No new COVID-19 outbreaks at McHenry County schools as transmission remains high

The Illinois Department of Public Health identified no new outbreaks this week in school or youth programs in McHenry County, although an outbreak was identified at a private school in East Dundee.

Seven cases among students were reported Nov. 30 at Immanuel Lutheran School, according to the state’s weekly update.

Ten outbreaks remain active at McHenry County schools as well as at two Community School District 300 schools that fall in Kane County, state data shows.

Outbreaks that remain active in area schools are at Crosby Elementary School in Harvard, Chauncey Duker Elementary in McHenry, Gary D. Wright Elementary in Hampshire, Golfview Elementary School in Carpentersville, Leggee Elementary in Huntley, Prairie Grove Elementary School in Crystal Lake and two each at Marlowe Middle School and Martin Elementary School in Lake in the Hills.

The other two youth outbreaks are among the students in the Stateline Comets Cheerleading group in Spring Grove, which includes five cases, and among the D155 Predators Hockey club, a nonprofit with teams from Crystal Lake and Cary schools, with five cases among both students and staff.

An outbreak also remains active at Cambridge Lakes Charter School in Pingree Grove, where 24 cases had been identified among students in a Nov. 9 outbreak tied to a classroom.

The level of COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remained high Friday, as the incidence rate rose after four days of declines, according to the McHenry County Department of Health.

The incidence rate was 304.5 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Sunday, the last day for which data is available, according to the county’s dashboard.

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 McHenry County health department.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and McHenry County health department use the incidence and positivity rates 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 positivity rate was 9.4% as of Tuesday, a mark the county has not seen since January, state data shows.

The positivity rate for the region that includes both McHenry and Lake counties was 7.6% Tuesday, the last date for which data is available, according to the IDPH. The two-county area’s positivity rate also has not been that high since January.

The average number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across Lake and McHenry counties rose again, reaching 152 Thursday, according to the IDPH. It’s the most people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the two-county region since Feb. 8, according to state data.

COVID-19 hospitalizations rose each of the past 12 days, state data shows.

Intensive care unit availability across the two counties remained at 20%, marking the eighth straight day at or above the 20% threshold, according to the IDPH.

In McHenry County alone, 4.1% of medical and surgical beds and 16.5% of intensive care unit beds were available, both down from earlier this week, according to the seven-day rolling average reported by the local health department. Hospitalizations have decreased or remained stable for six of the past 10 days in the county.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 rose Thursday to 2,582, IDPH reported, up from fewer than 2,000 as of Nov. 25. Of those hospitalized Thursday, 534 patients were in the ICU and 221 were on ventilators.

An additional 2,106 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Thursday, bringing the total number administered locally to 420,091, IDPH reported. The state reported 48,024 booster shots had been administered in McHenry County.

A total of 182,453 county residents, or an estimated 59.13% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 17,508,319 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 73.5% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 and 65.5% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 78.6% and 71.6% for those age 12 and older, 80.2% and 73.1% for people 18 and older, and 93.8% and 86.1% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 7,558 total new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Another 36 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 1,835,076 cases, 26,535 confirmed deaths and 2,986 probable deaths.

The McHenry County health department reported an additional 219 COVID-19 cases Friday. That brings the total to 39,917 cases in McHenry County, including 343 deaths and 33 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. No additional deaths were reported Friday.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 78,687 cases and 1,117 deaths Friday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported 74,417 cases and 904 deaths Friday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 6,192 confirmed, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 4,590 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) 4,348; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,621; Huntley (60142) 2,994; Algonquin (60102) 2,825; Cary (60013) 2,735; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,697; Harvard (60033) 2,021; Marengo (60152) 1,679; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,372; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,361; Spring Grove (60081) 1,003; Island Lake (60042) 543; Fox River Grove (60021) 542; Richmond (60071) 465; Hebron (60034) 240; Barrington (60010) 206; Union (60180) 190; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 112.