McHenry County reports 183 new COVID-19 cases, no additional deaths

The McHenry County Department of Health on Monday reported another 183 new COVID-19 cases recorded since Friday’s update.

Total cases in McHenry County now number 32,491, including 301 deaths and 30 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but could not be confirmed. No additional deaths were reported Monday, 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 147.86 per 100,000 residents as of Wednesday, 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 Friday, the ninth day it has been within 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 make up Region 9, have a positivity rate of 4.3% as of Friday.

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 1,328 COVID-19 vaccines were administered to McHenry County residents over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total number of doses administered to 341,959, IDPH reported.

A total of 168,591 county residents, or an estimated 54.64% of its population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all the doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 14,208,557 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 78.2% of those age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, and 60.9% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Monday. Those rates are 79.8% and 62.5% for people 18 and older and 94.3% and 77.4% for those 65 and older.

Intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties dipped to 19%, below the 20% benchmark for the first time in eight days. The region had fallen below the 20% mark, which the state had used as trigger point for adding restrictions on gathering and business activity, for the first time over the course of the pandemic in mid-August before climbing to 22% this past week.

The total number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 increased three out of the past 10 days across McHenry and Lake counties, reaching 138 Sunday, the most since Feb. 9, according to state and county data.

In McHenry County alone, 26.3% of ICU beds and 5.8% of medical and surgical beds remained available, according to the McHenry County Department of Health. Hospitalizations have increased two out of the last 10 days in McHenry County, according to county data.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 decreased by two to 2,247 on Sunday. Of those, 554 were in ICUs and 341 were on ventilators, both up from Friday’s reports.

The IDPH also reported 9,152 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 statewide over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Another 106 confirmed deaths also were logged over the three days, bringing the totals to 1,573,538 cases, 24,367 confirmed deaths and 2,602 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported 68,465 cases and 1,054 deaths as of Sunday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported Monday that it had 64,802 cases and 837 deaths.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 4,975 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,728 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) 3,434; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,012; Huntley (60142) 2,427; Algonquin (60102) 2,402; Cary (60013) 2,288; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,191; Harvard (60033) 1,691; Marengo (60152) 1,331; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,118; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,060; Spring Grove (60081) 832; Island Lake (60042) 468; Fox River Grove (60021) 426; Richmond (60071) 365; Hebron (60034) 203; Barrington (60010) 172; Union (60180) 147; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 71.