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The McHenry County Department of Heath reported this week a total of 566 people in the county have died from COVID-19, up from the 537 deaths the agency has reported online since June.
McHenry County saw six deaths in July, three in August, four in September, five in October, seven in November and four this month, county data shows.
A spokeswoman from the department was not immediately available to clarify why the additional 29 deaths were not reported on its website until this week but told the Northwest Herald previously that lagging reporting may have led to the discrepancy.
“All data is preliminary,” department spokeswoman Lindsey Salvatelli said in a Dec. 16 discussion about state numbers not matching the county health website totals. Salvatelli also said that as some residents are transferred to hospitals outside the county, the state may be slow to note which county the resident was from.
The transmission of COVID-19 remained at the “medium” level in McHenry County for the fifth consecutive week, according to the thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The “medium” level of community transmission means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days but more than 10 new hospital admissions, also per 100,000 residents. The county has less than 10% of its staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC.
The county saw 123.14 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, down from 187.48, according to the case rate reported by the CDC. McHenry County has not updated the incidence rate on its COVID-19 dashboard for the second week in a row.
Countywide COVID-19 hospital admissions totaled eight new patients a day as of Tuesday, up from seven a week earlier, according to the seven-day rolling averages reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Hospital intensive care unit availability across McHenry and Lake counties was 22% as of Thursday, up from 15% the week before, according to the seven-day average reported by the IDPH.
Across Illinois, the number of new hospital admissions tied to COVID-19 was 157 each day as of Tuesday, down from 168 the week before, according to the seven-day rolling daily average reported by the IDPH.
Of the 1,767 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, 225 were in the ICU and 80 were on ventilators as of Thursday.
Illinois’ daily case rate stood at 17.8 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday. The state saw 47 deaths in the past week.
In neighboring Lake County, the health department reported a total of 171,507 cases and 1,492 deaths through Thursday. To the south, Kane County had seen 161,783 cases and 1,194 deaths as of Thursday, according to its health department.