COVID Outbreak at Okawville Schools

Okawville schools were identified as a site of a COVID outbreak on the Illinois Department of Public Health website.

According to IDPH data, 18 students and staff had tested positive for COVID since the start of the school year.

School nurse Melinda Albers says that she is seeing more cases this year than last year, though she also provided some context to the state’s data.

She says that some of the students who test positive may not have even been in contact with anyone from school.

“We’ve had cases where the parents test positive, which means the students are at home when they begin to develop symptoms,” she explained. “They’re in our district, so they are counted toward the school’s total even though they were quarantined.”

Read the full story in this week’s issue.