McHenry County reports five additional deaths, bringing total to 51 so far this year

Five additional COVID-19 deaths were reported Tuesday by the McHenry County Department of Health.

The McHenry County health department also reported 52 fewer cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday after non-McHenry County residents were removed from the case count, department spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said.

That brings the total to 74,244, including 433 deaths and 42 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed.

Four of the deaths occurred in January, bringing the total deaths last month to 48, health department data shows. One of the deaths was in February, which now has three reported.

The level of COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remained high as of Tuesday due to the county’s incidence rate.

The incidence rate was 305.15 new COVID-19 cases over the last seven days per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, the last day for which data is available, according to the McHenry County health department’s school metrics dashboard.

For transmission risk to meet the less severe category “substantial,” the county would need to see the incidence rate fall below 100 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents, according to the McHenry County health department. It would then need to stay below that for a week.

The county’s positivity rate also would need to stay below 10%, which it had been for three days in a row.

The test positivity rate for the county, as measured by a seven-day rolling average, decreased to 7.1% Saturday, which is in the moderate range, according to the McHenry County health department.

The region including both Lake and McHenry counties saw its test positivity rate decreased to 5.7% Saturday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The number of people in McHenry and Lake county hospitals, measured by a seven-day rolling average, dropped to 123 Monday, the IDPH reported.

Hospitalizations have decreased 30 straight days in the two-county region. It had been increasing every day since Dec. 26 before Jan. 14, reaching a pandemic high of 407 on Jan. 15.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties remained at 19% as of Monday. It has been below the 20% threshold previously used by the state as a trigger point for imposing stricter COVID-19 health mitigations since Dec. 28.

In McHenry County alone, 7.6% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean the McHenry County health department reported Tuesday. An average of 32.9% of intensive care unit beds were available.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19-like illness decreased nine of the past 10 days in the county as of Tuesday.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 increased Monday to 1,815, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized, 352 patients were in the ICU and 172 were on ventilators.

An additional 312 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to McHenry County residents on Monday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 500,962. The state reported that 100,036 booster shots were administered in McHenry County.

A total of 196,921 county residents, or an estimated 63.82% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 20,909,741 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 80.4% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 71.1% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Tuesday. Those rates are 84.3% and 74.9% for those age 12 and older, 85.7% and 76.1% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 87.2% for those age 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 2,893 total new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Another 53 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 3,004,664 cases, 32,072 confirmed deaths and 3,985 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 120,331 cases and 1,292 deaths through Monday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 123,394 cases and 1,075 deaths as of Tuesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest total number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 12,091 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 8,464.

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) 7,617 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 7,158; Huntley (60142) 5,939; Cary (60013) 5,621; Algonquin (60102) 5,270; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 4,545; Harvard (60033) 3,703; Marengo (60152) 2,690; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,626; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 2,598; Spring Grove (60081) 1,509; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,138; Island Lake (60042) 948; Richmond (60071) 705; Hebron (60034) 422; Barrington (60010) 296; Union (60180) 284; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 189.