One more COVID-19 death reported in McHenry County as spread remains ‘low’

For the third week in a row, McHenry County’s COVID-19 transmission levels stayed at the “low” level under thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The “low” level of community transmission means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days; fewer than 10 new hospital admissions, also per 100,000 residents; and less than 15% of its staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC.

Just one Illinois county was at a “high” level of transmission and 14 were at the “medium” level as of Thursday. All counties neighboring McHenry County were low.

As of Thursday, McHenry County had seen 97,626 total COVID-19 cases, including 573 deaths in which COVID-19 was either confirmed or a likely case, the McHenry County Department of Health reported. One additional death was added to the total this week.

The county saw 65.1 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of Sunday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. That was just slightly down from the week before, when the case rate was at 65.5.

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

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties shot up to 29% as of Thursday, up from 18% at the last update, according to the seven-day average reported by the IDPH.

Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 75 each day as of Tuesday, according to the seven-day rolling daily average reported by the IDPH.

Of the 834 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, 100 were in the ICU and 34 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

Illinois’ weekly case rate stood at 80.3 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Sunday. The state saw 62 deaths in the past week.

In neighboring Lake County, the health department reported a total of 175,107 cases and 1,520 deaths through Tuesday. To the south, Kane County had seen 162,593 cases and 1,206 deaths as of Feb. 3, according to its health department.