Health & Fitness
131 Coronavirus Deaths In December Set Monthly Record In Kane Co.
Officials reported five COVID-19 deaths Wednesday in Kane County, pushing the monthly death toll above the previous high set in May.
KANE COUNTY, IL — Kane County set a grim record Wednesday, when December became the county’s deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic.
Public health officials reported five COVID-19 deaths Wednesday in Kane County, taking its death toll to 128 residents from Dec. 1-30, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Three additional deaths were reported Thursday, the final day of 2020.
The county’s previous monthly high of 123 deaths was set in May, amid the first major spike in cases in the region, the state's data shows.
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A second wave of the coronavirus started in Kane County around the end of October, with its peak in new cases nearly tripling the highest numbers seen during the first wave.
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The seven-day rolling average of new cases peaked May 15 at 210, the highest it was at any point between the start of the pandemic in March and the beginning of the second wave in late October.
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That weekly average hit 595 cases per day Nov. 12, six days after Kane County recorded its highest single-day increase with 1,068 new cases, according to public health data.
The huge surge in new cases since late October led to a significant rise in deaths in November and December. Kane County recorded 20 more coronavirus-related deaths (78) in November than it did over the previous three months combined.
The 131 deaths recorded in December represent about 23 percent of all COVID-19 deaths recorded in Kane County since the start of the pandemic. As of Thursday, 564 Kane County residents have died from coronavirus-related conditions, according to IDPH statistics.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in Kane County has dropped 63.5 percent from its all-time high in mid-November, though that measure was higher Wednesday than at any point during the first 33 weeks of the pandemic, public health data shows.
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Kane County set a monthly record for new coronavirus cases in November, when 13,565 positive tests were reported. Cases are down about 30 percent in December, when 9,556 new cases were recorded, public health data shows.
All 11 coronavirus-management regions in Illinois are under Tier 3 restrictions, which require some non-essential businesses to close and many stores to enforce capacity limits, in addition to indoor-service bans at bars and restaurants.
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A region can move back to Tier 2 mitigations if its positivity rate drops below 12 percent for three consecutive days, if it has more than 20 percent of hospital beds open, and if it sees a sustained drop in hospitalizations for coronavirus-related illnesses.
Region 8 has hit all the metrics to move back to Tier 2 under the guidelines set by IDPH officials, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker has indicated that will not happen until the start of 2021, with holiday gatherings a particular worry to public health officials.
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The positivity rate in Region 8, made up of Kane and DuPage counties, has been under 12 percent for 18 straight days as of Dec. 27, the most recent day for which testing data is available.
The positivity rate in Region 8 fell from an all-time high of 16 percent Nov. 13 to 8.6 percent by Dec. 26. That rate ticked up to 9 percent Dec. 28.
Region 8 has had at least 20 percent of ICU beds available for 18 straight days, though the availability of medical/surgical beds in the region dipped below 20 percent Wednesday, according to IDPH statistics.
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Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are down from an all-time high of 716 on Nov. 22 to 451 Dec. 30, its lowest point since early November, the state's data shows.
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