DeKalb County reports 11 new cases as it enters warning

The DeKalb County Health Department on Friday announced 11 new cases of the novel coronavirus as the county’s positivity rate shot up to 8.4%, placing it into a warning from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The department cited large gatherings and parties at NIU as the main cause for the rise in the county of the disease. A county can enter the orange warning designation by reaching two of eight indicators. For DeKalb, the county is at 122 new positive cases per 100,000 people - up from 57 the week before. The target is at 50 per 100,000.

Also, the positivity rate shot up from 4.9% to 8.4%, over the target of 8%. There are a total of 1,350 cases now reported.

No new cases were reported at long-term care facilities and the overall death count remained at 36. DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in DeKalb remained at five cases and Willow Crest Nursing Pavilion in Sandwich remained at 59. Oak Crest DeKalb Area Retirement Center remained at two reported cases.

According to the new testing and recovery data released by the county on Fridays, 28,286 tests have been run. There were 37 recoveries this week, bringing the total to 960.

Of the new countywide cases, three were in residents younger than 20, four were in their 20s, one was in their 30s, two were in their 50s and one was in their 60s.

In total, there have been reported 197 cases among residents younger than 20, 415 in their 20s, 194 in their 30s, 160 in their 40s, 155 in their 50s, 89 in their 60s, 66 in their 70s and 74 in their 80s or older.

According to county data, the city of DeKalb reports between 696 to 700 cases. There are 176 to 180 cases in Sycamore; 146 to 150 in Sandwich; 106 to 110 cases in Genoa; 66 to 70 cases in Cortland; 26 to 30 in Kingston and Hinckley; 21 to 25 cases in Kirkland and Malta; 16 to 20 in Somonauk; 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 661 cases reported and 10,776 tests administered (a positivity rate of 6.1%); the 60178 ZIP code, including Sycamore, had 183 cases and 4,599 tests (3.97%); the 60548 ZIP code, including Sandwich, had 3,540 tests and 214 cases (6.0%); the 60112 ZIP code, including Cortland, had 64 cases and 1,012 tests (6.3%); the 60135 ZIP code, including Genoa, had 104 cases and 1,595 tests (6.5%); the 60145 ZIP code, including Kingston, had 25 cases and 409 tests (6.1%); the 60146 ZIP code, including Kirkland, had 30 cases and 556 tests (5.4%); the 60520 ZIP code, including Hinckley, had 26 cases and 602 tests (4.3%); the 60550 ZIP code, including Shabbona, had seven cases and 539 tests (1.3%); the 60151 ZIP code, including parts of Maple Park in both DeKalb and Kane counties, had 31 cases and 786 tests (3.9%); and the 60556 ZIP code, including Waterman, had nine cases and 324 tests (2.8%).

In total, IDPH reported 255,643 people in Illinois have tested positive for COVID-19, while 8,242 people have died statewide. The number of tests performed rose to 4,575,721. 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 96%.