Pritzker defends COVID-19 testing option for IL teachers, others who won’t get vaccine
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COVID-19 vaccination, testing requirements
Here are additional stories about the state of Illinois’ vaccination requirements for school staffers
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Staffers at IL schools have until Sunday to get COVID shots. How are our districts doing?
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Pritzker to IL educators and healthcare workers: Get vaccinated or face weekly tests
Days after his deadline for school and healthcare employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended the testing option.
School and healthcare employees who were unable or unwilling to get the shot by the Sunday deadline have the option to be tested on an at-least weekly basis for COVID.
“The testing regime is there to make sure they’re not entering the institution where they work and spreading COVID-19,” Pritzker said Tuesday at an event with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. “ … This is not a loophole. There are people who are genuinely still afraid to get the vaccination, for whatever reason.”
In the days before the deadline, some metro-east districts reported that more than 80% of their staff members had already been vaccinated.
Cardona and Murthy reiterated the need to protect students who are too young to be vaccinated and keep them in-person. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in August, but the vaccine has been authorized for emergency use for children as young as 12 years old since May.
FDA Vaccine Chief, Peter Marks, said earlier this month that he was “very, very hopeful” that vaccinations for children as young as 5 years old will be underway by year’s end, according to the Associated Press.
Until then, Murthy said that one of the best ways to protect kids — and keep healthcare workers from becoming overwhelmed — is to get vaccinated if you’re eligible.
“Vaccinating the people around [children] is one of the key things we can do,” he said.
Between June and September, the number of new COVID cases in school-age children in Region 4 increased each week. Between Aug. 7 and Aug. 14, there was a more than 30% increase in week over week youth cases.
The tide may be starting to turn, though.
In the week ending Sept. 11, which is the most recent data available through the Illinois Department of Public Health, the region saw a 24% decrease in new cases from the week before. During the relative lull in cases over the summer, not every county health department reported each week, but it was the first time since June 12 that there was a decrease in new cases.
Region 4 includes St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, Clinton, Bond and Washington Counties.
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 1:35 PM.