Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that she tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to a report from The Hill.
''Earlier today, I tested positive for COVID-19. I am experiencing cold-like symptoms but otherwise feel fine which I credit to being vaccinated and boosted,'' Lightfoot, a Democrat, said in a tweet. ''I will continue to work from home while following the CDC guidelines for isolation.''
''This is an urgent reminder for folks to get vaccinated and boosted as it's the only way to beat this pandemic,'' she added in a follow-up tweet.
As of Jan. 9, data from the city shows that 72.8% of residents have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with 65.2% having completed the vaccine series.
Chicago has a daily COVID case average of 4,793, down 8% from last week, according to city data.
Lightfoot's infection comes just one day before Chicago schools are expected to reopen after the city's teachers union voted to work remotely rather than in person, prompting a teacher walkout and four days of canceled classes.
The teachers union's attempt to switch to remote learning amid a surge in COVID-19 cases caused Chicago Public Schools to cancel all classes. The district locked teachers out of their online teaching programs and withheld their pay for the days they did not report for in-person instruction.
Lightfoot had previously criticized the teachers' actions, calling the walkout ''illegal.''
''What the Chicago Teachers Union did was an illegal walkout,'' Lightfoot said Sunday on NBC's ‘Meet the Press.' ''They abandoned their posts, and they abandoned kids and their families.''
''We know that the safest place for kids to be is in-person learning in schools,'' she continued. ''And we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make our schools safe. They are safe. We've got the data to demonstrate that.''
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