People wearing masks line up for a food drive in Brighton Park on Chicago’s Southwest Side on April 23, 2020. (WTTW News)
Changes to Illinois’ mask mandate could be coming “very soon,” according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“I’m the first person who wants to make sure we’re removing mitigations when we can keep people safe and healthy,” Pritzker said at an unrelated press event Tuesday afternoon in Springfield. “It’s a tremendous desire of mine to do what we did last summer, which is to take off masks and see if we can’t get through this now that we have treatments, widespread vaccinations, testing available and we all know to wear a mask when things get more difficult (or when) there may be a new variant.”
While the governor declined to provide specifics about what could trigger a rollback of the mask mandate, he said he’s closely watching hospitalization rates, which have started to decline. As of Tuesday, 2,634 people were hospitalized statewide with COVID-19, which is the fewest number of COVID-19 patients since early December, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data. When Pritzker lifted the state’s mask mandate last May, there were 1,503 people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to state data.
“We’re very pleased with where the numbers are going and assuming they’re continuing in the right direction …. I really believe that we ought to be looking seriously at how to ratchet that back,” Pritzker said of the mask mandate. “I think we’re going to be making announcements very soon about that.”
Asked whether a rollback of the state’s mask mandate would also apply to schools, the governor said a plan is being developed.
“The challenge in schools is … because it’s a central focus of communities and literally sometimes thousands of people interact in a school in a single day in one location – parents, grandparents, teachers, staff and kids – and spread out a community … we got to be very careful about how to remove mask mandates,” Pritzker said.
Schools must have testing available and “know at the local level when they should be putting masks back on when there are outbreaks,” he added. “That’s all in the careful planning process.”
On Monday, the governors of four states – Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon – announced plans to lift statewide mask requirements in schools by the end of February or March, according to the Associated Press.
Pritzker’s comments come on the heels of a decision by a central Illinois judge that filed a temporary restraining order that prevents more than 140 school districts from requiring masks in their buildings.
The governor slammed the judge’s decision Monday, saying it “cultivates chaos.” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Monday filed motions to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Contact Kristen Thometz: @kristenthometz | (773) 509-5452 | [email protected]
