McHenry County reports 111 new COVID-19 cases

The McHenry County Department of Health reported another 111 COVID-19 cases on Friday.

The figure reflects both confirmed and probable cases, according to the health department.

The total cases in McHenry County now number 32,308, including 301 deaths and 30 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but could not be confirmed. No additional deaths were reported Friday, and the county’s recovery rate remains at 99%.

The county’s incidence rate – the number of new cases in the past seven days per 100,000 residents – was 152.09 per 100,000 residents as of Sunday, the most recent day for which data is available, according to the McHenry County health department’s school metrics dashboard.

That’s well above the threshold for designating transmission as “high” set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For spread to meet the less severe category “substantial,” the incidence rate would need to fall below 100 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents.

McHenry County’s positivity rate was 4.6% as of Tuesday, which is inside the low transmission range of 0% to 4.9%. The positivity rate is measured by a seven-day rolling average with a three-day lag.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Lake and McHenry counties, which are both in Region 9, have a positivity rate of 4.4% as of Tuesday.

Both the CDC and McHenry County health department use the incidence rate and positivity rate to categorize COVID-19 transmission.

When the positivity rate and incidence rate do not fall within the same transmission risk category, the higher one is chosen, according to the McHenry County health department.

Meanwhile, an additional 412 COVID-19 vaccines were administered to McHenry County residents on Wednesday, bringing the total number of doses administered to 340,631, the IDPH reported.

A total of 167,943 county residents, or an estimated 54.43% of its population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all the doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 14,149,453 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 77.8% of those age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, and 60.5% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 79.4% and 62.2% for people 18 and older and 94% and 77.3% for those 65 and older.

Intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties remained above the 20% benchmark, at 21%.

There have been patient increases four out of the past 10 days across McHenry and Lake counties. The number of people hospitalized with the virus in both counties dropped to 136 Thursday after several days at 137, which was the highest since early February, according to state and county data.

In McHenry County alone, 34.3% of ICU beds and 7.2% of medical and surgical beds remained available, according to the McHenry County Department of Health. Hospitalizations have increased one in the last 10 days in McHenry County, according to county data.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations increased to 2,346 on Thursday. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19, 549 were in ICUs and 311 were on ventilators.

The IDPH also reported 5,309 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 statewide Friday. Another 27 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 1,564,386 cases, 24,261 confirmed deaths and 2,584 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported 67,968 cases and 1,051 deaths as of Thursday, the last day they have data for, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported Friday that it had 64,530 cases and 835 deaths.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 4,954 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,714 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) 3,402; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,001; Huntley (60142) 2,412; Algonquin (60102) 2,390; Cary (60013) 2,269; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,174; Harvard (60033) 1,683; Marengo (60152) 1,324; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,113; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,055; Spring Grove (60081) 829; Island Lake (60042) 463; Fox River Grove (60021) 422; Richmond (60071) 364; Hebron (60034) 201; Barrington (60010) 172; Union (60180) 147; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 71.