McHenry County reports 655 new COVID-19 cases, 3 additional deaths since Friday

The McHenry County health department reported an additional 655 COVID-19 cases and three more deaths since Friday.

That brings the total to 40,572 cases in McHenry County, including 345 deaths and 34 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. Three additional deaths include two confirmed cases and two probable.

The McHenry County Department of Health did not update its tallies of cases and deaths Monday, nor its dashboard of other COVID-19 data due to technical difficulties.

McHenry and Lake counties remained below the 20% threshold for hospital intensive care unit capacity for the fourth day, falling to 16% as of Monday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Tuesday.

Multiple times since the summer, the two-county area 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. That didn’t occur during either last year’s fall peak of COVID-19 cases or this year’s spring surge.

Overall, COVID-19 hospitalizations have continued to climb, with 16 straight days of increases, according to the IDPH. The seven-day average for COVID-19 hospitalizations hit 175 Monday, the highest level since Feb. 2.

In McHenry County alone, 2.2% of medical and surgical beds and 17.1% of intensive care unit beds were available, according to the seven-day rolling average reported by the local health department. Hospitalizations have decreased or remained stable for seven of the past 10 days in the county.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 rose Monday to 3,029, IDPH reported, the first time above 3,000 since Jan. 25. Of those hospitalized Monday, 610 patients were in the ICU, up from 301 as of Nov. 13, and 272 were on ventilators, up from 139 also as of Nov. 13.

McHenry County’s COVID-19 test positivity rate increased to 8.8% as of Saturday, the last date for which data is available, according to the McHenry County Department of Health. That’s still down from 9.4% on Dec. 1.

The positivity rate for the region including both McHenry and Lake counties was 6.8% Saturday, according to the IDPH. That’s down from levels exceeding 7% early this month and late last month.

The level of COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remained high Tuesday, as the incidence rate rose after declining in the final days of November, according to the McHenry County Department of Health.

The incidence rate was 449.12 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, the last day for which data is available, according to the county’s dashboard. It’s the highest number the county has seen since the data began being tracked.

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.

An additional 1,530 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Monday, according to IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 426,735, IDPH reported. The state reported 52,322 booster shots had been administered in McHenry County.

A total of 184,222 county residents, or an estimated 59.7% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 17,768,693 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 74.3% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 and 66.2% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Tuesday. Those rates are 79.3% and 72% for those age 12 and older, 80.9% and 73.5% for people 18 and older, and 94.3% and 86.4% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 7,068 total new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. Another 78 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 1,861,254 cases, 26,698 confirmed deaths and 3,012 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 79,607 cases and 1,121 deaths Tuesday, with one additional deaths reported since Monday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 75,236 cases and 906 deaths Monday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 6,288 confirmed, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 4,667 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) 4,438; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,656; Huntley (60142) 3,041; Algonquin (60102) 2,862; Cary (60013) 2,779; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,747; Harvard (60033) 2,057; Marengo (60152) 1,706; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,404; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,384; Spring Grove (60081) 1,025; Island Lake (60042) 553; Fox River Grove (60021) 546; Richmond (60071) 469; Hebron (60034) 244; Barrington (60010) 210; Union (60180) 191; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 117.