McHenry County reports 182 new COVID-19 cases, one additional death

The McHenry County Department of Health reported 182 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one additional death Thursday.

This brings the county's totals to 16,023 confirmed cases, 172 related deaths and six additional deaths where the cause was likely COVID-19 but not confirmed. The county's recovery rate currently sits at 98%.

According to McHenry County’s COVID-19 dashboard, 61.8% of deaths – 110 of 178 – have been associated with long-term care facilities while 78.6% of hospitalizations – 792 of 1,007 – were not.

McHenry County residents have been tested a total of 166,170 times since the pandemic began, according to county-specific data collected by the IDPH.

Tier 3 of the IDPH’s COVID-19 mitigation measures took effect across the state Nov. 20.

The new restrictions shut down a few industries, such as casinos and theaters, and tightened capacity restrictions on many others.

In order to move to Tier 2, which is less restrictive, Region 9 (McHenry and Lake counties) must meet three metrics tracked by the IDPH.

First, the region must report a seven-day average test positivity rate of less than 12% for three consecutive days. As of Thursday, McHenry County's positivity rate was 15.2% and Region 9 was at 12.6%.

Second, both intensive care unit and medical/surgical bed availability must be greater than 20% for three consecutive days.

As of Thursday, Region 9 was satisfying this metric for ICU beds (26.2%) and medical/surgical beds (20%). The availability of both in McHenry County was lower at 17.5% and 10.6%, respectively.

Third, the region must show a decline in average COVID-19 hospitalizations for seven out of the past 10 days. On Thursday, Region 9 reported nine days of decreases in hospital admissions for COVID-19 out of the past 10 days, satisfying this metric.

Gov. JB Pritzker said Nov. 30, however, none of the state’s 11 health care regions would advance to Tier 2 mitigations “for a few weeks” even if they hit the necessary metrics because of Thanksgiving holiday gatherings.

The Lake County Health Department reported a total of 40,226 confirmed cases and 664 related deaths Thursday.

The Kane County Health Department has reported a total of 35,157 confirmed cases and 469 deaths.

Statewide, the IDPH reported a total of 823,531 confirmed cases and 13,861 related deaths. So far, Illinois has conducted 11,481,848 COVID-19 tests. The statewide recovery rate is 97%.

Among McHenry County ZIP codes, Crystal Lake (60014) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with a total of 2,412 confirmed cases reported over the course of the pandemic, according to county data. Woodstock (60098) follows with 1,991 cases.

The McHenry County health department reports only ZIP code data that is located 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: McHenry (60050) 1,608; Lake in the Hills (60156) 1,461; Huntley (60142) 1,226; Algonquin (60102) 1,194; Harvard (60033) 1,089; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051) 1,038; Cary (60013) 1,020; Marengo (60152) 670; Crystal Lake, Bull Valley and Prairie Grove (60012) 521; Wonder Lake (60097) 504; Spring Grove (60081) 369; Island Lake (60042) 216; Richmond (60071) 187; Fox River Grove (60021) 175; Hebron (60034) 96; Union (60180) 59; Barrington (60010) 52; and Ringwood and Wonder Lake (60072) 37.