McHenry County receives first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine in 11 weeks as fully vaccinated rate crosses 50%

The McHenry County Department of Health received 450 doses of the first COVID-19 vaccine this week, the first time it has received new doses since early May.

The new shipment comes as the number of doses administered to McHenry County residents reached almost 1,200 on Wednesday, the most since June 26. On average, the number of vaccines remains about half of what it was a month ago.

On Thursday, 607 vaccines were administered to McHenry County residents, bringing the total number administered locally to 317,732 and statewide 13,211,304, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Meanwhile, the McHenry County health department reported 57 more cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths Thursday. That brings the total number of cases among residents to 29,703, including 299 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%.

So far, 154,414 McHenry County residents, or 50.04%, 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 related to COVID-19 were lifted. The state continues to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning those who are fully vaccinated can go without masks in most cases.

Statewide, 72.2% of those age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, the IDPH reported as of Friday. That rate is 74.3% for those 18 and older and 91.3% for those 65 and older.

The number of new COVID-19 cases statewide was 2,348 on Friday after surpassing 2,000 new cases Thursday for the first time since early May.

As of late Thursday, Illinois had 644 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the most since June 4. Of those, 167 were in intensive care units, and 62 were on ventilators.

[Illinois administers most COVID-19 vaccines in more than a month]

McHenry County’s positivity rate, as measured by a seven-day rolling average, increased to 5.4%. Data remains on a three-day lag. The rate for Region 9, which is composed of Lake and McHenry counties, also rose to 3.6%.

Region 9 had 34% of its ICU beds available as of Thursday, and the state reported hospital admissions related to COVID-19 increased seven out of the past 10 days.

Statewide, the IDPH reported 1,419,611 cases, 23,440 confirmed deaths and 2,476 probable deaths. Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported 62,704 cases and 1,030 deaths through Thursday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported 60,018 cases and 816 deaths on Thursday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 4,568 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,460 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) 3,124; Lake in the Hills (60156) 2,770; Algonquin (60102) 2,204; Huntley (60142) 2,166; Cary (60013) 2,094; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 1,975; Harvard (60033) 1,607; Marengo (60152) 1,214; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,050; Wonder Lake (60097) 946; Spring Grove (60081) 736; Island Lake (60042) 416; Fox River Grove (60021) 377; Richmond (60071) 332; Hebron (60034) 179; Barrington (60010) 161; Union (60180) 133; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 64.