Another Pine Acres death, eight new COVID-19 cases in county residents on Wednesday

Another resident of Pine Acres Rehab and Living Center died from complications due to the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths in the county to 16.

The Pine Acres resident was a man in his 90s, health officials reported. No new cases of the virus were announced in connection to Pine Acres Wednesday, however, which to date reports an outbreak of 74 cases, 52 in residents and 22 in employees.

The DeKalb County Health Department also reported eight new cases of the novel coronavirus as the count in the county rose to 520 cases.

The City of DeKalb saw an increase and now reports between 286 and 290 cases according to county data.

There were two new cases each in residents under 20 and in their 20s, and one each in residents in their 40s. 50s, 60s and 70s.

There were no new cases at any of the three long-term care facilities in the county with reported cases. DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center has three cases, Bethany Rehabilitation and Health Care Center has two and Pine Acres Rehab and Living Center has 74 cases and 11 deaths.

There are between 56 and 60 cases in each Sycamore and Sandwich, 36 to 40 cases in Genoa, 31 to 35 cases in Cortland, 11 to 15 cases in Hinckley, and six to 10 cases in Kingston, and Somonauk. Kirkland, Esmond, Malta, Shabbona, Waterman and Maple Park each report one to five cases.

The Illinois Department of Public Health lists cases and tests performed by ZIP code, while the county health department lists cases by municipality. Numbers vary from state and health departments because of data lags.

The 60115 ZIP code (including DeKalb) had 280 cases reported and 3,209 tests administered. The 60178 ZIP Code (including Sycamore) has 59 cases and 1,304 tests. The 60112 ZIP code (including Cortland) has 28 cases and 311 tests. The 60135 ZIP code (including Genoa) has 35 cases and 471 tests, the 60145 ZIP code (including Kingston) has six cases and 112 tests, and the 60146 ZIP code (including Kirkland) has eight cases and 164 tests.

In total, IDPH reported 134,185 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while 6,485 people have died statewide. As of Wednesday, 1,258,328 tests have been performed. The site also lists statewide recovery rates, calculated by recovered cases divided by the sum of recovered cases and deceased cases. It remained at 93%.

In total in the county, 46 residents in their 20s have tested positive, 118 in their 20s, 95 in their 30s, 82 in their 40s, 71 in their 50s, 35 in their 60s, 36 in their 70s and 37 over 80.

The county updates recovery and testing data on Fridays. As of last week's release, 255 residents have recovered.

According to the county's weekly recovery and testing update, there have been 8,002 total tests administered in DeKalb County and out of that, 7,508 have come back negative, for a positivity rate of about 6% as of Friday.

As DeKalb County now looks to Phase 4 of Gov. JB Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, criteria will need to be met on contact tracing – how health care professionals track who a COVID-19 positive patient may have exposed and when – and testing capabilities. The county health department now looks to hire a contract tracer to aid the new requirements.

COVID-19 testing is being conducted at Northwestern Medicine health system hospitals and private lab facilities, including through Physicians Immediate Care and the Center for Family Health in Sycamore, which are prioritizing high-risk patients, first responders and health care workers and those experiencing severe symptoms.