McHenry County at ‘medium’ COVID-19 community spread level for second week; no deaths yet reported in July

The level of COVID-19 spread in McHenry County stayed at “medium” for the second week in a row after dipping back to “low” for two weeks in June under thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, county data shows.

The “medium” level of community transmission means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, while the number of people being admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 was 10.7 per 100,000 residents, also over seven days. The threshold to be considered “medium” spread is between 10 and 19.9 people being admitted to the hospital over a seven-day period, according to the CDC.

The third metric, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, still was less than 10%, coming in at 3.9%, as measured by a seven-day average, according to the CDC.

As of Thursday, McHenry County had seen 84,584 total COVID-19 cases, including 489 confirmed deaths and 48 deaths where COVID-19 likely was the cause but was not confirmed. The past week saw one additional death reported, on June 25.

The county saw 188.86 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of July 3, up slightly from 182.64 a week before, according to the incidence rate reported by the county health department.

It went below 200 – one of the thresholds the CDC uses to determine low spread – on June 9 for the first time since April 28, county data shows. The level of COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County had reached “high” under the thresholds set by the CDC on May 26.

Across Illinois, 27 counties have “high” spread, Illinois Department of Public Health data shows, including neighboring Lake County. That’s down one from last week. Neighboring Cook and Kane counties are at “medium” and “low” spread levels, respectively.

The rate of youth cases from newborns to 17-year-olds rose in two of three age groups in McHenry County over the last week, IDPH data shows.

The rate of COVID-19 cases among children 5 to 11 years old increased to four new cases each day from three cases the week before, according to the seven-day rolling averages. The rate among newborns to 4-year-olds in McHenry County also rose to 4.7 new cases each day compared with 3.4 the week before.

The rate of COVID-19 cases among 12- to 17-year-olds went down to 2.4 new cases each day, compared with four the week before.

Countywide COVID-19 hospital admissions was at two new patients a day as of Tuesday and has moved between two and three patients since June 15, according to the seven-day rolling averages the IDPH reported.

Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties increased, rising to 27% as of Thursday, up from 23% a week earlier, according to the seven-day average the IDPH reported.

Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 119 daily as of Tuesday, according to the seven-day rolling daily average the IDPH reported. Of the 1,160 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 149 were in the ICU and 47 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

An additional 994 vaccines were administered in McHenry County in the past week, bringing the total to 542,824 in the county, the IDPH reported. The state reported that 111,506 booster shots have been administered in the county.

A total of 202,948, or an estimated 65.77% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Across Illinois, 81% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 73.4% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Friday. Those rates are 84.8% and 76.8% for those age 12 and older, 86.1% and 78% for people age 18 and older, and 95% and 89.3% for those 65 and older, respectively.

Illinois’ daily case rate stood at 30.9 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday, with 48 deaths reported in the past week. Illinois now has seen 3,462,948 COVID-19 cases, 34,198 confirmed deaths and 4,462 deaths where COVID-19 was the probable cause but not confirmed.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 145,535 cases and 1,407 deaths through Thursday. To the south, Kane County has seen 141,224 cases and 1,144 deaths as of Wednesday, according to its health department.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest total number of COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic with a total of 13,878 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 9,654.

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) 8,690 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 8,263; Huntley (60142) 6,865; Cary (60013) 6,454; Algonquin (60102) 6,053; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 5,105; Harvard (60033) 3,993; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 3,056; Marengo (60152) 2,957; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,912; Spring Grove (60081) 1,701; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,299; Island Lake (60042) 1,088; Richmond (60071) 810; Hebron (60034) 466; Barrington (60010) 390; Union (60180) 322; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 218.