COVID-19 outbreaks reported at 26 schools across Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported that 26 schools in the state have COVID-19 outbreaks just as schools reopened the classroom for in-person learning. 

The state data, which is updated weekly, also reported that contact tracers identified 546 schools as having “potential” COVID-19 exposures.

A few schools were put on probation for defying Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) mask mandate. However, most of the recent outbreaks are at districts complying with the mandate, the Chicago Tribune reported. Some schools are reverting to online and distance learning because of the outbreaks.

“Due to a COVID outbreak in a fourth/fifth split grade level classroom, we shifted to Distance Learning for this classroom only, effective today,” Cheryl DeRoo, principal of Glenbrook Elementary School, wrote in a letter, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Outbreaks in the state are defined as “two or more cases epidemiologically linked — people were in the same space at the same time,” state health department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said, according to the news outlet.

Case counts also include those participating in before- and after-school programs, including athletics. 

Most of the schools on the list had fewer than five cases, but some reported more than 16.

Schools that are not complying with the mask mandate are also seeing an uptick in cases. Some are among those reported to have “potential” exposures. Since the start of the school year, 62 Illinois school districts are failing to comply with the mask mandate, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“Given our current trajectory in hospitalizations and ICU usage, we have a limited amount of time right now to stave off the highest peaks of this surge going into the fall,” Pritzker said in an August statement.