Story at a glance
- More than 80 staff workers at a summer camp in Illinois tested positive for COVID-19.
- Camp officials were not checking vaccination statuses, and many attendees reported being unvaccinated.
- This comes as public health officials urge continued use of facial masks.
An Illinois summer camp reported that it experienced a COVID-19 outbreak in mid-June as camp officials stated that masks were not required on premises.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) counted 85 teens and adult staff who tested positive for COVID-19 while working at the camp located in central Illinois. One adult who was unvaccinated was hospitalized due to the virus.
Despite the vaccine being broadly available, public health officials state that not all children and staff were vaccinated. Camp administration was not checking for vaccination status.
“The majority of the 85 COVID-19 cases associated with the youth camp are among teens,” said IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike in the press release. “The perceived risk to children may seem small, but even a mild case of COVID-19 can cause long-term health issues. Additionally, infected youth who may not experience severe illness can still spread the virus to others, including those who are too young to be vaccinated or those who don’t build the strong expected immune response to the vaccine.”
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Several individuals also reportedly interacted with a separate nearby camp, leading to another 11 cases — 70 percent of which were among unvaccinated people.
Both outbreaks occurred within Illinois’s Schuyler and Adams counties. The specific camp was identified by USA Today as Crossing Camp. In response to the outbreak, the organization issued a statement on its registration page.
“Due to a recent outbreak of COVID 19 related to Student Camp June 13-17, we have made the difficult decision to postpone our 4th & 5th-grade Crossing Camp,” the statement reads. “We were so looking forward to spending time with your campers this weekend, but we believe the best way to value and love our students, difference makers, and staff is to delay camp until a safer time.”
Roughly 40 percent of populations in both counties are fully vaccinated.
This outbreak comes as health officials are encouraging the continued use of masks, despite high rates of vaccination in the U.S. Experts at the World Health Organization noted that vaccination alone won’t eradicate transmission.
Other more contagious variants of the virus, namely the delta variant, are also spreading and composing a greater proportion of total U.S. infections.
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