Illinois Mask Mandate To Be Lifted On Feb. 28, Gov. Pritzker Says

ILLINOIS — Days after a judge issued a temporary restraining order voiding the school mask mandate in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference on Wednesday that the state's indoor mask mandate will be lifted Feb. 28 as long as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to subside.

But the governor said the order will not go into effect for schools on that date but that a change in mask requirements for students could change "within weeks."

Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon that the lifting of the mask mandate comes after new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations have all dropped in recent weeks.

But Pritzker said that while the state will no longer require masks to be worn in indoor settings, individual municipalities — like the City of Chicago — as well as businesses and other organizations may choose to continue to require masks.

"We are on track to come out of this latest COVID storm than even the doctors expected," Pritzker said at a news conference.

"But whether we remove masks or not, COVID-19 has not gone away," the governor added.

Chicago health officials announced soon after Pritzker's announcement that the city would end both its mask mandate and proof of vaccination requirements by the end of February if numbers continue to drop.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Chicago's health department said when three of four primary community transmission and risk reach "lower transmission risk" levels and stay there for two weeks, mask and vaccine requirement mandates will be lifted.

Pritzker said that the state is now seeing the fastest rate of decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began. The daily rate of hospitalizations has fallen from more than 7,300 to 2,500 — a drop of 66 percent. COVID-19 related ICU patients has declined by 63 percent and 20 percent of ICU beds statewide are now available, up from 8 percent last month.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 4,742 new confirmed and probable cases and 2,496 people in the hospital with COVID-19. State health officials are also s reporting 449 people with COVID-19 in the ICU and 243 people on ventilators.

Pritzker said that schools are not included in the Feb. 28 lift order because they are included in a separate mandate. The changes will also not affect prisons or nursing homes, or healthcare facilities or public transit — all of which are under a federal mask mandate.

In relation to schools, Pritzker said keeping masks in schools continues to be the best way to keep in-person learning in place safely. The governor said that if numbers continue to trend in the right direction and progress continues to be made, the mask mandate for schools will be lifted soon "within weeks" and "as soon as humanly possible."

"The equation for schools just looks different right now than it does for the general population," Pritzker said. "Schools need a little more time."

He added: "The protocols and tools we have been using thus far have worked to keep schools open and they've done it because we have masks and testing and vaccines."

Pritzker said that infections are most dangerous when school environments are maskless and said there are far lower vaccination rates for school-aged children and higher exposure to COVID-19 for students who are not yet eligible for the vaccines. He said that while students and parents want to see an end to required masks, it it necessary, Pritzker said, to follow the metrics and listen to doctors.

While residents will no longer be required to wear masks in many indoor settings, Ezike said that masks will still be strongly recommended as "we continue to co-exist with COVID," the state's top doctor said.

Officials from the Illinois Restaurant Association praised the announcement after indicating earlier that the mask mandate had adverse effects on its members.

"We are encouraged by the Governor's decision to end the mask mandate in Illinois as Covid-19 cases have dropped to their lowest levels in more than two months," Sam Toia, president and CEO, Illinois Restaurant Association said in a statement issued on Wednesday. "Restaurants continue to do their part to keep their diners and team members safe, and are eager to take this next step toward normalcy and recovery. This is a sure sign of hope for many restaurants throughout our state still struggling to rebuild their businesses."

But the plan to gradually remove the indoor mask mandate does not include the removal of the school mask mandate, sources told NBC. Pritzker continued to fight a Sangamon County judge's ruling voiding school mask requirements, and said he has asked Attorney General Kwame Raoul to ask another judge to quickly overturn the ruling.

On Wednesday, Pritzker called the Sangamon County's judge ruling "an extremely bad decision" and said that the state will continue to appeal the ruling. Pritzker said that the ruling takes away one of the tools the state has going forward."

State health officials said that future COVID-19 surges may again require masks to be worn in public places. Pritzker said that one ruling in a downstate county should not keep state officials from keeping Illinoisans safe.

A source told Crain's Chicago Business that Pritzker will announce that the indoor mask mandate will be lifted in "a couple of weeks." Indoor mask requirements will be lifted in stages and potentially removed entirely by March, WGN reported.

Last week, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced more than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases, but that's a steep drop from late January, when IDPH announced a weekly new case load of more than 123,000. Hospital capacity woes have also sharply declined in recent weeks after the omicron variant surge peaked in Illinois.

Patch editor Shannon Antinori contributed to this report.