Willow Crest resident in her 90s dies from COVID-19 as cases climb past 600 over holiday weekend

The DeKalb County Health Department reported a 90-year-old resident of Willow Crest Nursing Pavilion in Sandwich has died from complications due to the novel coronavirus Monday, along with 18 more positive cases, bringing the total case count locally above 600.

The numbers came Monday after a three-day lack of updates from health department officials who said they won't release new numbers over weekends or holidays. The woman's gender was reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health Monday.

She is the first death linked to Willow Crest Nursing Pavilion, which reports 10 cases linked to the nursing facility.

New COVID-19 cases included four in residents 19 or younger, five in their 20s, two in their 30s, one in their 40s, five in their 50s and one in their 70s, and the total number of cases rose to 611.

Half of all of DeKalb County’s cases are in residents in their 30s or younger, with the largest age group of cases in people in their 20s.

In total, there are 60 cases in residents 19 or younger, 144 in their 20s, 108 in their 30s, 92 in their 40s, 83 in their 50s, 40 each in their 60s and 70s, and 44 older than 80.

The death toll now sits at 20 in DeKalb County, including one in their 40s, three in their 50s, two each in their 60s and 70s and 12 in their 80s. More than half of the deaths accounted for are connected to Pine Acres Rehab and Living Center, which reports 12 deaths.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reports 80 cases are linked to Pine Acres, while the DeKalb County Health Department’s numbers remain as they have been at the longterm care facility: with 78 cases (55 in residents and 23 in staff). No new cases were reported locally in any of the other three longterm care facilities either, Monday. There are three cases, all among staff, at DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center; two staff at Bethany Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

It's unknown whether any cases in longterm care facilities across DeKalb County have fully recovered, since health officials do not release recovery data specific to case, only a gross number for the county.

As of last Thursday (the most recent available data) 415 out of the county's 611 cases have fully recovered. The positivity rate was 5.8% two weeks ago and 5.2% last week. Also as of Thursday, 12,221 tests were run in the county, including 11,628 negative tests.

Updated recovery and testing data is expected Friday.

According to county data, the City of DeKalb reports between 311 and 315 cases and there are between 71 to 75 cases in Sycamore, 66 to 70 in Sandwich, 51 to 55 cases in Genoa (up from Thursday), 31 to 35 cases in Cortland, 11 to 15 cases in Hinckley, and six to 10 cases in Kirkland, Kingston and Somonauk. 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 310 cases reported and 4,499 tests administered. The 60178 ZIP code (including Sycamore) had 74 cases and 1,788 tests. The 60112 ZIP code (including Cortland) had 29 cases and 403 tests. The 60135 ZIP code (including Genoa) had 52 cases and 650 tests, the 60145 ZIP code (including Kingston) had eight cases and 155 tests and the 60146 ZIP code (including Kirkland) had 10 cases and 227 tests.

In total, IDPH reported 147,865 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while 7,026 people have died statewide. As of Monday,1,782,840 tests have been performed. The site also lists statewide recovery rates, calculated by recovered cases divided by the sum of recovered cases and dead cases. It remains at 94%.

This article has been corrected to include the 90-year-old woman’s death as connected to Willow Crest facility in Sandwich, as she was a resident there. The Daily Chronicle regrets the error.