Governor JB Pritzker will end the Illinois COVID-19 vaccine obligations for college students and faculty and relax some testing requirements for unvaccinated health care workers.
This week, federal health officials announced a strategy to attempt to manage the highly infectious submicron variant, which accounts for the majority of cases nationwide, alerting doctors to new alerts.
The Pritzker administration has claimed changes made during the governor’s second bid as part of a plan to “carefully unleash” COVID-19’s mission, which is valid for more than two years.
“As we continue to move towards coexistence with this virus, my administration will continue to protect the most vulnerable people and ensure all federal dollars that residents are eligible to receive,” Pritzker said in a statement Wednesday. It relaxes some requirements while making it available to. “
The same vaccination and testing requirements that have been in place since last year in elementary and junior high schools, As with the day care center, it will continue to be valid.
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However, under the new rules of Pritzker, workers in fully unvaccinated hospitals and other medical facilities should continue to be tested weekly only if they are in a county with a high rate of coronavirus infection. .. Determined by the Federal Center for Disease Management and Prevention. The previous rule required that all such employees be tested weekly, regardless of the location of the facility. This rule applies to facilities accredited by the Medicare & Medicaid Service Center.
In nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, workers who do not have the latest information on the vaccine, including receiving all recommended booster immunizations, have a high or high infection rate twice a week in areas. In moderate areas, it should be tested once a week. .. No testing is required in areas of low transmission.
As of Tuesday, all 102 counties in Illinois were considered highly infected areas, according to the CDC, so the immediate effect of the change may not be dramatic. This should not be confused with the CDC’s COVID-19 community level, which measures both the prevalence of cases and the burden on the healthcare system.
In a statement released by the Governor’s Office, AJ Wilhelmi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois Health Hospital Association, said, “It helps hospitals make the most of their resources for patient care and at the same time is rational. Effective infection control to maintain a safe place for patients, visitors and healthcare professionals. “
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Pritzker’s tweaks to the pandemic rules follow conservative complaints and proceedings alleging that the governor has exceeded his authority. They used the restrictions to try to lower the bid for Pritzker’s reelection against Republican candidate Darren Bailey of Zenia. Many of the legal objections to the rule were filed by Thomas DeVore, a lawyer currently appointed to the Republican Attorney General, but all of these proceedings were ultimately unsuccessful.
DeVore last month, a few days before winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Attorney General Kwameraul in November He has filed a proceeding in Madison County, northern state, on behalf of 10 students and employees from several institutions, including Chicago City University and Illinois University, who challenge vaccination requirements for higher education.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, DeVore claimed some credit for the Pritzker change.
The president of Palatine’s Harper College said she upheld the governor’s new rules.
“We thank the Governor for the steps taken by the Governor to support a safe learning and working environment for students to achieve their educational and career goals,” President Avis Proctor said in a statement.
Harper has been nominated as a defendant in the proceedings of Devore.
Emergency care workers who are not fully vaccinated can also avoid routine examinations under the new rules.
Jaline Geraldine, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University working on virus modeling, was skeptical of the latest changes to Pritzker’s COVID-19 protocol.
“If you have a sophisticated surveillance system and you are prepared to make strict decisions based on what it tells us, you will feel more comfortable by relaxing the requirements.” Geraldine, who was previously critical of the administration because it was too quick to remove, said restrictions. “I don’t know if existing innate or vaccine-induced immunity protects us because we don’t know what new variants will appear when and where … We may be playing with fire. I’m flying blindly in that I can quickly understand the situation. “
Pritzker’s decision to leave vaccination requirements for school employees from kindergarten to high school was praised by the leaders of the state’s largest school district and its two largest teachers’ unions. The Governor’s Office said that school and day care requirements remain because children in these age groups “have much lower immunization rates and consistently less ability to mask safely than the general public.” ..
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In a statement Wednesday, a Chicago Public Schools spokesman said unvaccinated employees working in summer sessions would need to attend weekly tests at their school. The school district said it would maintain these test requirements next year.
According to the district, approximately 91% of CPS staff are vaccinated against COVID-19 and more than 54% of the target student population is vaccinated.
Last year, approximately 90,000 CPS students and 30,000 staff agreed to participate in the district’s weekly in-school test program, which has 64,000 tests per week later in the school year. did. CPS said it will continue to offer free tests for students who agree at all schools every week.
In a statement, Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Teachers’ Federation, said that by adhering to vaccination requirements at school, “to help children, teachers, staff and our community stay safe and healthy. Will be. ” “(Pritzker’s) leadership allowed us to finish last year’s school year with a successful vaccination model, which allows us to be ready for the next school year, open school buildings and keep everyone healthy. I can do it.”
Pritzker’s off-ramp program didn’t seem to make a difference in schools from kindergarten to high school in the state, but John Burkey, managing director of the Large Unit District Association, said the Illinois school district leader was in the state. He said he wanted to know what the specific guidance for the school was. It looks like autumn.
“The tone I know is that most people are advanced, but of course there are still parents who are nervous about the health of their medically vulnerable children,” Barkey said. He added that he hopes the school district will resume saliva. Fall-based test program.
“Everyone knows that COVID still exists when a new school year begins, but how widespread these new variants are because people haven’t tested that much and many are ahead. I don’t know if you’re doing it, “says Barkey.
The Chicago Tribune’s Tracy Wurts contributed.
