McHenry County reports 39 new COVID-19 cases, no additional deaths

An average of more than 1,000 vaccines were administered daily to McHenry County residents, the first time that level of vaccine distribution has occurred locally since early July, new state data shows.

Many of those new doses are going to either first doses or booster shots as the number of residents reaching fully vaccinated status, on average, has remained about 150 for several weeks. That metric, however, reached 172 as of Wednesday.

The number of doses administered to McHenry County residents reached 368,929 Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. A total of 177,533 county residents, or an estimated 57.53% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 15,413,958 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 81.1% of those age 12 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 63.5% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Wednesday. Those rates are 82.7% and 65.1% for people 18 and older and 96.9% and 79% for those 65 and older.

The McHenry County Department of Health reported 39 new cases and no new deaths Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 35,171 including 329 deaths and 32 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but could not be confirmed.

The number of new cases over the previous seven days rose to 136.17 per 100,000 residents Friday, the most recent day for which data is available, according to the McHenry County Department of Health’s school metrics dashboard.

Under the thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence rate – measured as the total number of new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents – marks a “high” degree of transmission of COVID-19.

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 and remain there for a week, according to the county’s health department.

Both the CDC and McHenry County health department use the incidence rate and positivity rate to categorize COVID-19 transmission. When the two metrics do not fall within the same transmission risk category, the higher one is chosen, according to the county health department.

McHenry County’s COVID-19 test positivity dropped to 2.6% Sunday, according to the county. The county has been within the low transmission range of zero percent to 4.9% since early September.

Region 9, which is made up of Lake and McHenry counties, decreased to 2.1% Sunday, according to the IDPH.

Intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties remained at 21% as of Tuesday, the IDPH reported.

Twice this summer, the ICU care availability in the two-county region fell below 20%, a threshold previously used by the state during the COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger point for implementing more strict health mitigations on regions, something that hadn’t occurred during either last year’s fall peak of coronavirus cases or the more recent spring surge.

The number of people hospitalized because of COVID-19 in both counties went down slightly to 76 Tuesday. The region saw the number of patients hospitalized decrease or remain stable nine of the past 10 days.

In McHenry County alone, 5.6% of medical and surgical beds and 28.9% of intensive care unit beds were available, according to the McHenry County health department. Hospitalizations have decreased or remained stable seven out of the past 10 days in McHenry County.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 decreased slightly Tuesday to 1,229, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized Monday, 300 patients were in the ICU and 142 were on ventilators.

The IDPH reported 2,013 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. Another 26 deaths also were logged Wednesday, bringing the totals to 1,690,274 cases, 25,707 confirmed deaths and 2,843 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 72,718 cases and 1,094 deaths on Wednesday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported a total of 68,778 cases and 880 deaths as of Tuesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 5,427 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,999 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) 3,800; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,252; Huntley (60142) 2,657; Algonquin (60102) 2,532; Cary (60013) 2,412; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,412; Harvard (60033) 1,821; Marengo (60152) 1,421; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,203; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,161; Spring Grove (60081) 905; Island Lake (60042) 498; Fox River Grove (60021) 456; Richmond (60071) 398; Hebron (60034) 218; Barrington (60010) 186; Union (60180) 161; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 92.