased or were stable eight out of the past 10 days. Both of those increases happened in the last two days with hospitalizations up to a 19 seven-day rolling average after hitting a low of 15.

Statewide, the IDPH reported 1,399,270 cases, 23,350 confirmed deaths and 2,461 probable deaths. Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported 62,142 cases and 1,026 deaths through Wednesday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported 59,652 cases and 815 deaths on Wednesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 4,494 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,445 cases.

The McHenry County health department reports ZIP code data only for parts 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) 3,083; Lake in the Hills (60156) 2,741; Algonquin (60102) 2,186; Huntley (60142) 2,134; Cary (60013) 2,056; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 1,945; Harvard (60033) 1,598; Marengo (60152) 1,195; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,039; Wonder Lake (60097) 935; Spring Grove (60081) 727; Island Lake (60042) 407; Fox River Grove (60021) 371; Richmond (60071) 330; Hebron (60034) 176; Barrington (60010) 158; Union (60180) 133; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 62.