November 14, 2024
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Kendall County school officials react to state vaccination mandate

By Shea Lazansky and John Etheredge
FILE PHOTO: Vaccine stations filled the gymnasium at Yorkville High School Feb. 7, for the second day of a mass vaccination event led by the Kendall County Health Department.

FILE PHOTO: Vaccine stations filled the gymnasium at Yorkville High School Feb. 7, for the second day of a mass vaccination event led by the Kendall County Health Department. (Shea Lazansky)

Until now teachers and staff in Kendall County schools have not had to disclose whether they have been vaccinated for COVID-19.

But that will change next month following Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s announcement Thursday, Aug. 26, that all preschool through 12th grade teachers and staff will be required to have received at least a first dose of the vaccine by Sept. 5 or face weekly testing for the virus.

Theresa Komitas, director of communications and public relations for Oswego School District 308, said in a statement the district will be asking its teachers and staff members to provide information on their vaccination status.

District 308′s teachers union has a membership of more than 1,300, according to information posted on its website.

If the employees decline to be vaccinated, Komitas said the they will then need to participate in a district-run COVID-19 testing program.

According to Komitas, the district will be participating in the SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 testing program offered to all K-12 public schools across the state outside of Chicago through the Illinois Department of Public Health. Developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the SHIELD saliva-based test is able to detect SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and asymptomatic individuals.

In an email Thursday afternoon Yorkville School Superintendent Tim Shimp said district officials are “sorting through the very new announcement, and the impact it will have on our 950+ employees.”

Reaction to Pritzker’s announcement from Plano School District 88 was not immediately available.

Also now required under Pritzker’s order to get at least a first dose of COVID-19 by Sept. 5, or else face weekly testing are:

• Higher education personnel

• Higher education students

• Hospital workers in a variety of settings, like hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care and doctors’ offices.

In a news conference, Pritzker and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike made a point to correlate the low vaccination rates in the southern and central portions of the state have driven increases in hospitalizations. Region 5, southern Illinois, was down to one available, staffed ICU bed on Tuesday.

Pritzker said that from January through July, 98% of the state’s COVID-19 cases, 96% of hospitalizations and 95% of deaths from coronavirus are among unvaccinated people.

“We are continuing to rely on experts at the CDC and IDPH, but you don’t need to be an epidemiologist to understand what’s going on here: This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Pritzker said. “These are preventable deaths and beyond the tragedy of losing lives for no reason, this also means inflicting serious damage on communities.”

As of Wednesday, 6,719,139 Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated, which is 52.7% of the state’s 12.7 million population. More than 8.2 million Illinois residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

“The bottom line is masks are effective. Vaccines are effective,” Ezike said. “But until more people are vaccinated, we need to take the steps to protect our health care workers, protect our hospital resources and protect our most vulnerable.”

*Shaw Media’s John Sahly contributed to this story.

This story will be updated.