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* UPDATED x1 * Governor to announce end of mask mandate today, except for schools and congregate facilities

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker will lay out a plan on Wednesday to phase out his mask mandate for Illinois residents in most indoor settings, sources said.

Pritzker teased the rollback earlier Tuesday, telling residents to “stay tuned” for an update on the masking policy that has been back in effect for about six months — and which has faced pushback over the past week as Illinois’ COVID-19 metrics sink to the lowest levels seen since the onset of the Omicron variant.

While Pritzker is expected to wind down the mandate for the public at large, state officials plan to continue waging a legal battle to keep masks on in schools, which present a different ongoing challenge in the pandemic, according to the Democratic governor.

“We’re very close,” Pritzker said at an unrelated Springfield news conference Tuesday afternoon. “The challenge in schools … is because it’s such a central focus of communities, and literally sometimes thousands of people are interacting in a school in a single day in one location.”

* NBC 5…

It is not known when the mandate will be fully removed, but sources tell NBC 5 that the plan is to have the mandate dropped before March 1.

* ABC 7…

The source said the changes will impact malls, restaurants, bars and places of business, but not schools. Schools are governed by a separate mandate, and will be addressed separately.

“Because it’s such a central focus of communities, and literally sometimes thousands of people are interacting in a school, we’ve got to be very careful about how we remove those mask mandates,” Pritzker said previously. […]

The changes will also not impact prisons or nursing homes, the source said, or healthcare facilities or public transit, which are under a federal mask mandate.

…Adding… Richard Irvin campaign…

Based on initial news reports of JB Pritzker’s upcoming announcement, Richard Irvin released the following statement in response to Pritzker’s refusal to end the indoor mask mandates for all:

“A few short days ago, this Governor refused to end mandates saying we needed to ‘follow the science’ but today says everyone can remove their masks except the lowest risk population. Illinois is being led by a Governor who puts politics and special interests ahead of parents and their children. Enough is enough.”

*** UPDATE *** Excerpt from the announcement…

With statewide COVID-19 hospitalization rates declining faster than any other point in the pandemic, Illinois is on track to lift the statewide indoor mask requirement on Monday, February 28, 2022. Mask requirements will continue where federally mandated, such as on public transit and in high-risk settings including healthcare facilities and congregate care. Masking requirements will also continue to apply in all daycare settings. The state intends to continue masking requirements in P-12 schools subject to pending litigation which impacts a number of schools. As the CDC reaffirmed just today, masks remain a critical tool to keep schools safe and open.

The state reaches this point with more than 21.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered to Illinois residents. Per the CDC, Illinois continues to lead the Midwest in people who have received at least one shot, with 75.7% of people having received their first dose. Illinois also has the most fully vaccinated 17-and-under population in the region, though across the nation, youth vaccination rates continue to trail adult rates.

“We are now seeing the fastest rate of decline in our COVID-19 hospitalization metrics since the pandemic began. If these trends continue — and we expect them to —then on Monday, February 28th, we will lift the indoor mask requirement for the State of Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I want to be clear: Many local jurisdictions, businesses and organizations have their own mask requirements and other mitigations that must be respected. Throughout this pandemic, we’ve deployed the tools available to us as needed. Our approach has saved lives and kept our economy open and growing.”

Today the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is reporting 4,742 new confirmed and probable cases and 2,496 people in the hospital with COVID-19. IDPH is also reporting 449 people with COVID-19 in the ICU and 243 people on ventilators. With 20% of ICU beds now available statewide, this marks the fastest rate of decline in the hospital metrics since the pandemic began.

“While masks will no longer be required in most indoor locations beginning February 28, they are still recommended,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Masks offer a layer of protection and for people who have an underlying health condition or who are around those who do, you may choose to continue wearing a mask. Similarly, if you find yourself in a crowded, indoor setting, a mask can still help protect you. We will continue to recommend masks.”

…Adding… Press release…

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin offered the following response to Governor J.B. Pritzker’s announcement Wednesday regarding COVID mitigations, noting that Pritzker has no plan for schools.

“Governor Pritzker’s failure to have a clear plan in place for schools to give parents and children hope of returning to a normal life is astounding. It is year three of this pandemic, and continuing to leave these families in the dark, with no data or metrics presented, is unconscionable and a clear sign the Governor should not be trusted to get us out of this pandemic.”

The governor publicly advised schools that weren’t part of the case to continue doing what they had been doing. Not sure what the beef is there.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:13 am

Comments

I don’t like it. I don’t care about masks or vaccine mandates as long as there are no capacity limits for bars, restaurants, concert venues, ect. This is just aimed at placating people who never took the global pandemic seriously in the first place.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checker Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:30 am
-This is just aimed at placating people -

There is an election in November. Those who want to run on masking can do so.

Comment by Steve Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:35 am
Hopefully someone who will take COVID seriously and not placate the zealots will primary Pritzker

Comment by NotSurprised Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:39 am
===This is just aimed at placating people who never took===

Meh. If that was the case, then the school mandate would also be lifted.

I don’t get the mask mandate in bars and restaurants anyway since you can still get or transmit a virus sitting at a table eating dinner.

Wear an N95 and do one-way masking everywhere else.

Frankly, I haven’t been to a supermarket since before the pandemic began because it takes up so much of my day. Instacart is so much easier for me. Not everyone can do that, but, again, there are N95 masks.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:40 am
There is no school mask mandate. It was invalidated. Assuming the ruling stays in place, there cannot be another mandate in schools unless done by GA, am I wrong?

Comment by Machi Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:41 am
It would be responsible to tie this to Community Transmission Level, which the CDC still has at the highest level for every single county in Illinois, rather than the calendar. At the rate cases are dropping, March could be early, or it could be a late, depending on where we are at by then. Regardless of the metric used, it should be forward looking, such as wastewater surveillance, and not hospitalizations which tell you were things were weeks ago.

Comment by AC Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:41 am
===someone who will take COVID seriously and not placate the zealots will primary Pritzker===

One of the dumber comments I’ve seen here in a while.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:41 am
=== am I wrong? ===

Yes

https://capitolfax.com/2022/02/08/the-roots-of-the-current-chaos/

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:42 am
=I don’t get the mask mandate in bars and restaurants anyway since you can still get or transmit a virus sitting at a table eating dinner.=

I was reminded by a comedian last week that Covid knows when you’re standing. I think the mask mandate in restaurant/bars was a difficult concession made to an industry that was ravaged by the effects of this virus. We needed to allow them to reopen while acknowledging that they were a significant place of transmission. The mandates were a bit of window dressing. I think when all is said and done it will suffer the greatest economic impact. And the reality is that whether or not there’s a mandate or not I’m just not spending as much of my time and money in these establishments these days. Some of that’s due to the pandemic but a lot of it is simply a change in behavior that’s becoming more of a habit.

Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:49 am
Mixed thoughts.

On the one hand as noted the mandate for things like restaurants and bars seemed pretty useless to begin with.

Especially given there haven’t been any real capacity restrictions since last winter, if I recall.

On the other hand I’m still kind of surprised by how much people hate masks when it’s pretty simple? I never saw them as being the roadblock for things being normal, it’s a piece of cloth. Alas.

Comment by Nick Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:52 am
==It would be responsible to tie this to Community Transmission Level,==

The number of cases and transmission level is less relevant now. You want to look at hospitalizations and deaths. It doesn’t matter if 50,000 people are getting it if the hospitalization and death rates remain lower.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:54 am
Not everyone is eligible for a vaccine, Governor. Those who contract the virus bring it home. We are soooo close, but we are not there yet. The C.D.C. reinforced its recommendation on mask wearing last night in response to the block of states lifting their mandates. Masking is not policy simply because of omicron.

Comment by Dirty Red Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:58 am
Makes no sense that he is keeping it in place for schools if he is lifting it for bars, churches, stores, restaurants, etc…

Comment by Chicagonk Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:11 am
If you do not feel safe, do not go out. It’s that simple.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:13 am
==Covid knows when you’re standing.==

Dining and large sporting events were always the weak link in the masking chain. With the vaccine going on two years, masks are becoming more of a symbol of social standing…now that concern for one’s fellow man is an affront to freedom.

Comment by Jocko Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:14 am
I’m pro-mask but the fact is that every time I go to a store, half of the people are not wearing them. My kid plays indoor soccer and we walk by a huge sign that says “Masks Required” as we enter the building, and maybe 10% of the people watching the games are wearing masks. After two years, no one wants to actually enforce the mandate anymore. I hope if numbers rise he considers bringing it back but we may as well stop the charade of there being a mandate now. I will continue to wear mine where I wish though.

Comment by Grimlock Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:14 am
@Grimlock

Our kids must go to the same indoor soccer place.

I kinda understood why businesses don’t want to enforce the mask stuff on customers. You never know what kind of lunatic you are going to run into. What I don’t get is why have these signs up if your employees arent even wearing masks?

Comment by MrMisery Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:21 am
“dropped before March 1″

Just weeks before a special day for the Irish and Chicago bars.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:22 am
===Meh. If that was the case, then the school mandate would also be lifted.===

Maybe it is not intentional, but sort of an unintentional influence. Yeah, I’ve accepted that there is a pretty fair risk of getting COVID at bars and restaurants, but people got to live too. I don’t want to give ground to people who won’t take simple measures to help stop a global pandemic. What would’ve happened if we listened to these types of people in World War II?

Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:24 am
==The number of cases and transmission level is less relevant now. You want to look at hospitalizations and deaths. It doesn’t matter if 50,000 people are getting it if the hospitalization and death rates remain lower.==

Cases still matter. Cases lead to more cases, illness, injury from the virus, hospitalizations and deaths (662 so far this month in Illinois). Remember when the country passed 900,000 deaths from COVID a few days ago? Since then, there’s been another 32,443 deaths added. There’s certainly an argument to be made for adjusting the tolerable level of cases higher given the characteristics of Omicron, but using hospitalizations only tells you what happened in the past.

Comment by AC Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:25 am
==Hopefully someone who will take COVID seriously and not placate the zealots will primary Pritzker ==

The idea that JB Pritzker, of all people, has not taken COVID seriously boggles my mind.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:31 am
JB has focused on the ability of hospitals to provide regular care to all patients. IDPH hospitalizations of COVID have plummeted from 26% to 11% in the last month. The case number ae also way down and trending down- so the data would point to it being advisable to remove the indoor mask mandate…

Percent of All Hospital Beds in use that are occupied by COVID-19 patients
11%

Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:31 am
===Hopefully someone who will take COVID seriously and not placate the zealots will primary Pritzker===

Do *you* vote in Democratic primaries?

Why or why not?

I don’t think you grasp the party/politicization of the virus, mandates, vaccines… nope.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:33 am
==literally sometimes thousands of people are interacting in a school in a single day in one location.”==

the hundreds of ppl inside the equality gala maskless do not count though? I don’t get it.

Comment by Wowie Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:52 am
This is going to be the new normal. We will go through periods that won’t require masks- a few new variants will pop up and they might be required again. There is no endgame for Covid with vaccine numbers. We just have to ride our variants and live normal lives in between. You can’t wear a mask forever, this is a good step.

Comment by Alice Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 9:58 am
Irvin tends to gloss over details (examples today in 2 different threads), which is typical of pugilistic politicians. It plays well to some, but I’d rather have a thinker than a fighter.

Comment by Jibba Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:03 am
I think we need to eliminate the masks in schools. I am very worried one of these high school athletes may suffocate due to wearing one of these masks to tightly.

Comment by Blue Dog Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:05 am
Key indicators are trending down (hospitalizations, etc.). Pritzker is following the numbers, as promised, yet he is blasted by Repubs and others. It will be interesting to see if the trends stall or reverse. I’ll mask up when out. It’s been 3 years since I’ve had a respiratory flu requiring antibiotics and steroids. I’m all in on masking.

Comment by Froganon Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:11 am
==Just weeks before a special day for the Irish and Chicago bars.==

And for Downtown Springfield too. It’s like “Halloween in March” there.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:12 am
==I am very worried one of these high school athletes may suffocate due to wearing one of these masks to tightly==

Come on, no one makes them wear masks during sporting events.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:17 am
If school-aged residents of the State of Illinois could vote in mid-term elections the school mask mandate would also evaporate into thin air….

Comment by JolietJake Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:19 am
“The case number ae also way down and trending down”

Maybe. Case numbers are down because CDC, IDPH and local PH changed the way active cases are counted. Add to that the fact that positive home test go unreported and not factored into the numbers.

Comment by The Sentinel Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:25 am
Let’s not go truther over what ‘true’ case numbers look like. They’ve always been less than what is reality, sure, which is why we also have other metrics like positivity rates and hospitalizations, which are all saying the same thing.

Comment by Nick Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:28 am
==If school-aged residents of the State of Illinois could vote in mid-term elections the school mask mandate would also evaporate into thin air==

And Spider-Man would be elected Governor, so I’m not really sure what your point is.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:39 am
==We needed to allow them to reopen while acknowledging that they were a significant place of transmission. The mandates were a bit of window dressing.==

Bars and restaurants got lambasted during lots of 2020- early 2021 press conferences but according to IDPH’s own outbreak reporting bars have been less than 2% of outbreak sites since July 1, 2021 and over same span restaurants were only at 2.9% of all outbreaks. That’s IDPH’s own data. And that’s thru Feb 4 so omicron based outbreaks baked in there too.

https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/data/contact-tracing/outbreak-locations.html?regionID=0

In Chicago outbreaks linked to bars and restaurants? Even lower based on CDPH data.

https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/data/contact-tracing/outbreak-locations.html?regionID=11

Comment by ChicagoBars Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:39 am
==I am very worried one of these high school athletes may suffocate due to wearing one of these masks to tightly==

Come on, no one makes them wear masks during sporting events.

Yeah, they are wearing them during sporting events in the IHSA, we had to enforce it for football in the Spring last year. If you look at pictures of IHSA basketball you will see faces poorly covered by masks, they even have timeouts built into games for it now.

Because of the use of masks, games are paused at — or just past — the four-minute mark of every quarter. It’s a 90-second, official timeout and not charged to either team. They are designed to have teams social distance and take a break from wearing their masks during that time.

That being said, the Canadian Women’s Hockey team played an entire game in the Olympics this week vs Russia wearing N95 masks.

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:40 am
Ken Dunkin 2.0 needs to find out where he stands on anything.

Comment by Real Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:43 am
==Come on, no one makes them wear masks during sporting events.==

That’s the crazy thing. Was at a HS basketball game a couple weeks ago. All players were wearing masks under their chins. Is it really making someone feel that the players are somehow closer to complying with the mandate by making them wear the masks in a completely useless way?? Just skip the theatrics and let them play without the masks. What they’re doing is actually making it worse because the masks are just soaking up sweat.

Comment by BigDoggie Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:58 am
==If you look at pictures of IHSA basketball you will see faces poorly covered by masks==

I just did, I didn’t see a single mask pulled up over even the mouth during play.

If it’s a rule on the books, it’s being so poorly enforced that it’s hardly a rule at all, and certainly not a good reason to do away with masks in schools. If you’re really concerned about athletes (and tbf, you’ve provided some information that indicates that we needn’t be), we could carve out an exception for them.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 10:59 am
==Is it really making someone feel that the players are somehow closer to complying with the mandate by making them wear the masks in a completely useless way?==

I believe the idea is that they can easily pull the mask back up during time outs/huddles, on the bench, etc. From my observations, I don’t know how much that happens (Seems like masking noticeably increases when someone is on the bench, but not so much during TOs), but my point is that concerns about athletes suffocating seem really silly. If you want to argue that the way masks are being enforced at sporting events doesn’t actually protect the athletes from COVID, then the answer might just as easily be “enforce the rule better”, not “abolish the rule”.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 11:09 am
== I just did, I didn’t see a single mask pulled up over even the mouth during play. ==

I didn’t offer an opinion on masks in play, just telling you the rules.

In football, we were told in terms of enforcement that you were not to stop play for it (it would be ‘enforced’ before the play started) and enforcement was to tell the player to put the mask up. You could also wear it tied to your facemask. I think I sent 2 or 3 kids off during the season for not having a mask at all.

In the Spring for football officials were expected to wear masks as well and we did. There was even a mask on the market that had a pocket in the front of it that stuck out for the whistle (you can imagine what that looked like) and in general electronic whistles were used.

Your comment was
== Come on, no one makes them wear masks during sporting events. ==

That is not the case, I know I enforced it in football in the Spring and they do make them put their masks up in basketball at the start of play. Some other sports have been luck enforcing it Badminton for example. So yes they do ‘make them’ wear masks during sporting events.

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 11:35 am
==I am very worried one of these high school athletes may suffocate due to wearing one of these masks to tightly==

As OneMan said. The Woman’s Hockey Team from Canada just played an entire game in N95/KN95 masks. They weren’t pulled down over their noes. As a horrible hockey player, let me tell if you can play an entire world class level hockey game in a N95 - you can do just about anything.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 11:47 am
The most logical inference from Richard Irvin’s statement is that he believes the mask mandates should continue.

Comment by Google Is Your Friend Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 11:50 am
==Just weeks before a special day for the Irish and Chicago bars.==

So you are recommending April 1? Gotcha.

Comment by Big Dipper Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 11:58 am
== and special interests ahead ==

Yeah. That’d be science & the health & safety of IL residents.

LOL

Comment by sal-says Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 12:18 pm
==That is not the case, I know I enforced it in football in the Spring==

So that proves that they were enforcing it almost a year ago. What about now?

==and they do make them put their masks up in basketball at the start of play==

And yet, when I “look at pictures of IHSA basketball” I don’t see a single mask pulled over the mouth and nose during play. And that’s the evidence that you cited, I can’t help it that it doesn’t show anyone making them wear masks during sporting events.

Now, we all understand that I used some vernacular and hyperbole in saying “no one”. Has someone been forced to wear a mask during a sporting event more recently than a year ago? Maybe. It’s a big state. If it’s important to you, I’ll assume arguendo that there has been a non-zero number of examples of athletes being forced to wear masks during competition. But the connection between that and an actual threat to the health of athletes is attenuated, especially given what you said about Olympics hockey, and even if we can establish an actual threat to athletes, the connection between that and dismantling a mask mandate in schools in toto is even further attenuated.

Now, if all you want to do is argue the narrow point of “is anyone enforcing mask mandates on athletes”, then, fine, you can declare yourself the winner on that one. But its not the topic I was originally discussing, nor one I have any further interest in.

Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 12:30 pm
==I am very worried one of these high school athletes may suffocate due to wearing one of these masks to tightly==

Dont worry its only a .1% of them actually dying… /s

Comment by MrMisery Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 12:54 pm
===If school-aged residents of the State of Illinois could vote in mid-term elections===

Pretty much all current high school seniors, and perhaps a quarter of juniors, can vote in the primary and general elections this year.

===IDPH’s own outbreak reporting bars have been less than 2% of outbreak sites===

These are known outbreaks with known sources. Notice that there is no unknown category? The number of cases that these outbreaks represent are a tiny fraction of all cases. This dataset says next to nothing about the source of spread for the vast majority of cases.

===Dont worry its only a .1% of them actually dying===

I love it. “Masks on athletes have a 99.8% survival rate, so why are you so afraid of them? Live your masked lives, people.” /s

Comment by thechampaignlife Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 2:30 pm
As a parent with a child under 5, I cannot begin to tell you how exhausted, annoyed, and stressed beyond comprehension at this news.

Comment by Avocado Toast Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 3:57 pm
Avocado, that’s a good point. And even with this proposal, people are screaming that the schools should drop masks too.

Comment by The Velvet Frog Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 4:27 pm
===should not be trusted to get us out of this pandemic.===

And your plan is….mask off and let ‘er rip? Or just happy to not be in the hot seat having to make decisions?

Comment by Jibba Wednesday, Feb 9, 22 @ 8:25 pm
===IDPH’s own outbreak reporting bars have been less than 2% of outbreak sites===

Meanwhile, the same site reports that Correctional facilities have been 8.65% of all outbreaks. AFSCME, any comment? Will that change your mind on your corrections employee vax stance?

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 8:26 am