BREAKING NEWS: According to several reports, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will announce early Thursday a covid-19 vaccine mandate for all school employees in K-12 and higher education facilities statewide, with potential further mitigations and possible virtual learning plans looming.

All educational system employees will be mandated to get the covid-19 vaccination or submit to regular testing for covid, reports say.

Rock Island District 41 students wearing masks during a recent school activity. Today, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced all students and faculty will be required to wear masks during school activities.

Sources also say that there is a potential that Illinois schools could go to a hybrid model or full virtual learning if covid-19 numbers do not improve.

Already, several schools, including schools in the Decatur Public Schools district, the Berrien schools district, the DeKalb schools district and others have announced they will be going to a virtual learning program until at least mid-September.

In early August, Pritzker announced Illinois students preschool through 12 would be required to wear masks during school and indoor sports and activities, as reported on QuadCities.com.

Earlier tonight, QuadCities.com reported Illinois is bringing back a statewide indoor mask mandate, and Governor JB Pritzker will announce it, and possibly other statewide covid-19 mitigations, in a press conference tomorrow (Thursday).

The mask mandate is expected to apply to anyone over the age of two, regardless of vaccination status, echoing the same mask mandate brought back to Chicago two weeks ago, and to Cook County surrounding Chicagoland last week.

QuadCities.com had previously reported this afternoon that new mitigations were being considered and were probably on the way.

As in Chicago and Cook County, the mask mandate will apply to gyms, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, health clubs and other indoor venues. Pritzker will announce other details and mitigation parameters tomorrow.

Illinois Department of Public Health officials reported 4,451 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 40 related deaths Wednesday, that news following the state hitting its highest one-day total in covid cases since late January and its highest week for infections in months last week.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will announce new statewide covid mitigations tomorrow.

Last week’s seven-day average of new covid cases was the largest since spring. Illinois reported 4,904 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases Friday, the largest day since late January.

According to numbers released today, there are 2,197 patients in Illinois in the hospital with COVID-19, and 515 in the ICU, with 240 patients on ventilators.

QuadCities.com reported earlier today that Pritzker said today “greater mitigations” are coming if covid-19 numbers continue to spike massively in the state.

“If we are not able to bring these numbers down, if hospitals continue to fill, if the hospital beds and ICUs get full like they are in Kentucky – that’s just next door to Illinois – if that happens, we’re going to have to impose significantly greater mitigations,” Gov. Pritzker said in a press conference today.

For ongoing coverage of this issue, continue to check in daily with your free, fact-based local alternative media, QuadCities.com.

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Sean Leary Director of Digital Media

Sean Leary is an author, director, artist, musician, producer and entrepreneur who has been writing professionally since debuting at age 11 in the pages of the Comics Buyers Guide. An honors graduate of the University of Southern California masters program, he has written over 50 books including the best-sellers The Arimathean, Every Number is Lucky to Someone and We Are All Characters.