Unvaccinated Teens Spur New COVID Surge, School Outbreaks: Report

ILLINOIS — Unvaccinated teens and children are causing classroom outbreaks and driving a surge in coronavirus cases ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the Chicago Tribune's analysis of state health data.

The paper calculated a 62 percent increase in the seven-day average for cases in children under 17, including a rise of 57 percent in the 0-4 age group, 59 percent for those 5-11 and 71 percent for those 12-17.

Health officials fear the uptick could result in kids bringing the disease home to vulnerable family members around the Thanksgiving table next week.

"The upper Midwest is driving a lot of the COVID outbreak now in Chicago," Dr. Allison Arwady, the city's public health commissioner, said at a new conference Tuesday. "The Midwest is seeing highest average daily COVID case rate in the U.S. All Midwest states continue to increase, including Illinois."

Unvaccinated Americans are currently six times more likely to catch the virus and 12 times more likely to die from it, according to state and national health data.

Arwady said Chicago remains at high risk for transmission. Thirty-eight and states and one U.S. territory remain on the city's travel advisory, which applies to anyone who is unvaccinated. Arwady said many schools follow the city's travel advisory and that it is important to make sure kids get vaccinated before traveling this holiday, especially since young people seem to be driving the recent surge.

"As more and more adults have the opportunity to and are vaccinated, we are seeing children be more likely to be diagnosed with COVID," she said. "It doesn't mean that the schools are any less safe. It doesn't mean that the risk has changed. Except that as community numbers go up for COVID, we see those same numbers go up in every setting."

Arwady said Chicago public schools had seen about a 30 percent increase in cases since late October — about the same increase as the city as a whole. What stands out, she said, is the increase among unvaccinated youths ages 12 to 17.

"It really is these unvaccinated teenagers that are right now a big part of what's driving this increase," Arwady said. "In the last 30 days, 1 in 4 Chicago COVID cases have been in children under age 18, whereas over the whole pandemic it's been about half that."

Unvaccinated teenagers are seven to 10 times more likely to catch the coronavirus as their vaccinated peers, Arwady said.

Vaccines were recently approved for children as young as 5, and Chicago Public School students had Friday off to get their shots.

Teens can get the adult shot, while the dose of the vaccine for children in the 5-11 age group is smaller than the adult dose — 10 micrograms rather than 30 — and so are the needles. Health officials encouraged parents to talk to their pediatricians and get their kids vaccinated as soon as possible.

Statewide, COVID-19 cases have ticked up 29 percent since last week. The state reported on Friday another 22,600 confirmed and probable cases over the previous seven days and 129 more deaths. The state's seven-day average case positivity rate was 2.5 percent, while the test positivity rate was 3 percent.

The Illinois Department of Public Health currently reports 148 active youth outbreaks at sports practices and games, youth camps, after school activities and in the classroom.

Altogether, nearly 1.74 million Illinoisans have caught the virus, and 26,077 have died from it.

State health officials say about 67 percent of Illinoisans have received at least once COVID-19 vaccine dose and 61 percent of state residents are fully vaccinated.