180 COVID-19 cases linked to Illinois church camp and conference: CDC

Scores of COVID-19 cases were linked to a mid-June Illinois church camp and separate conference that did not require its attendees to be vaccinated or undergo testing, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research. 

The CDC and Illinois Department of Public Health documented 180 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases among attendees at the five-day overnight camp for teenagers and two-day conference as well as their close contacts, as of Aug. 13. 

The outbreak that stemmed from these events impacted a total of 1,127 people from at least four states and 18 counties who either attended the camp and/or conference or contracted the disease through a close contact with someone who did. 

Out of the 122 “primary” cases, meaning those who were infected after attending the camp and conference, 104 infections (85 percent) occurred among unvaccinated individuals. But 18 fully vaccinated people were considered infected, and eight of the 38 close contacts of these fully vaccinated people contracted the virus.

Five people with related COVID-19 cases were hospitalized, with 13 seeking emergency department care. No deaths were recorded.

None of the fully vaccinated people who caught the virus were hospitalized, although three sought emergency department care.

The outbreak supports health officials’ warnings about the risks of attending large public events when not all people are fully vaccinated and precautions such as masking and testing are not in place.  

The church organization that ran the events has locations in western Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. It held the camp from June 13-17 that 294 campers and 41 staff members attended.

One camper left a day early after developing a fever and respiratory issues and received a positive COVID-19 test. Other campers were informed of their exposure and directed to quarantine and isolate if they received a positive test. 

Six of the camp staff members who went to the men’s conference from June 18-19 ended up testing positive for COVID-19, but the test results did not come back until after they went. In total, the conference hosted 500 people and 30 staff members without mandating testing, vaccination or masks. 

The study highlights health experts’ concern about fully vaccinated people’s ability to transmit the delta variant to others, including to unvaccinated people. The research on vaccinated transmission helped spark the CDC to reverse course and recommend all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor spaces in at-risk areas.

Most of the 31 sequenced cases associated with the camp and conference outbreak were from the delta variant family. Experts cautioned that the case count could be an underestimation as the infections that counted were laboratory confirmed cases. 

Adams County, where the church organization held the events, documented a more than seven-fold increase in average daily cases from the week before the events to the week after the last close-contact case was identified. 

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has emphasized the importance of COVID-19 prevention strategies in schools as the back-to-school season continued. Last week, she called on schools that are not following CDC guidance on masking to “do the right thing.”

The federal agency recommends that all students and staff aged 2 and older wear masks in school regardless of their vaccination status.