La Grange's Virus Figures Wrongly Inflated

LA GRANGE, IL — La Grange's coronavirus case numbers have been wrongly inflated over the last few months. This is because the Cook County Public Health Department has been including virus cases from unincorporated La Grange Highlands in La Grange's totals. Patch has relied on the department's numbers for La Grange and other Cook County towns.

According to the department's website, La Grange's number of coronavirus cases was 372 as of Tuesday. But the number includes La Grange Highlands, which the site does not indicate. Until recently, the department's per capita number for La Grange was based on the village's population of 15,300. Now the per capita figure is based on an additional 3,800, the equivalent of La Grange Highlands' population.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Village President Mark Kuchler said the village requested the health department include La Grange Highlands' population in the per capita number because La Grange's case total included the neighboring community.

To this day, the health department's online, interactive map includes La Grange's boundaries and gives no indication that La Grange Highlands' case numbers are lumped in.

Other suburbs, including Burr Ridge, also have neighboring unincorporated areas. It is unclear if those towns also take in unincorporated numbers. Health department representatives couldn't be reached for immediate comment.

At the meeting, Kuchler mentioned the weekly Patch stories on La Grange's coronavirus statistics.

"Unfortunately, the author in the Patch articles had not included the population of La Grange Highlands, so his numbers are not accurate," Kuchler said. "Cook County was doing the same."

He said the village's finance director contacted the health department and got results.

"This has been corrected by the county, and their numbers going forward will reflect it," Kuchler said.

At a mid-July meeting, Trustee Bill Holder questioned the numbers provided by the Cook County Public Health Department. He said the La Grange total took in the entire 60525 ZIP code, which includes Countryside, Hodgkins, McCook and La Grange Highlands. Those four communities are a combined nearly 12,000.

As of Tuesday, the combined area of La Grange and La Grange Highlands had 372 coronavirus cases, according to the health department. This works out to 19.2 cases per thousand people, compared with 20.2 in suburban Cook County. Before, without La Grange Highlands' population included, La Grange's per capita number appeared to be higher than Cook County's. La Grange's per capita is still well over La Grange Park's, which is 12.