COVID-19 Cases Dip By Over 56 Percent At District 200 Schools

WHEATON, IL — The number of students and staff members who tested positive for coronavirus at Community Unit School District 200 has dropped significantly since the start of January, according to new data from the district.

During the week of Jan. 22 through Jan. 29, 219 students and staff members tested positive for coronavirus throughout the 20 schools that make up the district. This reflects a decrease of more than 56 percent when compared to the first week of January, when 501 positive coronavirus cases were recorded among students and staff.

Positive cases again spiked the second week of January, but have steadily declined at District 200 since then. The statistics for coronavirus cases for students and staff members in January are as follows:

Jan. 1-7: 501 positive cases

Jan. 8-14: 513 positive cases

Jan. 15-21: 269 positive cases

Jan. 22-28: 219 positive cases

On Jan. 19, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced that coronavirus hospitalizations had declined throughout the state. Despite the decrease in cases, they urged caution.

Pritzker said, "Despite the recent indications of fewer new infections and fewer new hospital admissions ahead, it breaks my heart to know that in the coming weeks, hundreds more may die, among the thousands that are already seriously ill from COVID."

On Monday, Northwestern Medicine announced that the first Illinois case of "stealth omicron," a coronavirus subvariant, had been detected.

Judd Hultquist, Northwestern Medicine's Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution, said in a news release Monday, "It is unclear if the arrival of this new variant will result in a surge of local cases, but it is an important reminder that we are still in the middle of an ongoing pandemic."