DeKalb County COVID-19 school report: February starts with dip in virus cases, quarantine

In the first week of February, more than 130 DeKalb County public school students contracted COVID-19, and nearly 900 were quarantined because of virus exposure.

That’s fewer cases and quarantine numbers than have been reported in the county’s three largest school districts since classes resumed in 2022 after winter break.

The new numbers are according to the most recent data provided by DeKalb, Sycamore and Genoa-Kingston school districts. In total, 135 students from the three districts were reported positive for COVID-19, and 872 students were quarantined because of exposure to the virus.

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

There is a 10.9% seven-day positivity rate within DeKalb School District 428 communities, including DeKalb, Malta and Cortland. From Jan. 29 through Feb. 4 in DeKalb schools, 45 students contracted the virus and 643 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 10% 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. 31. According to that data, 51 students tested positive for COVID-19, with 37 students excluded in quarantine because of close contact and 131 additional students in quarantine. There were 7 employees that tested positive for COVID-19, one employee excluded in quarantine because of close contact and 10 employees were in quarantine.

Sycamore School District’s quarantine rate is about 4.8% of its student body of 3,533.

In the Genoa-Kingston school district, between Jan. 24 and Feb. 6, there were 39 students and 10 employees who tested positive for the coronavirus. In that time frame, 61 students and one staff member were also in quarantine but not positive according to data released by the district.

According to enrollment data, that means about 4.1% 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.