• Editor’s Note: This article, written by Kane County Connects Editor Rick Nagel, is Part 2 of a two-part series counting down the most-read Kane County Connects stories of 2021. Page view numbers were gathered from the WordPress Site Stats page.

It’s always a good idea to note that the stories listed here aren’t necessarily the most important or most meaningful of the year. That determination is subjective, and something each reader must decide for himself or herself.

These articles are the ones that were most read.

Because these articles were popular doesn’t not mean that their topics were unimportant. In fact, page views are a pretty good indication that the content was worthy of readers’ time and attention.

Yesterday, we posted the No. 10 through No. 6 most-read articles from our Top 10 list. Presented below are the five articles you felt were most clickworthy.

No. 5: Mask Up, Kane County! We Have Reached Substantial Level

The Kane County Health Department doesn’t routinely issue news releases about the spread of the virus, but when local health officials do speak up, people listen.

In early August, when the Delta-fueled spread began, the Kane County Health Department issued a simple news release notifying the public that Kane County had hit the “substantial” level of transmission and offering strong recommendations to mask up.

Kane County Connects posted that news release — and the article garnered 21,513 page views,

Similar KCHD News Releases

• Kane County Health Department to Businesses, Residents: Follow the Mask Mandate
• Kane County Health Department: We Have Now Hit High Level of COVID-19 Transmission
• Health Department to Local Leaders: ‘Masks May Be Needed to Keep Delta Variant at Bay’

No. 4: Highly Anticipated St. Charles Restaurant Opens Nov. 12

Through the years, Kane County Connects has been partially funded by the Grand Victoria Casino Elgin Fund, and part of the criteria for that funding is that riverboat dollars are used to support three fundamental objectives, which you might call the three E’s: Environment, Education and Economic Development.

In support of the latter, Kane County Connects occasionally posts news releases about new business developments and business openings.

This one clearly was of interest to a lot of people. It tallied 29,484 page views.

NO. 3: Driver’s License Expiration Dates Extended

During the pandemic, Kane County residents were very interested to find out that the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office was extending the expiration dates of driver’s licenses.

A more-recent news release from the Secretary of State’s Office says expiration dates have been extended once again — and for the final time — to March 31, 2022.

This article received 32,384 page views.

No. 2: Health Department COVID Vaccine Announcements

During the early stages of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, demand far exceeded supply. People were worried that their loved ones — particularly the elderly — couldn’t get access to the potentially life-saving shot in the arm.

The Kane County Health Department called for patience and launched an email notification campaign that residents could sign up for by visiting the KCHD website.

Later, the Health Department added a vaccination appointment page to its website, which you can find at KaneVax.org.

Here are just a few of the vaccination-related articles:

• VIDEO STORY: Kane County Health Department Stresses Patience as Phase 1B Begins — 25,168
• Kane County Health Department Updates COVID-19 Vaccine Plan — 21,223
• How To Request a Replacement COVID-19 Vaccination Card — 20,791
• Want To Be Notified About COVID-19 Vaccine? Sign Up With The Kane County Health Department — 19,896
• Health Department Webpage Helps You Find COVID Vaccine Appointments — 19,338
• UPDATE: Pharmacies Partnering With Illinois to Provide COVID-19 Vaccinations — 13,996
• Kane County Health Department: 3 Steps Seniors Can Take To Get COVID-19 Vaccine Shots — 13,599
• Kane Vax Hub Among 4 Sites Opening This Week For All Eligible Illinois Residents — 13,514
• When Does My Group Get Vaccinated? Here’s The IDPH Vaccination Plan — 12,612
• More Than 300 New COVID-19 Vaccination Locations Added Statewide — 12,358

Those are just the first 10 vaccine-related articles. All told, they account for 172,475 page views.

No 1: COVID-19 Updates

The daily COVID-19 Update story has evolved over the year, and in fact, over the past two years.

At the beginning of the pandemic, it was a landing page for COVID-19 information. Instead of creating a new story each day, we added the newest information to the top of the page, so that you could scroll down to see the previous days’ posts.

In that form, the COVID-19 story tallied 417,778 page views in 2020.

This year, we’re posting a COVID-19 Update story every day, reporting data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Kane County Health Department and the World Health Organization, as well as a summary of news from universities, professional organizations and media.

We’re not about to try to tally up all the page views from all the COVID-19 Update stories, but there’s little doubt that they would add up to far more than last year’s landing page total.

This effort is a labor of love and an essential part of Kane County Connects’ mission: to gather and share government data and public information that’s valuable and relevant to the citizens of Kane County, IL.

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