McHenry County Health Department Long-Term Care Facilities & Reporting Of Confirmed Cases

Press release from the McHenry County Health Department:

April 27 2020

There is much confusion about the numbers reported of cases in long-term care facilities on the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) website. The McHenry County Department of Health is concerned about the confusion this may be causing families of residents in these facilities. By explaining how these numbers are totaled and reported, MCDH hopes this will help in reducing this confusion and concern.

Long-term care facilities are required to report any COVID-19 like illness to their local health departments immediately. When an outbreak of COVID-19 is identified within the facility, the facility is required to report daily, the number of staff and residents that test positive for COVID-19 and those that meet the COVID-19 outbreak case definition that have not been tested.

The local health department confirms the numbers provided daily from the facility and these numbers are reported from the local health department to the IDPH. It is MCDH’s understanding that some facilities are reporting to their residents and families just the positive tested residents or just the positive tested residents and staff, therefore these numbers will be lower then what IDPH is reporting.

This press release was produced by the McHenry County Health Department. The views expressed here are the author’s own