ICU Bed Capacity Low In Lake, McHenry Counties: IDPH

LAKE AND MCHENRY COUNTIES, IL — Intensive care unit beds continue to fill up in Lake and McHenry counties as coronavirus cases have been on the rise in recent weeks.

In recent days, the ICU bed availability has dipped below 20 percent in Region 9, which includes Lake and McHenry counties. In the past, state health officials have used that threshold — ICU beds under 20 percent — as one indicator of a potential resurgence of the virus in the area.

As of Sunday, 17 percent of ICU beds were available in Region 9, which includes McHenry and Lake counties, and bed availability has steadily been decreasing. Suburban Cook County also has fewer than 20 percent of its ICU beds available, and other Chicago area counties are nearing that threshold, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data.

• Hospitalizations Spike Among Unvaccinated As IL ICU Beds Dwindle

Hospital beds outside the ICU have also been filling up with COVID patients, local health officials say.

"We are in the red zone for that," said Susan Karras, public health nursing director for the McHenry County Department of Health, during a Board of Health meeting last week.

McHenry County currently has a much higher positivity rate than Lake, which has historically been the case during the pandemic. The 7-day rolling average for the positivity rate in Region 9, which includes both Lake and McHenry counties, was 6 percent as of Monday, while McHenry County was at 8.1 percent and Lake was 5.1 percent.

Coronavirus transmission has been increasing across all age groups and communities throughout McHenry County, Karras said.

"There is no difference in age group trends, everybody is increasing no matter what your age," Karras said during the board of health meeting. "But we are seeing higher rates of spread in the 15 to 19 and 20 to 29 years old, that hasn't really changed."

Across the state, health officials have been seeing an increase in hospitalizations for young people.

"There's a vast increase in the number of people who are going into the hospital, who are in the age bracket of everybody under 30 all the way down to those who are unable to get vaccinated today, who are those under 12," Pritzker said during an event earlier this month.

Meanwhile, more school-aged children who are eligible — currently anyone over the age of 12 — have been getting their vaccine in the weeks leading up to the start or school, but the 20- to 29-year-old population remains "hard to reach," Karras said.

"I think they think they are invincible, and they are like, 'whatever.' So we are really struggling to reach that population and get them vaccinated," Karras said. She hopes colleges and universities will help reach students returning for school and encourage them to get their shots.

Rural portions of McHenry County, in particular the western and northern portions of McHenry County, have the lowest vaccination rate, Karras said. The Hispanic population, once a tough population for health officials to reach, has seen an increase in vaccination rates.

"We have been going out and doing vaccine clinics in that area, and we are making progress. It is improving, but they still remain low," Karras said.

As far as breakthrough cases, there have been 39 hospitalizations among those who've been fully vaccinated in McHenry County since January and fewer than 10 deaths.