Governor, IDPH Announce Vaccine Requirements for Healthcare Workers, Pre-K-12 Teachers and Staff, Higher Education Personnel and Students

Governor J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike today announced vaccination requirements for individuals in high-risk settings.

All healthcare workers, including nursing home employees, all pre-K to 12 teachers and staff members, as well as higher education personnel and students will now be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Employees in all of those settings and higher education students who are unable or unwilling to receive the vaccine will be required to get tested for COVID-19 at least once per week, and IDPH and the Illinois State Board of Education may require increased testing in certain situations.

The presidents of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association announced today the IFT and IEA support the vaccine mandate for educators and staff in K-12 and higher education.

The governor and Dr. Ezike also announced a statewide indoor mask mandate for all Illinois residents, regardless of vaccination status, citing an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates. The masking requirements are effective Monday, August 30.

Dr. Ezike said, "Unlike the wave of COVID-19 we saw earlier this spring, we're now seeing our hospital resources stretched thin with some areas of Illinois reduced to only a handful of available ICU beds."

Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center Director of Commuincations Patty Peterson said their hospital has nine Critical Care Unit beds and said, "We are full." Peterson said the hospital is finding ways to care for patients and, as they improve, "we move them to a step down bed, where they get the same level of care."

Peterson also acknowledged that the number of critical care patients is not all due to COVID-19, but also due to respiratory, cardiac and other disorders. She did say, though, that Sarah Bush is currently housing 33 COVID-19 patients and is working with another 19 COVID-19 patients who are being managed at home.

We have a call in to HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital in Effingham as to their status.

To lower the number of breakthrough cases that require hospital admission, the majority of whom are 65 and over or immunocompromised, all healthcare workers, including workers at public and private nursing homes, must get vaccinated. Teachers and staff at pre-K to 12 schools as well as personnel and students at higher education institutions are required to receive the vaccine. Workers and students in applicable settings must receive the first dose of a two-dose vaccination series or a single-dose vaccination by September 5, 2021. Second doses of the vaccine must be received by 30 days after the first dose.

Workers who do not receive the vaccine or those who opt out for medical reasons or based on a sincerely held religious belief must follow a routine testing schedule to detect cases early and prevent further spread. Testing will be required a minimum of once per week in schools and healthcare facilities. The frequency of testing may be required to increase in the event of positive cases.

Healthcare, school workers, and higher education personnel and students attending in-person classes who do not provide proof of vaccination will be prevented from entering healthcare and educational facilities unless they follow the required testing protocol. 

As an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, all Illinois residents over the age of two will be required to wear a mask in all indoor settings, effective Monday, August 30th. The requirement is applicable to both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents statewide.