* Good news from southern Illinois for a change…

Not only are cases of COVID-19 decreasing among Southern Illinois adults, but instances of the virus among school-aged children also is dropping.

“We have seen some really good signs with the number of COVID infections among school-age children across the area,” explained Nathan Ryder, community outreach coordinator for the Southern Seven Health Department COVID-19 team. “That’s a good sign and tells us that the procedures that are in place in the schools to mitigate the exposure to COVID-19 are working and so we are seeing less peer-to-peer transmissions in school students.”

Statewide, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported 4,291 reported cases of COVID-19 among ages 5-17 for the week ending Sept. 25. That’s down 30 percent from two weeks prior when more than 6,100 cases were reported.

Additionally, the IDPH website shows no significant school outbreaks of COVID-19 in the region with the exception of Okawville Grade School, where more than 16 cases were reported in September.

“Schools are doing very well working with the health departments, monitoring students and staff and monitoring possible potential cases,” said Cheryl Graff, regional superintendent for the Regional Office of Education #30, which includes Alexander, Jackson, Perry, Pulaski and Union Counties.

* It’s not even a bill yet, but when it’s finally drafted and filed it’s going nowhere. Without right wing media and Facebook, nobody would’ve ever even noticed…

In response to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for California students, a state representative for the 64th house district, based in Fox Lake, is filing a bill to prevent such vaccine mandate in Illinois.

State Representative Tom Weber, R-Fox Lake, is drafting the bill and expects it to be filed this week, according to his office.

* More…

* COVID-19 update: 1,676 hospitalized, 36 more deaths, 3,371 new cases, 2.2% positivity rate

* Want a religious objection to the COVID vaccine in writing? It may or may not work: While a church in downstate Illinois openly shared its commitment to help vaccine objectors obtain religious exemptions, Rock River Valley church leaders say they haven’t had to do that because no one is asking for them.

* Pfizer Asks FDA to Authorize Its COVID Vaccine for Kids Ages 5 to 11

* America Is Running Out of Everything: The container situation is even weirder than it looks. With demand surging in the United States, shipping a parcel from Shanghai to Los Angeles is currently six times more expensive than shipping one from L.A. to Shanghai. J.P. Morgan’s Michael Cembalest wrote that this has created strong incentives for container owners to ship containers to China—even if they are mostly empty—to expedite the packing and shipping of freights in Shanghai to travel east. But when containers leave Los Angeles and Long Beach empty, American-made goods that were supposed to be sent across the Pacific Ocean end up sitting around in railcars parked at West Coast ports. Since the packed railcars can’t unload their goods, they can’t go back and collect more stuff from filled warehouses in the American interior.

* ‘This is a crisis’: Tens of thousands of children affected by pandemic-related deaths of parents: New study estimates 140,000 children have experienced the death of a primary caregiver due to covid or other causes in excess of what occurs in a typical year.