McHenry, Lake counties see COVID-19 hospitalizations inch up, ICU availability drop – Shaw Local

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Lake and McHenry counties rose both Saturday and Sunday, while intensive care unit availability across the region dropped over the weekend, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Monday.

Hospitalizations in the two-county region, measured by a seven-day rolling average, rose to 27 COVID-19 patients as of Sunday, IDPH data shows. This weekend marked the end of a 62-day period, starting Jan. 16, where hospitalizations either declined or remained stable.

The hospital intensive care unit availability dropped to 28% on Sunday, marking four straight days of declines, but still around the same level as last July and early August, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Statewide, the number of hospitalizations tied to COVID-19 increased to 529 patients as of Sunday, the IDPH reported. Of those hospitalized, 97 patients were in the ICU and 41 were on ventilators.

McHenry County’s incidence rate declined to about 46.47 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days as of Wednesday, the lowest since July 22, McHenry County health department reported Monday.

McHenry County now has seen 75,703 total cases, including 469 deaths and 44 deaths that likely were caused by COVID-19 but have not been confirmed. That tally is up 44 cases from Friday. No additional deaths were reported over the weekend.

The level of transmission in McHenry County remained low under the newest framework released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, county data shows.

That means the county saw fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days; the number of people being admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 was fewer than 10 per 100,000 residents, also over seven days; and the percentage of staffed in-patient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients was less than 10%, as measured by a seven-day average, according to the CDC.

McHenry County also crossed a vaccination threshold over the weekend, with more than 200,000 residents now fully vaccinated, state data shows.

An additional 404 vaccines were administered since Friday in McHenry County, bringing the total vaccines administered in the county to 509,429, the IDPH reported. The state reported that 103,542 booster shots have been administered in the county.

A total of 200,040, or an estimated 64.83% of McHenry County’s population, are now fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received all doses recommended for the vaccine they were given.

Statewide, 21,294,461 vaccine doses have been administered, according to state data.

Across Illinois, 81% of those age 5 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19, and 72.2% are fully vaccinated, the IDPH reported Monday. Those rates are 84.8% and 75.7% for those age 12 and older, 86.2% and 76.9% for people 18 and older, and 95% and 87.6% for those age 65 and older, respectively.

Statewide, IDPH tallied 2,451 new cases of COVID-19 since the start of the weekend. Another 19 deaths also were logged in that same time. This brings the totals to 3,055,636 cases, 33,216 confirmed deaths and 4,263 probable deaths.

Neighboring Lake County’s health department reported a total of 123,097 cases and 1,355 deaths through Sunday. To the south, Kane County’s health department reported 125,349 cases and 1,114 deaths as of Monday.

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 12,342 confirmed, according to county data. McHenry (60050) follows with 8,653.

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) 7,761 cases; Lake in the Hills (60156) 7,278; Huntley (60142) 6,055; Cary (60013) 5,733; Algonquin (60102) 5,350; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 4,613; Harvard (60033) 3,753; Marengo (60152) 2,747; Wonder Lake (60097) 2,673; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 2,670; Spring Grove (60081) 1,535; Fox River Grove (60021) 1,170; Island Lake (60042) 969; Richmond (60071) 716; Hebron (60034) 428; Barrington (60010) 345; Union (60180) 296; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 193.