Kane County Tops 600 Deaths, 44,000 Coronavirus Cases

KANE COUNTY, IL — Kane County recorded its 600th death of the coronavirus pandemic Friday, with a second wave of deaths still hitting the area hard about two months after its start.

Since Nov. 7, 249 Kane County residents have died from coronavirus-related conditions, representing more than 40 percent of all deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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December was the county’s deadliest month of the pandemic, with 131 residents dying from COVID-19, the state’s data shows. Kane County then started 2021 with its deadliest day, with 12 deaths recorded Jan. 1.

Kane County’s pandemic death toll stood at 609 Monday, after public health officials reported 29 COVID-19 deaths over the previous weeks.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths stood reached an all-time high of 5.8 in mid-December, before dropping to 2.9 by Dec. 27, public health data shows. That figure stood at about 4.1 Monday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases in Kane County fell more than 65 percent from its all-time high of 595 in mid-November to about 206 Dec. 29, public health data shows. That measure climbed to about 273 on Monday, a 33 percent increase in the past two weeks.

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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, along with indoor-service bans at bars and restaurants.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said state officials will reconsider the statewide restrictions Friday, a timeline that will allow them to review statistics for the two-week period that followed the New Year’s holiday.

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When announcing Tier 3 restrictions, officials said a region can move back to Tier 2 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.

Hospitalizations in Region 8 — made up of Kane and DuPage counties — have been falling fast enough to loosen restrictions but a lack of hospital beds in recent days could keep that from happening.

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Only 13.3 percent of surgical beds are available in the region Thursday, though that climbed to 22.8 percent by Sunday, according to IDPH statistics.

The region’s positivity rate is also on the rise after falling steadily from its all-time high of 16 percent on Nov. 13. The positivity rate dropped to 8.6 percent Dec. 26 before climbing to 10.4 percent by Friday, the state’s data shows.

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