64 new COVID-19 cases in McHenry County, but no new deaths

While intensive care unit capacity across McHenry and Lake counties remained at a pandemic era-low Thursday, McHenry County’s positivity rate has been on a downward trajectory since peaking at almost 9% about a week ago, Illinois Department of Public Health data shows.

The rise in hospitalizations was pointed to by Gov. JB Pritzker Thursday in his decision to mandate masks indoors statewide and vaccinations for all educators, college students and health care workers in certain settings.

Just 15% of ICU capacity across McHenry and Lake counties remained as of Wednesday, the third day at that level, the IDPH reported. Before Aug. 18, the two-county region had never dropped below the 20% threshold set by the state as a bar to stay above to avoid further restrictions in the area.

ICU capacity, as measured by seven-day rolling average, had been falling since late July in the Lake and McHenry county region, IDPH data shows. As of late Wednesday night, 30 ICU beds out of 172 available remained open, an increase over the day before.

In just McHenry County, 31.3% of ICU beds remained available and 5.4% of medical and surgical beds, according to the McHenry County Department of Health on Thursday. Hospitalizations have increased two out of the past 10 days compared to eight out of the past 10 across the two-county region, county and state data shows.

The spread of COVID-19 in McHenry County remained “high” Thursday as the number of new cases locally rose to 157.29 per 100,000 residents as Saturday, the most recent day data is available for, according to the McHenry County health department’s school metrics dashboard.

The county’s incidence rate – the number of new cases per 100,000 residents, measured as a seven-day rolling average – continues to remain well above the threshold for designating transmission as “high” set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For spread to meet the less severe category “substantial,” the incidence rate would need to fall below 100 new cases per 100,000 residents and, under the county’s methodology, stay there seven consecutive days.

The other metric both public health agencies use to categorize COVID-19 transmission is the positivity rate, measured by a seven-day rolling average with a three-day lag. It decreased to 7.4% Monday, moving back into the “moderate” transmission range of 5% to 7.9%.

When the two metrics do not fall within the same category, the higher one is chosen, according to the McHenry County health department.

Meanwhile, another 624 COVID-19 vaccines were administered to McHenry County residents Wednesday, bringing the total doses administered to 334,550, IDPH reported.

A total of 165,372 county residents, or an estimated 53.59% of its population, are now fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all the doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 13,888,906 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 76% of those age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose and 59% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Thursday. Those rates are 77.7% and 60.8% for those 18 and older and 93.2% and 76.6% for those 65 and older.

Statewide, the IDPH reported 4,041 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. Another 60 deaths were also logged, the most in a single day since Feb. 19. The state has now seen a total of 1,503,063 cases, 23,875 confirmed deaths and 2,526 probable deaths.

The number of hospitalizations statewide decreased on Wednesday, but they have trended significantly upward since July 4, when just 380 patients were in hospitals because of COVID-19.

Statewide, 2,184 people with COVID-19 were in the hospital Wednesday, down by 13 from Tuesday’s count, state health department data shows. However, new admissions are again on the rise after falling for two days.

Out of those hospitalized, 489 were in ICU’s and 241 were on ventilators.

[ Illinois announces 60 new COVID-19 deaths, most in a day since February ]

Overall, the McHenry County health department reported Thursday a total of 31,208 cases of COVID-19, including 301 deaths and 30 deaths that were likely caused by COVID-19 but could not be confirmed. The total cases increased by 64 from Wednesday’s update.

The county’s recovery rate remains at 99%.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported 65,684 cases and 1,039 deaths through Wednesday, and to the south, Kane County’s health department reported 62,549 cases and 823 deaths on Wednesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 4,784 confirmed cases, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 3,622 cases.

The McHenry County health department reports ZIP code data only for parts within McHenry County, a department spokeswoman said. Any discrepancies between county and IDPH numbers likely are because of the data’s provisional nature and because each health department finalizes its data at different times, she said.

The following is the rest of the local breakdown of cases by ZIP code: McHenry (60050) 3,263; Lake in the Hills (60156) 2,923; Huntley (60142) 2,320; Algonquin (60102) 2,302; Cary (60013) 2,209; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 2,078; Harvard (60033) 1,649; Marengo (60152) 1,275; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,085; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,005; Spring Grove (60081) 786; Island Lake (60042) 443; Fox River Grove (60021) 404; Richmond (60071) 349; Hebron (60034) 193; Barrington (60010) 168; Union (60180) 141; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 69.