ICU bed capacity back above threshold in McHenry, Lake counties

After about two weeks with ICU capacity at the lowest levels of the pandemic, capacity has once again reached an acceptable threshold in the McHenry and Lake counties region.

About 20% of intensive care unit beds remained available in McHenry and Lake counties as of Monday. ICU availability has been improving since hitting a record low for the COVID-19 pandemic of 12% in mid-December.

ICU bed availability had been under the 20% threshold for 24 straight days. This threshold previously was used by the state as a trigger point for implementing stricter health mitigations.

Overall, the seven-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations decreased or remained stable eight of the past 10 days in the two-county region, hitting 223 Monday, down from a peak for the month so far of 240 seen on Dec. 17, state data shows.

In McHenry County, 6.6% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean reported Tuesday by the McHenry County health department. An average of 20.2% of ICU beds were available.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19-like illness have decreased or remained stable for nine of the past 10 days in the county.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 jumped Monday to 5,200, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized Monday, 1,093 patients were in the ICU and 592 were on ventilators.

The McHenry County Department of Health reported an additional 632 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

That brings the total to 46,193 cases in McHenry County, including 353 deaths and 35 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. No new deaths were reported Tuesday.

McHenry County’s incidence rate rose to 604.78 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents as of Dec. 23, the last day for which data was reported. It’s the highest rate in the last 250 days of available data.

The incidence rate had been trending generally upward since mid-October before hitting a peak of 539.14 on Dec. 4. It then fell to 470.89 about a week later and has been climbing upward again since then.

For transmission risk to meet the less severe category “substantial,” the incidence rate would need to fall below 100 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents and remain there for a week, according to the McHenry County health department.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and McHenry County health department use the incidence and positivity rates to categorize the level of COVID-19 transmission in the community. When the two metrics do not fall within the same transmission risk category, the higher one is chosen, according to the McHenry County health department.

McHenry County’s COVID-19 seven-day test positivity rate climbed to 12.5% Saturday, the last date for which data is available, according to the IDPH. The last time McHenry County’s positivity rate was that high was Jan. 12.

The positivity rate for the region including both McHenry and Lake counties rose to 10.3% on Saturday, according to the IDPH. The last time the region’s position rate rose to this level was Jan. 9.

An additional 1,240 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to McHenry County residents Monday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 456,615. The state reported that 72,763 booster shots were administered in McHenry County, an increase of 772 from Monday’s report.

A total of 188,639 county residents, or an estimated 61.13% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 19,034,693 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 76.7% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 68.2% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Tuesday. Those rates are 81.4% and 73.1% for those age 12 and older, 83% and 74.5% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 86.9% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 20,804 total new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. Another 96 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 2,098,064 cases, 27,684 confirmed deaths and 3,167 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 84,551 cases and 1,139 deaths as of Thursday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 80,556 cases and 938 deaths as of Dec. 22.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 7,140 confirmed, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 5,168 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) 5,167; Lake in the Hills (60156) 4,136; Huntley (60142) 3,462; Algonquin (60102) 3,244; Cary (60013) 3,196; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 3,139; Harvard (60033) 2,367; Marengo (60152) 1,908; Wonder Lake (60097) 1,682; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 1,561; Spring Grove (60081) 1,103; Island Lake (60042) 638; Fox River Grove (60021) 652; Richmond (60071) 531; Hebron (60034) 285; Barrington (60010) 236; Union (60180) 212; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 138.