Over 250 more DeKalb County schoolchildren contract coronavirus, nearly 1,500 recently quarantined

Almost a month into the second half of the school year, more than 250 DeKalb County public school students contracted COVID-19 at the end of January, and nearly 1,500 were quarantined because of virus exposure.

That’s according to the most recent data provided by DeKalb, Sycamore and Genoa-Kingston school districts. In total, 259 students from the three districts were reported positive for COVID-19, and 1,488 students were quarantined because of exposure to the virus between Jan. 16 and Jan. 28.

COVID-19 case and quarantine data released by local schools is provisional, with most recent statistics varying by district.

There is a 14.2% seven-day positivity rate within DeKalb School District 428 communities, including DeKalb, Malta and Cortland. From Jan. 22 through Jan. 28 in DeKalb schools, 104 students contracted the virus and 1,044 students are quarantined districtwide. The numbers of staff who have contracted the virus and were quarantined were not available.

According to enrollment numbers from the most recent available Illinois Report Card data, DeKalb School District’s quarantine rate is about 16% of its student body population, which is 6,427 in the 2021-2022 school year.

The latest data for the Sycamore Community School District 427 is from Jan. 24. According to that data, 114 students tested positive for COVID-19, with 103 students excluded in quarantine because of close contact and 307 additional students in quarantine. There were 12 employees that tested positive for COVID-19 and 13 employees were in quarantine.

Sycamore School District’s quarantine rate is about 9% of its student body of 3,533.

In the Genoa-Kingston school district, between Jan. 16 and Jan. 23, there were 41 students and eight employees who tested positive for the coronavirus. In that time frame, 34 students were also in quarantine but not positive according to data released by the district. According to enrollment data, that means about 5.1% of Genoa-Kingston School District’s student population of 1,480 is in quarantine.

Each school district updates its COVID-19 reports at least once a week. In DeKalb, data is collected each Friday and will be updated on the district’s website each Monday, according to the website. In Sycamore, the COVID-19 online data page is updated weekly. Genoa-Kingston’s data is released every other week via a Twitter post from O’Daniell and also is shared on the district’s website.