COVID-19 average infections grow by 27% in a week, including 47-student outbreak in Villa Park
A COVID-19 outbreak involving 47 students was reported at the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed Monday.
The outbreak at the school, which serves kindergarten through grade 12, was classroom-related and the IDPH was notified on Nov. 17.
Principal Farhat Siddiqui said Wednesday the school has multiple health safety measures in place, including wearing face masks, hand-washing stations for arriving students, shutting down water fountains, assigned seating in classrooms and at lunch, and a full-time nurse.
"Our objective is to make sure students have a safe learning environment on campus, and that has been our goal from the beginning," Siddiqui noted.
"I am really proud of our administration and our teachers. We're doing a great job of masking and social distancing, and we want everyone to be safe and get a good education," Siddiqui said.
COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday numbered 14, she said. According to the IDPH, outbreak data "includes entries elicited from cases opened within the previous 30 days from date of update," which are every Friday.
The majority of COVID-19 hot spots in schools involve fewer than five cases, but there have been other large outbreaks reported since Sept. 2, including 40 students and staff members at Willow Bend School in Rolling Meadows.
Meanwhile, statewide cases of COVID-19 spiked by 27% in a week and hospitalizations grew by nearly 13%.
The average number of new infections a day from Nov. 9 to 15 was 3,451.8 compared to 4,392 from Nov. 16 to Monday.
There was a daily average of 1,512 COVID-19 patients in hospitals from Nov. 8 to 14; that increased to 1,708 from Nov. 15 to Sunday.
New cases of COVID-19 totaled 11,387 over the weekend, with 50 more deaths from the respiratory disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
Illinois hospitals were treating 1,833 COVID-19 patients Sunday night, the most since Sept. 30.
From Friday to Sunday, 176,146 more COVID-19 shots were administered. The seven-day average is 62,002.
The state's positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 3.3% based on a seven-day average.
So far, 7,334,771 state residents have been fully vaccinated, or 57.6% of the 12.7 million population.
There were 4,619 new COVID-19 infections Saturday, 2,063 on Sunday, and 4,705 on Monday. Twenty-nine people died from the virus Saturday, 12 died on Sunday, and nine on Monday, the IDPH said.
The federal government has delivered 19,841,065 doses of vaccine to Illinois since distribution began in mid-December, and 16,867,996 shots have been administered.
Total cases statewide stand at 1,775,253, and 26,277 Illinoisans have died since the pandemic began.
Labs processed 94,955 virus tests in the last 24 hours.