COVID-19 hospitalization continue to rise in McHenry, Lake counties

The average number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 across Lake and McHenry counties continued to rise Wednesday, as do the numbers statewide, state data shows.

McHenry and Lake counties saw an average of 105 people hospitalized because of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Hospital intensive care unity capacity across McHenry and Lake counties remained at 19% for the third day in a row Tuesday, according to state data. Hospitalizations across the two counties increased eight of the past 10 days.

Previously in the pandemic, dips below the 20% capacity mark for ICUs within a region of the state would trigger stricter mitigations implemented in the area. Prior to this past August, the two-county region had avoided falling to that level of ICU availability.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 continued to rise on Tuesday to 1,982, IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized, 384 patients were in the ICU and 150 were on ventilators.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday the McHenry County Department of Health will not be updating its COVID-19 dashboard, where provides information about how many COVID-19 cases have occurred in McHenry County or what the level of transmission is like locally. The dashboard will not be updated until Monday.

McHenry County’s positivity rate, measured by a seven-day rolling average, increased to 5.9% as of Sunday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Region 9, which is made up of Lake and McHenry counties, saw its positivity rate rise to 4.3% on Sunday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday tallied 5,058 total new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. Another 19 deaths also were logged Wednesday, bringing the totals to 1,784,900 cases, 26,313 confirmed deaths and 2,945 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 76,704 cases and 1,112 deaths on Wednesday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported a total of 72,296 cases and 898 deaths.

An additional 1,628 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Tuesday, bringing the total number administered locally to 409,216, IDPH reported Wednesday. The state reported 41,355 booster shots had been administered in McHenry County.

A total of 180,500 county residents, or an estimated 58.50% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 17,031,036 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 78.2% of those age 12 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 71.4% are fully vaccinated, IDPH reported Wednesday. Those rates are 79.8% and 72.9% for people 18 and older and 93.6% and 86.1% for those 65 and older, respectively.