McHenry County reaches ‘high’ rate of spread of COVID-19 for first time in more than a month

The level of COVID-19 has spread both across the state and in McHenry County has increased in the past month.

The county reached a “high” rate of spread Friday for the first time since early June after hovering between medium and low for the past month, county data shows.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the “high” level of community transmission means the county saw more 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 12.6 per 100,000 residents, also over seven days.

The threshold to be considered “high” 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, was still less than 10%, as measured by a seven-day average, according to the CDC.

As of Thursday, McHenry County had seen 85,323 total COVID-19 cases, including 489 confirmed deaths and 48 deaths where COVID-19 likely was the cause but was not confirmed. No additional deaths were reported in the past week.

The county saw 195.96 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of July 10, up slightly from 187.51 a week before, according to the incidence rate reported by the county health department.

More recent data, from the CDC’s update Thursday, shows the case rate to be at 235.24.

Across Illinois, 50 counties have “high” spread, Illinois Department of Public Health data shows, including neighboring Cook, Boone and Lake counties. That’s almost doubled from last week.

Neighboring DeKalb and Kane counties are at “medium” spread levels.

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

The rate of COVID-19 cases among children 5 to 11 years old increased to 4.4 new cases each day from four cases the week before, according to the seven-day rolling average. The rate of COVID-19 cases among 12- to 17-year-olds went up to 4.1 new cases each day, compared with 2.4 the week before.

The rate among newborns to 4-year-olds in McHenry County decreased to 4.6 new cases each day compared with 4.7 the week before.

Countywide COVID-19 hospital admissions was at three 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 stayed at 27% as of Thursday, fluctuating by a percentage point throughout the past week, according to the seven-day average the IDPH reported.

Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 138 daily as of Tuesday, up from 119 the week before, according to the seven-day rolling daily average the IDPH reported. Of the 1,424 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 152 were in the ICU and 42 were on ventilators as of Thursday.

An additional 1,652 vaccines were administered in McHenry County in the past week, bringing the total to 544,476 in the county, the IDPH reported. The state reported that 111,919 booster shots have been administered in the county.

A total of 203,095, or an estimated 65.82% 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, 81.1% 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 76.9% for those age 12 and older, 86.2% 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 37.1 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday, with 59 deaths reported in the past week. Illinois now has seen 3,496,014 COVID-19 cases, 34,257 confirmed deaths and 4,480 deaths where COVID-19 was the probable cause but not confirmed.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 147,022 cases and 1,413 deaths through Thursday. To the south, Kane County has seen 142,287 cases and 1,146 deaths as of Thursday, 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 14,006 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 9,738.

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) 8,775 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 8,344; Huntley (60142) 6,922; Cary (60013) 6,526; Algonquin (60102) 6,098; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 5,138; Harvard (60033) 4,011; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 3,088; Marengo (60152) 2,985; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,936; Spring Grove (60081) 1,730; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,308; Island Lake (60042) 1,090; Richmond (60071) 819; Hebron (60034) 466; Barrington (60010) 395; Union (60180) 323; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 219.