DeKALB— Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, announced a two-week extension on vaccine requirements for higher education employees and students to Sept. 19.

Unvaccinated healthcare workers, school staff and students will now be required to get one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Sep. 19, according to a Friday news release. The two-week extension is intended to give schools and hospitals extra time to meet testing requirements and new accountability measures.

The extension was requested by the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Association of School Administrators and the Illinois Principals Association. 

“Vaccines remain our strongest tool to protect ourselves from COVID-19, the Delta variant, and most crucially, to maintain our healthcare system’s ability to care for anyone who walks through their doors in need of help,” Pritzker said, in a Friday news release. “While hospitals and schools move forward in good faith, this extension ensures they are prepared to meet this requirement to better protect our most vulnerable residents and children who are not yet eligible to get vaccinated.”

On Aug. 26, Pritzker announced that all K-12 and higher education employees and students must also get at least the first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 5 or submit to regular testing.

School workers, students and healthcare professionals who cannot provide proof of vaccination will still be required to submit to regular testing protocols in order to enter schools and hospitals. 

“We have said all along that the best place for students to be is in the classroom, as long as it’s safe,” said Kathi Griffin, president of the Illinois Education Association, in a Friday news release. “We believe the governor’s executive order – which encourages all education employees from preschool through college to be vaccinated and if they can’t, or won’t, then to be tested weekly – will help keep schools open and all those who work and learn inside them safe.”