La Grange Virus Rate Hike Doubles Suburban Cook's

LA GRANGE, IL — La Grange's rate of increase in coronavirus cases is more than doubling suburban Cook County's. As of Sunday, La Grange saw a 9 percent increase in its virus caseload over the previous week, which was greater than the 4 percent overall hike in suburban Cook County, according to the Cook County Public Health Department. The number of cases rose 24 to 296. The previous week saw a rise of 19 cases.

The village experienced no new coronavirus deaths in the last week, with the total remaining at 13, the county medical examiner's figures show. That number has stayed the same for weeks.

La Grange has had many more cases than similarly sized La Grange Park, where 128 have been reported. La Grange Park, though, has had just one fewer death than La Grange. Some La Grange residents and even a village trustee have tried to explain La Grange's relatively large number of cases by saying the statistics are based on ZIP codes and that La Grange's 60525 takes in Countryside, McCook and other areas. While the state gives numbers based on ZIP code, Cook County, where Patch gets its information, provides the figures by municipality.

Here is a look at the growth in La Grange's coronavirus case numbers:

As of Sunday, La Grange had 19.3 coronavirus cases per thousand people. The figure compares 8.5 in Darien, 9.5 in Western Springs, 9.7 in La Grange Park, 10.6 in Clarendon Hills, 11.2 in Elmhurst, 12.4 in DuPage County, 14.6 in Hinsdale, 15 in Burr Ridge and 17.1 in suburban Cook County.

Illinois Coronavirus Update July 31: 178,837 Cases, 7,495 Deaths— Don't miss updates in La Grange as they are announced — Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

As of Sunday, Illinois' coronavirus case count increased to 171,424, up 6 percent from a week earlier. The coronavirus has claimed the lives of 7,398 state residents.

Nationally, 4.2 million people have caught the virus and 145,982 have died from it.