About 96% of employees at Evanston Township High School are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to calculations made using the school’s weekly coronavirus dashboard.
As of Sept. 17, 602 ETHS employees, teachers and others, report being fully vaccinated. That leaves fewer than 30 high school workers who have not received either the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna shots, or the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
(There is one caveat. The percentage was calculated by Evanston Now using last year’s staff number, as this year’s total is not yet available).
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has ordered all school employees to either be vaccinated or face frequent testing if they are given a religious or medical exemption.
While more than two-thirds of ETHS employees reported having their COVID shots before that order was issued, the number has been increasing rapidly since then. It’s unknown if that order was the reason, or the employees would have been vaccinated anyway.
Also based on the dashboard, 77% of ETHS students (2,880) are fully vaccinated. (The same caveat is noted here: Last year’s total number of students was used for percentage calculation, as the current number is not out yet).
Students are not required to be vaccinated against COVID. ETHS will offer voluntary testing for non-vaccinated students beginning in mid-October.
The student vaccination rate is slightly lower than the rate for all fully vaccinated Evanston residents, age 12 and over, of 81%. Those under age 12 are not yet eligible for the shots.