After week of no reported deaths, two more DeKalb County residents die from COVID-19 Friday

After seven days with no reported COVID-19 related deaths, two more DeKalb County residents died from the novel coronavirus Friday, according to the DeKalb County Health Department, bringing the local death toll to 35.

The deaths of the two men, one in his 70s and one in his 80s, were the first reported deaths in the county since Aug. 19. Neither death was associated with Willow Crest Nursing Pavillion in Sandwich, which remains the only long-term care facility still in outbreak mode, according to the health department, with 57 cases linked to the facility and 12 deaths in residents.

According to the weekly testing and recovery data released by the county, 28 more residents recovered from the virus this week, leaving 279 cases in the recovery period.

To date, there have been 24,392 tests administered locally. That would be a 4.7% positivity rate according to the county data (total cases divided by positive and negative tests), but a new metric on the county site lists the positivity rate (based on IDPH metrics website) at 5.3%.

The seven new COVID-19 cases on Friday brought the total to 1,136, and include two new cases in residents under 20, three in their 20s, one in their 30s and one over 80.

In total there have been 147 cases reported in residents younger than 20, 302 in their 20s, 181 in their 30s, 148 in their 40s, 142 in their 50s, 85 in their 60s, 61 in their 70s and 70 older than 80.

According to county data, the city of DeKalb reports between 531 to 535 cases. There are 166 to 170 cases in Sycamore; 136 to 140 in Sandwich; 96 to 100 cases in Genoa; 61 to 65 cases in Cortland; 21 to 25 cases in Hinckley, Kirkland and Kingston, 16 to 20 in Somonauk and Malta; 11 to 15 in Waterman; and six to 10 in Shabbona. Esmond, Earlville 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 between state and health departments because of data lags.

The 60115 ZIP code, including DeKalb, had 505 cases reported and 8,840 tests administered (a positivity rate of 5.7%); the 60178 ZIP code, including Sycamore, had 173 cases and 3,901 tests (4.4%); the 60548 ZIP code, including Sandwich, had 3,233 tests and 204 cases (6.3%); the 60112 ZIP code, including Cortland, had 58 cases and 846 tests (6.9%); the 60135 ZIP code, including Genoa, had 91 cases and 1,352 tests (6.7%); the 60145 ZIP code, including Kingston, had 21 cases and 338 tests (6.2%) and the 60146 ZIP code, including Kirkland, had 26 cases and 459 tests (5.7%).

In total, IDPH reported 229,483 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while 7,997 people have died statewide. As of Friday, 3,924,305 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. The statewide recovery remained at 95%.