July 01, 2025
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McHenry County sees vaccination rate spike since start of April

By James T. Norman
A vial of the Piizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, at the Algonquin Township office, 3702 Route 14 in Crystal Lake. The clinic was put on by the township to help people get they vaccine, after the Omicron variant made getting shots at other locations harder.

A vial of the Piizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, at the Algonquin Township office, 3702 Route 14 in Crystal Lake. The clinic was put on by the township to help people get they vaccine, after the Omicron variant made getting shots at other locations harder (Gregory Shaver/Gregory Shaver for Shaw Media )

The rate of COVID-19 vaccinations in McHenry County is on the rise since the start of April, with total vaccines eclipsing March’s total in less than two weeks, Illinois Department of Public Health data shows.

Since the start of April, the seven-day rolling average was up from 190 on March 31 to 498 as of Thursday.

An additional 3,531 vaccines were administered in McHenry County in the past week, bringing the total to 518,042 in the county, the IDPH reported. The state reported that 105,551 booster shots have been administered in the county.

A total of 200,892, or an estimated 65.1% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Across Illinois, 81.3% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 72.8% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 85.2% and 76.3% for those age 12 and older, 86.5% and 77.4% for people age 18 and older, and 95% and 88.2% for those age 65 and older, respectively.

The McHenry County Department of Health did not update its dashboard Friday in observance of the holiday. As of Thursday, 76,375 total COVID-19 cases, including 478 confirmed deaths and 45 deaths where COVID-19 was likely the cause but not confirmed, were reported.

One additional death was reported in the past week, county data shows.

The level of transmission in McHenry County remained low under the framework currently used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the McHenry County health department said.

That means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days; the number of people being admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 was fewer than 10 per 100,000 residents, also over seven days; and the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients was less than 10%, as measured by a seven-day average, according to the CDC.

The county’s COVID-19 incidence rate was 67.6 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of Saturday, up from a week before, county data shows.

COVID-19 cases for youth in McHenry County also remained low, but some age groups saw an uptick in the past week.

Those ages 5 to 11 are seeing an average of 5.6 new cases each day, according to Friday’s seven-day rolling average reported by the IDPH. The age group 12 to 17 saw an increase from last week as well, up to two new cases on average. Since April 9, no new cases have been reported in newborns to 4-year-olds.

Illinois this week changed the way it reports its data for COVID-19, focusing now the case rate per 100,000 people, the percentage of ICU beds available, a rolling seven-day average of COVID-19-diagnosed hospital admissions and weekly deaths. The state also has stopped reporting individual school outbreaks.

The seven-day rolling average for new hospital admissions in McHenry County hovered around two COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday, the IDPH reported. Since the end of March, the average has shifted between two and one admissions a day.

Hospital ICU availability continued to drop this past week across McHenry and Lake counties, reaching 21% as of Thursday, which is the 10th straight day that number declined or remained stable, state data showed. The mark is the lowest it’s been since February.

Across Illinois, the seven-day rolling average for the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 39 as of Tuesday, the IDPH reported. Of the 464 hospitalized for COVID-19, 70 were in the ICU and 32 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

Illinois’ seven-day rolling average for case rate stood at 15.8 cases per 100,000 people as of Friday, while there were 45 deaths in the past week. This brings the totals to 3,094,485 cases, 33,510 confirmed deaths and 4,305 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 125,019 cases and 1,367 deaths through Thursday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 126,515 cases and 1,124 deaths as of Wednesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest total number of COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic with a total of 12,450 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 8,733.

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) 7,833 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 7,353; Huntley (60142) 6,133; Cary (60013) 5,805; Algonquin (60102) 5,378; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 4,649; Harvard (60033) 3,768; Marengo (60152) 2,753; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 2,727; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,687; Spring Grove (60081) 1,539; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,184; Island Lake (60042) 980; Richmond (60071) 722; Hebron (60034) 432; Barrington (60010) 349; Union (60180) 298; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 194.

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