BREAKING NEWS: Illinois students, teachers and school staff with confirmed and probable covid-19 infections are now required to be banned from schools and school activities due to an executive order signed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The executive order, signed late Friday night, states that people are required to remove themselves from schools or school activities if they have covid-19 or knowingly have been in close contact with someone who has the virus. The order states schools must exclude any student or school personnel with confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 for at least 10 days,... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois covid-19 numbers are “going in the wrong direction fast, and looking bad for fall,” according to Covid-19 Illinois, a not-for-profit group which presents and analyzes statewide data on the pandemic. The group released its latest analysis for the previous week, two weeks, and month, on Monday. According to Covid-19 Illinois,497 Illinoisans died from Covid-19 in the last 15 days; and 506 in the entire month of August. “Last September before the vaccine, 307 died from Covid-19 in the first 15 days of September, this is a 40% increase this same period,”... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Starting TODAY, Illinois teachers and school employees will be required to get a covid-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing for covid-19 in order to continue working in the schools. The following e-mail was sent out to Rock Island School District 41 employees today. Variations of the same e-mail have been sent out to other school district employees across the state. Starting Monday, September 20, 2021 all RIMSD employees must be vaccinated OR get a COVID- 19 test each week. Fully vaccinated employees must submit proof by sending a copy of their vaccination card to the District... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Vaccines could be available to schoolchildren ages 5-11 throughout Illinois as soon as later this year, according to reports out of Frankfurt, Germany. The company behind the vaccines, BioNTech will be requesting approval for its covid-19 vaccine use in kids 5-11 across the globe over the next few weeks and preparations for a launch are on track, the biotech firm’s two top executives told German newspaper Der Spiegel. “Already over the next few weeks we will file the results of our trial in five to 11 year olds with regulators across the world and will request approval... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: As covid numbers continue to spike higher, and officials dread numbers after the bustling Labor Day weekend celebrations, Illinois Gov. JB Pritkzer has warned the state could be hit with “significantly greater mitigations” if the state’s covid metrics continue to slide downward. New covid-19 cases statewide jumped 18.3 percent over the past week, with nearly 6,000 reported today so far alone, according to statistics from Covid-19 Illinois. Nearly every county is now at a ‘warning level’ for Covid-19, and the entirety of Southern Illinois has only one ICU bed... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois is expanding mental health programs for farmers and those working in agricultural programs, Gov. JB Pritzker announced this morning at the Illinois Farm Progress Show, the nation’s largest outdoor farm event. Farmers’ mental health is being addressed and helped by the new program, which is especially crucial during the spiking covid-19 pandemic, Pritzker said. “No industry merges innovation and tradition quite like this one,” Pritkzer said, “and doing so while maintaining sustenance, which is integral for our communities. That is no small responsibility... Read More

Illinois is back under statewide restrictions TODAY in response to rising covid-19 numbers. What do Illinois residents need to know about the restrictions, and how could there possibly be MORE restrictions coming in the future? Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced last week that beginning today, there would be new statewide restrictions to attempt to stop the spread of the virulent new delta variant, particularly among unvaccinated people, who have been hit particularly hard by it. “Nearly all Illinoisans who are hospitalized are those who are unvaccinated. From January to July, 98 percent... Read More

Illinois returns to a new mask mandate and other restrictions TOMORROW due to the spread of the delta variant of covid-19 across the state, Gov. JB Pritzker announced this week. What does that mean for YOU and what are the new restrictions? Everyone is required to wear a mask indoors in public settings — everywhere from businesses to government buildings to other venues — and to social distance at outdoor events. The mask mandate applies to anyone over the age of two, regardless of vaccination status, echoing the same mask mandate brought back to Chicago two weeks ago, and to Cook County... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: According to several reports, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will announce early Thursday a covid-19 vaccine mandate for all school employees in K-12 and higher education facilities statewide, with potential further mitigations and possible virtual learning plans looming. All educational system employees will be mandated to get the covid-19 vaccination or submit to regular testing for covid, reports say. Sources also say that there is a potential that Illinois schools could go to a hybrid model or full virtual learning if covid-19 numbers do not improve. Already, several schools,... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois covid-19 numbers in all counties have broken into the “red alert” high level for infections, according to new statistics from the Illinois Department of Health. As of the latest stats released yesterday, in 100 of the 102 Illinois counties, the levels are at “substantial to high transmission.” In addition, ALL of the Illinois border counties in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky, are seeing a surge and are in the red. Zones four and five in Illinois are over 10 and 9.5 percent, respectively, with 12 percent being the number to trigger... Read More