McHenry County reports 335 new COVID-19 cases, no additional deaths

Illinois has seen more than 2 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, the state health department reported on Wednesday.

Statewide, the Illinois Department of Public Health tallied 16,581 total new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Another 66 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 2,002,360 cases, 27,357 confirmed deaths and 3,125 probable deaths.

In McHenry County where the level of COVID-19 transmission remains high, the McHenry County Department of Health reported an additional 335 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

That brings the total to 44,199 cases in McHenry County, including 353 deaths and 35 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. No new deaths were reported Wednesday.

McHenry County’s incidence rate rose to 534.59 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Friday, 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 539.14 on Dec. 4. It then fell to 470.89 about a week later and has been climbing upward again since then.

For the 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 test positivity rate rose to 8.8% Sunday, the last date for which data is available, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That remains below the last peak of 9.4% on Dec. 1.

The positivity rate for the region including both McHenry and Lake counties rose to 6.7% Sunday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That’s still down from levels exceeding 7% early this month and late last month.

About 13% of intensive care unit beds remained available in McHenry and Lake counties as of Tuesday. It’s been at 13% for four days in a row, per the IDPH. That’s just above last week’s low of 12%, the least ICU availability ever recorded in the two-county region through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDPH data shows.

ICU bed availability has been under the 20% threshold for 19 straight days. This threshold previously was used by the state as a trigger point for implementing stricter health mitigations.

Overall, the seven-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased six of the past 10 days in the two-county region, decreasing each of the last four. It reached 230 Tuesday, on par with the level of hospitalizations in January.

In McHenry County, 4.8% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean reported Wednesday by the McHenry County health department. An average of 19% of ICU beds were available.

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

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 increased Tuesday to 4,178, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized Tuesday, 867 patients were in the ICU and 451 were on ventilators.

An additional 1,601 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Tuesday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 450,646. The state reported that 68,893 booster shots were administered in McHenry County.

A total of 187,978 county residents, or an estimated 60.92% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 18,775,064 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 76.1% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 67.9% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Wednesday. Those rates are 81% and 72.9% for those age 12 and older, 82.6% and 74.4% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 86.9% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 84,026 cases and 1,136 deaths Wednesday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 80,556 cases and 938 deaths as of Wednesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 6,842 confirmed, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 5,018 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) 4,904; Lake in the Hills (60156) 3,948; Huntley (60142) 3,293; Algonquin (60102) 3,114; Cary (60013) 3,028; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 3,006; Harvard (60033) 2,283; Marengo (60152) 1,846; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,570; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,504; Spring Grove (60081) 1,081; Fox River Grove (60021) 607; Island Lake (60042) 603; Richmond (60071) 508; Hebron (60034) 273; Barrington (60010) 222; Union (60180) 207; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 134.