Chicago shifts away from school-based testing The federal government announced that an updated COVID vaccine that will target the latest variants responsible for a majority of new cases will be available in the fall. All ages are eligible for vaccination and boosters. Those numbers could backslide as they did last year with a new group of incoming kindergarten and pre-K students entering and high school seniors graduating. Students are encouraged to get vaccinatedĬhicago is hosting several back-to-school events this week where students can get vaccinated for COVID-19 and required childhood vaccinations for diseases such as measles, mumps, and chickenpox before heading back to classrooms.Īs of the end of last school year, around 48% of eligible students had been fully vaccinated against COVID. 15, Chicago Public Schools reported that 85 adults and 11 students have self-reported coronavirus cases. The department said that it will continue to monitor for COVID-19 data and other respiratory diseases as the fall and winter seasons start.Īs of Aug. However, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported last Friday to the CDC that Illinois had a low level for COVID-19 hospital admissions as of the end of July. After federal and state emergency orders were lifted in May, wearing masks, weekly testing, vaccinations, and social distancing were no longer required for students across Illinois.Ĭoronavirus cases increased in late summer across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Illinois State Board of Education updated public health guidance for schools on a monthly basis. The move seemed abrupt, but Johnson committed to firing Arwady while on the campaign trail, stating that the two have different views on public health. The scaled-down mitigations come as cases are ticking up across the nation and at a time of uncertainty for the city’s public health department after Mayor Brandon Johnson fired Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady late last Friday. “I think the most important thing that we can communicate, particularly right now around COVID-19, is please stay up-to-date on your vaccinations and stay home when you’re sick,” Tully told board members on Wednesday. Once schools fully reopened during the 2021-22 school year, the district ramped up testing and vaccinating students across the city.
The looser guidelines reflect a shift for Chicago since the height of the pandemic when the district struggled to reopen during the school year 2020-21. CPS will also continue to collect and report data on cases and vaccinations. Quarantine requirements and care rooms in schools are now gone, but close contacts will be encouraged to mask for 10 days, Tully said.
Parents like Abreu, who decided to homeschool her immunocompromised daughter and two other children last year, say they have heard little from the district about COVID-19 mitigations for the coming school year.īut during a school board committee meeting Wednesday, Jamie Tully, the district’s director of Health Information and Response, outlined a pared-down approach: The district will no longer do in-school COVID testing, but will provide at-home rapid tests to students and staff when an exposure occurs and ahead of breaks around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
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