CDC Updates COVID Mask Guidelines: What It Means In Illinois

ILLINOIS — The Biden administration dramatically loosened COVID-19 mask guidance Friday as infection rates return to pre-omicron variant levels around the country.

The bottom line of the expected changes: About 70 percent of Americans will be able to shed their masks while indoors. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently announced the statewide mask mandate will lift starting Feb. 28 amid a drastic decrease in COVID-19 cases.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city will also drop its mask and proof-of-vaccination mandates on Monday, the same day that masking restrictions are set to expire statewide.

Although Pritzker fought to keep a school mask mandate in place, a court ruled that his appeal of an order blocking the mandate was "moot." A three-judge panel last week ruled that Illinois school districts can now make their own decisions regarding masks.

The new framework categorizes counties by “low,” “medium” or “high” risk. The CDC isn’t recommending mask-wearing in the first two categories, except among people who have underlying health conditions that put them at high risk for COVID-19.

In schools, masking is only recommended in counties with a high risk of infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously recommended that people wear masks in areas with substantial or high transmission — roughly about 95 percent of U.S. counties, according to the latest data. The new guidance comes as the virus becomes endemic and the Biden administration focuses on preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 rather than all instances of infection.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky tweeted Thursday that the agency is shifting its focus to concentrate on preventing the spread of COVID-19 to minimize the strain on the health care system.

In a White House briefing last week, she said hospital capacity is an “important barometer.”

“Our hospitals need to be able to take care of people with heart attacks and strokes,” she said. “Our emergency departments can’t be so overwhelmed that patients with emergent issues have to wait in line.”

In her Thursday night tweets, Walensky said community infection rates will determine when and where extra precautions such as mask wearing and testing should be targeted.

“Moving forward, our approach will advise enhanced prevention efforts in communities with a high volume of severe illness and will also focus on protecting our healthcare systems from being overwhelmed,” she tweeted.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus is highly contagious, but generally causes less severe COVID-19 illnesses than other variants, especially among people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, data shows.

Daily U.S. COVID-19 infection rates are down to about 82,000 cases nationwide, according to a database kept by The New York Times, and hospitalizations are down about 44 percent. However, about 2,000 people a day still are dying of the virus, The Times reported.

Omicron infection rates in Illinois are down, although the Illinois Department of Public Health still lists it as a "variant of concern," accounting for about 99 percent of COVID-19 infections in the state. The delta variant also remains a variant of concern in Illinois.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.