IDPH: Five new outbreaks reported at McHenry County schools

Five new COVID-19 outbreaks were reported at McHenry County schools this week, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported, including two at Prairie Grove Elementary School and a fourth active outbreak at a Crystal Lake elementary school.

The outbreak reported Monday at Woods Creek Elementary School, part of Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47, marks the school’s sixth this year and the fourth still active outbreak, according to the IDPH’s weekly update and Northwest Herald archives.

This outbreak ties Woods Creek Elementary for the most outbreaks at a local school this year. The other school to log six is Leggee Elementary School in Huntley.

The most recent outbreak at Woods Creek involved fewer than five cases among students, and the source was tied to the classroom, according to IDPH.

District 47 continues to follow IDPH and McHenry County Department of Health protocols in monitoring the outbreak, testing students and staff in its SHIELD test-to-stay program, and excluding students who do not want to be tested, per health department guidelines, district spokeswoman Denise Barr said in an email.

If there are additional positive cases related to the outbreak, the district will notify the health department, she said.

The other active outbreaks at the Crystal Lake school include one with five cases among staff and students, another with fewer than five cases among staff and students, and a third with fewer than five cases among just students, the IDPH reported.

Two were reported Wednesday at Prairie Grove Elementary School, one with six cases among students and one with nine among staff and students, according to the IDPH. Both had the source tied to the classroom. This brings the total number of outbreaks reported at the school to four this school year.

Prairie Grove School District 46 is following the guidelines and mitigations recommended by the health department, including making sure the rooms are as “clean as they possibly can be and sterilized,” especially after a reported outbreak, Superintendent John Bute said.

Another outbreak also was reported Monday at Heineman Middle School in Algonquin, part of Huntley School District 158, involving nine cases among students in which the source was tied to the classroom. This would be the school’s second outbreak this school year.

This outbreak was identified within one grade level, district spokeswoman Alex LeMoine said in an email. No hospitalizations have occurred as a result of the outbreak.

“We are continuing to engage all of our mitigation efforts, including masking, physical distancing to the greatest extent possible, and COVID-19 testing opportunities to keep students and staff safe,” LeMoine said. “We have worked with the local health department to perform timely contact tracing, and all impacted students have been quarantined as necessary.”

An outbreak also was reported Thursday at Riverwood Elementary School in McHenry, the school’s first this academic year, with fewer than five cases among students and the source tied to the classroom.

An outbreak initially reported Dec. 21 at Lake in the Hills Elementary School, part of Community School District 300, had the cases tied to it increased to 11, up from five as of last week’s report. The cases were among students, and the source was tied to a bus.

The other outbreaks that remained active as of Friday, according to the IDPH, included one at Crystal Lake Central High School with seven cases among staff and students, one at Conley Elementary School in Algonquin with 15 cases among students, one at Edgebrook Elementary School in McHenry with five cases among staff and students, and one at Valley View Elementary School in McHenry with six cases among staff and students.

Attempts to reach officials with McHenry School District 15 and District 300 on Friday were unsuccessful.

COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remained high Friday, according to McHenry County health department data.

The McHenry County health department also reported 1,203 more cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total to 72,853, including 420 deaths and 41 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. No additional deaths were reported Friday.

McHenry County’s incidence rate fell slightly Sunday, marking the 15th day in a row of decreases, hitting 142.66 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents, the last day for which data was reported, according to the McHenry County health department.

That is far below the peak on Jan. 13 of 2,224.47 new cases over seven days, which was the highest the county had seen over the previous 250 days, the time period published by the county. It remains above the threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to indicate a high level of transmission within a community.

For transmission risk to meet the less severe category “substantial,” the county would need to see the incidence rate fall below 100 new cases over seven days per 100,000 residents and its positivity rate drop below 10%, according to the McHenry County health department. Both metrics then would need to stay below those levels for a week.

The test positivity rate for the county, as measured by a seven-day rolling average, decreased to 11.9% Tuesday, according to the IDPH. The region including both Lake and McHenry counties saw its test positivity rate decline to 9.3% Tuesday.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in McHenry and Lake counties continued to fall, reaching 233 Thursday, IDPH data shows.

Hospitalizations, measured by a seven-day rolling average, have decreased 19 straight days in the two-county region, state data shows. It had been increasing every day since Dec. 26 before Jan. 14, reaching a pandemic high of 407 on Jan. 15.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties was 17% as of Thursday. It has been below the 20% threshold previously used by the state as a trigger point for imposing stricter COVID-19 health mitigations since Dec. 28.

In McHenry County alone, 6.7% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling mean the McHenry County health department reported Friday. An average of 15.2% of intensive care unit beds were available.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19-like illness decreased each of the past 10 days in the county as of Friday.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 decreased Thursday to 3,135, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized, 546 patients were in the ICU and 314 were on ventilators.

An additional 1,133 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to McHenry County residents Wednesday and Thursday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 495,846. The state reported that 97,268 booster shots were administered in McHenry County.

A total of 195,160 county residents, or an estimated 63.25% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 20,623,484 vaccines have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 80.4% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 70.7% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 84.5% and 74.7% for those age 12 and older, 85.9% and 76.1% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 87.5% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 18,464 total new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and Friday. Another 173 deaths also were logged over the two days, bringing the totals to 2,957,563 cases, 31,296 confirmed deaths and 3,861 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 116,822 cases and 1,245 deaths through Tuesday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 121,322 cases and 1,050 deaths as of Friday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 11,885 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 8,261.

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: Woodstock (60098) 7,464 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 6,990; Huntley (60142) 5,838; Cary (60013) 5,524; Algonquin (60102) 5,177; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 4,463; Harvard (60033) 3,657; Marengo (60152) 2,641; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,568; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 2,549; Spring Grove (60081) 1,484; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,126; Island Lake (60042) 936; Richmond (60071) 689; Hebron (60034) 407; Barrington (60010) 294; Union (60180) 277; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 184.