McHenry County positivity rate highest since November 2020

The first day of 2022 saw the highest COVID-19 positivity rate since Nov. 17, 2020, in McHenry County, state data shows.

The positivity rate for the county, as measured by a seven-day rolling average, Saturday was 19.2%, according to the IDPH.

The region including both Lake and McHenry counties also increased Saturday to 16.8.%. A rate that high has only been recorded in the region on two days amid the pandemic, on Nov. 12, 2020, and Nov. 13, 2020, according to the state’s data.

COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remains high, not just because of the high positivity rate but also because of county’s incidence rate. It hit a new peak of 800.42 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, the last day for which data was reported, according to the McHenry County Department of Health.

That’s the highest the county has seen over the past 250 days, the time period published by the county, and eight times the threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to indicate a high level of transmission within a community.

For transmission risk 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 the positivity rate below 10%, according to the McHenry County Department of Health. Both metrics would then need to stay below those levels for a week.

Both the CDC 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.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties remained at 15% Monday, marking its sixth straight day below the 20% threshold previously used by the state as a trigger point for implementing stricter health mitigations.

Overall, the seven-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased each of the last eight days in the two-county region, rising to 298 on Monday, a level not seen since Dec. 9, 2020, state data shows.

In McHenry County alone, 3.4% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean reported Tuesday by the McHenry County Department of Health. An average of 20.2% of ICU beds were available.

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

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 jumped Monday to 6,600, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized Monday, 1,118 patients were in the ICU and 658 were on ventilators.

An additional 1,098 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Monday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 464,787. The state reported that 78,390 booster shots were administered in McHenry County.

A total of 189,875 county residents, or an estimated 61.53% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 19,357,296 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 76.5% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 68% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Tuesday. Those rates are 81.1% and 72.8% for those age 12 and older, 82.7% and 74.2% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 86.6% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH on Tuesday tallied 24,423 total new cases of COVID-19. Another 81 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 2,263,166 cases, 28,077 confirmed deaths and 3,235 probable deaths.

The McHenry County health department reported an additional 655 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday.

That brings the total to 49,157 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 Tuesday.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 91,490 cases and 1,158 deaths as of Tuesday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 86,102 cases and 948 deaths as of Thursday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 7,638 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 5,559.

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: Woodstock (60098) 5,469 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 4,377; Huntley (60142) 3,683; Cary (60013) 3,538; Algonquin (60102) 3,434; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 3,311; Harvard (60033) 2,428; Marengo (60152) 1,983; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,824; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,655; Spring Grove (60081) 1,154; Island Lake (60042) 688; Fox River Grove (60021) 688; Richmond (60071) 555; Hebron (60034) 292; Barrington (60010) 252; Union (60180) 216; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 144.