McHenry County reports 408 new COVID-19 cases Thursday

The McHenry County Department of Health reported Thursday an additional 408 COVID-19 cases.

That brings the total to 42,714 cases in McHenry County, including 345 deaths and 34 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. No additional deaths were reported Thursday.

McHenry County’s incidence rate declined to 461.47 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Saturday, the last day for which data is available, according to the county’s school metrics dashboard. The incidence rate had been trending generally upward since mid-October before hitting a peak of 536.21 in early December.

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 the level of COVID-19 transmission in the community. When the two metrics do not fall within the same transmission risk category, the higher one is chosen, according to the McHenry County health department.

McHenry County’s COVID-19 seven-day positivity rate remained 8% Monday, the last date for which data is available, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That’s down from a peak of 9.4% on Dec. 1.

The positivity rate for the region including both McHenry and Lake counties went down to 5.9% Monday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That’s down from levels exceeding 7% early this month and late last month.

About 12% of intensive care unit beds were available in McHenry and Lake counties as of Wednesday. That is the lowest levels ever seen through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDPH data shows.

ICU bed availability has been under the 20% threshold for 13 straight days. This threshold previously used by the state as a trigger point for implementing stricter health mitigations, the state reported.

Overall, COVID-19 hospitalizations have continued to climb across the two counties, with 25 straight days of increases, according to state data. The seven-day average for COVID-19 hospitalizations hit 237 Wednesday, a level not seen since January.

In McHenry County, only 2.5% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean reported Thursday by the McHenry County Department of Health. An average of 20.8% of intensive care unit beds were available.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19-like illness have decreased or remained stable for five of the past 10 days in the county.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 increased Wednesday to 3,725, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized Wednesday, 772 patients were in the ICU and 391 were on ventilators.

An additional 1,873 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Wednesday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 442,074. The state reported 62,168 booster shots had been administered in McHenry County.

A total of 186,886 county residents, or an estimated 60.57% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 18,403,106 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 75.6% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 and 67.5% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Thursday. Those rates are 80.5% and 72.7% for those age 12 and older, 82.1% and 74.2% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 86.7% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH on Thursday tallied 11,858 total new cases of COVID-19. Another 52 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 1,933,291 cases, 27,065 confirmed deaths and 3,070 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 82,155 cases and 1,128 deaths on Thursday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 77,857 cases and 926 deaths.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 6,614 confirmed, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 4,900 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) 4,720; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,834; Huntley (60142) 3,191; Algonquin (60102) 2,998; Cary (60013) 2,911; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,886; Harvard (60033) 2,189; Marengo (60152) 1,789; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,501; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,455; Spring Grove (60081) 1,072; Island Lake (60042) 584; Fox River Grove (60021) 571; Richmond (60071) 493; Hebron (60034) 260; Barrington (60010) 220; Union (60180) 198; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 127.