Universal Masking Backed By IL Teachers Union, Cook County

COOK COUNTY, IL — With the start of a new school year just weeks away and coronavirus cases surging in Illinois, health experts continue working with school officials across the state to update their guidance. The Illinois Federation of Teachers and Cook County Department of Public Health announced Wednesday its endorsement of guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health calling for universal masking in schools, regardless of vaccination status.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) is a statewide organization made up of more than 200 local unions throughout Illinois.

The new guidance from the CDC, released on Tuesday, states:

"Given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, CDC has updated the guidance for fully vaccinated people. CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place."

The IFT said Wednesday it is backing the new masking guidance.

"We believe this guidance is in the best interest of students, teachers, and staff in order to keep our school buildings open," IFT President Dan Montgomery said in a statement. "With the delta variant surging and case numbers in Illinois rising sharply, it is good policy to ensure the greatest possible level of safety for those who learn and work in our schools.

The union is also urging all Illinois school districts to "employ a layered safety approach," including physical distancing, regular handwashing, adequate building ventilation, and consistent COVID testing of students and educators.

Noting each building and each school district in the state is different, Gov. J.B. Pritzker weighed in on the new guidance Wednesday regarding indoor masking, stating schools can be potentially held liable if they "don't live up to the standard set by the CDC and the state."

"School districts need to decide are they going to, at this moment, going to be potentially subject to liability for not following those recommendations," Pritzker said. "We are looking every day at whether further mitigations need to be imposed."

Cook County health officials are encouraging all students and staff to get vaccinations, stating that fully vaccinated people are not required to quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 and show no symptoms.

Under the new CDC guidance, fully vaccinated people who have a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should be tested 3 to 5 days after exposure and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result, according to the county health department.

Cook County is also encouraging schools to implement screening and testing programs to promptly identify and report cases, clusters, and outbreaks. Schools are encouraged, to implement screening and testing programs to promptly identify and report cases, clusters, and outbreaks.

The surge in new cases is being blamed largely on the delta variant of COVID-19. For the week ending July 23, the state saw 7,983 new cases — nearly double the cases reported the week before and a 171 percent increase from two weeks ago.

While cases surge, 42 percent of Illinoisans remained unvaccinated for the week ending July 23, according to state health officials. In addition, 47 more Illinoisans died from COVID-19 last week and 670 were hospitalized, including 135 in intensive care and 44 on ventilators.

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