McHenry County sees ICU availability drop, case rate for COVID-19 increase in past week

The transmission of COVID-19 remained at the “medium” level in McHenry County for the fourth consecutive week, according to the thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The “medium” level of community transmission means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days but more than 10 new hospital admissions, also per 100,000 residents. The county has less than 10% of its staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC.

The county saw 187.48 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of Saturday, up from 172.89 the week before, according to the case rate reported by the CDC. McHenry County did not update its COVID-19 dashboard this week.

Countywide COVID-19 hospital admissions totaled seven new patients a day as of Tuesday, up from five a week earlier, according to the seven-day rolling averages reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties was 15% as of Thursday, down from 19% the week before, according to the seven-day average reported by the IDPH.

Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 168 each day as of Tuesday, which is on par with 169 the week before, according to the seven-day rolling daily average reported by the IDPH.

Of the 1,814 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, 184 were in the ICU and 117 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

Illinois’ daily case rate stood at 26.7 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday. The state saw 82 deaths in the past week.

In neighboring Lake County, the health department reported a total of 170,594 cases and 1,490 deaths through Wednesday. To the south, Kane County had seen 161,111 cases and 1,191 deaths as of Thursday, according to its health department.