McHenry County COVID-19 cases remain high, 2 additional deaths reported

The community transmission level of COVID-19 remains “high” in Illinois and in McHenry County, where it has been since July 15.

The percentage of overall cases each week, however, saw a 2% drop.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the “high” level of community transmission means the county saw more than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.

The threshold to be considered “high” is between 10 and 19.9 people being admitted to the hospital over a seven-day period, according to the CDC.

The third metric, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, still was less than 10%, as measured by a seven-day average, according to the CDC.

As of Thursday, McHenry County had seen 87,268 total COVID-19 cases, including 489 confirmed deaths and 48 deaths where COVID-19 likely was the cause but was not confirmed. Two additional deaths were reported in the past week.

The county saw 230.08 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of July 29, down slightly from 236.26 a week before, according to the incidence rate reported by the county health department.

All neighboring counties were at the “high” community level. A total of 60 counties are reporting high spread levels. Nine Illinois counties remain at the “low” level.

The rate of youth cases from newborns to 17-year-olds fell in two of three age groups in McHenry County over the past week, Illinois Department of Public Health data shows.

The rate of COVID-19 cases among children 5 to 11 years old decreased to 2.2 new cases each day from 5.9 cases the week before, according to the seven-day rolling average.

The rate of COVID-19 cases among 12- to 17-year-olds decreased to 3.4 new cases each day, compared with 4.7 the week before.

Only the rate among newborns to 4-year-olds in McHenry County increased, with four new case a day, up from 3.7 new cases the previous week.

Countywide COVID-19 hospital admissions was at three new patients a day as of Tuesday, according to the seven-day rolling averages reported by the IDPH.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties was at 24% as of Thursday, up from 22% the previous week, according to the seven-day average the IDPH reported.

Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 136 daily as of Tuesday, down slightly from 142 the week before, according to the seven-day rolling daily average reported by the IDPH. Of the 1,273 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 140 were in the ICU and 51 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

An additional 1,406 vaccines were administered in McHenry County in the past week, bringing the total to 550,141 in the county, the IDPH reported. The state reported that 113,045 booster shots have been administered in the county.

A total of 203,552, or an estimated 65.97% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, 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 73.6% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 85% and 77% for those age 12 and older, 86.3% and 78.2% for people age 18 and older, and 95% and 89.5% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Illinois’ daily case rate stood at 34.5 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday, with 59 deaths reported in the past week, up 11 from the week before. Illinois now has seen 3,594,415 COVID-19 cases, 34,416 confirmed deaths and 4,550 deaths where COVID-19 was the probable cause but was not confirmed.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 151,966 cases and 1,417 deaths through Thursday. To the south, Kane County has seen 146,620 cases and 1,148 deaths as of Thursday, according to its health department.

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 14,379 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 9,951.

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) 8,996 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 8,557; Huntley (60142) 7,044; Cary (60013) 6,654; Algonquin (60102) 6,227; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 5,266; Harvard (60033) 4,072; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 3,160; Marengo (60152) 3,041; Wonder Lake (60097) 3,004; Spring Grove (60081) 1,773; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,329; Island Lake (60042) 1,123; Richmond (60071) 851; Hebron (60034) 471; Barrington (60010) 408; Union (60180) 331; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 223.