McHenry County reports 85 new COVID-19 cases, 5 additional deaths

Five more COVID-19 were reported by the McHenry County Department of Health on Wednesday even as hospitalizations continue to drop across McHenry and Lake counties.

Total hospitalizations in the two-county region have dropped for 30 straight days, reaching 115 on Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. They 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 remained at 19% as of Tuesday. 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, 7.7% of medical and surgical hospital beds remain available on average, according to the seven-day rolling average the McHenry County health department reported Wednesday. An average of 34.8% of intensive care unit beds were available.

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

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 remained at 1,683 Tuesday, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized, 313 patients were in the ICU and 153 were on ventilators.

The McHenry County Department of Health reported 85 additional COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the total to 74,329 cases, including 438 deaths and 42 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. Five additional deaths were reported.

Two of the deaths were from December, bringing the total that month to 38, county data shows. Another two were from January, which saw 48 reported deaths, and the last was in February, which is now up to four.

The level of COVID-19 transmission in McHenry County remained high as of Wednesday because of the county’s incidence rate.

The incidence rate was 285.65 new COVID-19 cases over the last seven days per 100,000 residents as of Friday, the last day for which data is available, according to the McHenry County health department’s school metrics dashboard.

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, according to the McHenry County health department. It would then need to stay below that for a week.

The county’s positivity rate also would need to stay below 10%, which it had been for four days in a row.

The test positivity rate for the county, as measured by a seven-day rolling average, decreased to 6.8% Sunday, which is in the moderate range, according to the McHenry County health department.

The region including both Lake and McHenry counties saw its test positivity rate decreased to 5.5% Sunday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

An additional 302 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to McHenry County residents on Tuesday, according to the IDPH, bringing the total number administered locally to 501,264. The state reported that 100,149 booster shots were administered in McHenry County.

A total of 197,032 county residents, or an estimated 63.85% of McHenry County’s population, now are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 20,929,507 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 71.1% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Wednesday. Those rates are 84.4% and 74.9% for those age 12 and older, 85.8% and 76.2% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 87.2% for those age 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, the IDPH tallied 3,323 total new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Another 107 deaths also were logged, bringing the totals to 3,007,987 cases, 32,176 confirmed deaths and 4,019 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 120,419 cases and 1,292 deaths through Monday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 123,504 cases and 1,076 deaths as of Wednesday.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest total number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 12,102 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 8,476.

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) 7,622 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 7,164; Huntley (60142) 5,946; Cary (60013) 5,635; Algonquin (60102) 5,280; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 4,545; Harvard (60033) 3,706; Marengo (60152) 2,692; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,631; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 2,598; Spring Grove (60081) 1,510; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,140; Island Lake (60042) 953; Richmond (60071) 705; Hebron (60034) 423; Barrington (60010) 297; Union (60180) 284; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 189.