70-year-old woman at Pine Acres, 50-year-old DeKalb County man dead from COVID-19

Two more died from complications due to the novel coronavirus, according to DeKalb County health officials Friday, including a Pine Acres Rehab and Living Center resident who was a woman in her 70s, and a DeKalb County man in his 50s.

The death toll as of Friday reached 18, with the majority connected to Pine Acres, which now reports 12 deaths. New cases at the longterm care facility were also announced Friday, with one more in an employee and two more in residents, bringing the total to 23 in center staff and 54 in residents at the 119-bed facility.

DeKalb County Health Department also reported six more cases of COVID-19 in residents Friday, bringing the total number of cases in locally to 536, though over half have fully recovered.

New recovery and testing data Friday shows 75 more county residents have fully recovered from COVID-19, for a total of 330 residents countywide who have recovered from the viral respiratory disease. As of Friday, out of the total 9,198 test performed on DeKalb County residents, 8,662 tests came back negative.

No new cases or deaths were reported at the other two longterm care facilities with cases. As of Friday, DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center still reports three cases, and Bethany Rehabilitation and Health Care Center has two. It's unknown whether any recoveries are linked to longterm care facilities.

In total in the county, 46 residents under 19 have tested positive: 123 in their 20s, 100 in their 30s, 83 in their 40s, 72 in their 50s, 37 in their 60s, 37 in their 70s and 39 over 80.

There are between 296 and 300 cases reported in DeKalb, between 61 to 65 cases in Sycamore, 56 to 60 in 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 288 cases reported and 3,362 tests administered. The 60178 ZIP Code (including Sycamore) has 63 cases and 1,352 tests. The 60112 ZIP code (including Cortland) has 28 cases and 320 tests. The 60135 ZIP code (including Genoa) has 36 cases and 495 tests, the 60145 ZIP code (including Kingston) has seven cases and 116 tests, and the 60146 ZIP code (including Kirkland) has eight cases and 169 tests.

In total, IDPH reported 135,470 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while 6,580 people have died statewide. As of Friday, 1,311,033 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 rose by 1% Friday to 94%.

As DeKalb County now looks to Phase 4 of Gov. JB Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan in one week, June 26. Criteria needed to move forward includes on contact tracing – how health care professionals track whom a COVID-19 positive patient may have exposed and when – and testing capabilities. The county health department now looks to hire a contact 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.