Three Elgin Area School District U-46 buildings will reopen tomorrow after being closed for possible bacteria.
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“We believe, and doctors have confirmed, that students and staff were at very low risk of falling ill due to the findings in the test results”.
The 3,000 students and 350 staffers were evacuated from those schools last Wednesday after elevated levels of Legionella bacteria were discovered during the annual air quality testing.
The district said all 19 water cooling towers were being properly cleaned and sanitized to remove any trace of the bacteria. The illness is not spread person-to-person. Special needs students were also transported out of the buildings where the presences of Legionella was detected, ABC 7 News reports. Adalja says Legionnaires’ disease typically represents about 5 percent of pneumonia cases but is often underdiagnosed because the symptoms and treatment are similar.
Elgin School District U46 officials say Eastview Middle School, Larkin High School and the Educational Services Center, housing Gifford Street middle and high schools and the Central Schools Program, would remain closed Friday.
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[Image via: Screengrab / Twitter].
