Illinois follows CDC recommendation that people wear masks indoors in coronavirus hot spots — which right now doesn’t include most of Chicago area
Illinois will follow federal recommendations that even fully vaccinated people should once again wear masks indoors in areas where the coronavirus is surging — which currently does not include most of the Chicago area, state public health officials said Tuesday.
The updated mask guidelines issued Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said masks should be worn indoors by everybody, including the fully inoculated, in areas of “substantial” or “high” transmission.
As of Sunday, the most recent period for which data is available, that included roughly two-thirds of Illinois’ 102 counties, predominantly in central and southern Illinois. In the Chicago area, only Will County met that threshold.
The CDC also is recommending universal masking in schools, regardless of vaccination status, and Illinois will update its recommendations for districts to follow suit, state health officials said.
“While data continues to show the effectiveness of the three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized in the U.S., including against the delta variant, we are still seeing the virus rapidly spread among the unvaccinated,” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement.
“Cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 both continue to increase, overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated, but the risk is greater for everyone if we do not stop the ongoing spread of the virus and the delta variant.”
The state, however, is not reimposing the mask mandate for fully vaccinated people that was lifted in mid-May based on previous CDC recommendations.
The change of guidance from federal officials underscores the difficulty Illinois has had in its efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to vaccinate people against the virus.
Many of the counties currently meeting the CDC’s bench marks for substantial or high transmission are the same areas where there was the strongest pushback against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s coronavirus restrictions and where vaccination efforts have lagged.
“What we’re attempting to do is to look at masks and the most effective thing you can do, which is get vaccinated,” Pritzker said Tuesday at an unrelated event before the CDC guidelines were released. “Get vaccinated. Do I need to say that again? Please, everybody, get vaccinated if you are not already vaccinated.”
As he has since May, Pritzker encouraged fully vaccinated people to bring masks with them when they go out and wear them in situations where they don’t feel comfortable.
That’s what he plans to do when he attends the upcoming Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park, he said.
Statewide, coronavirus cases continue to rise rapidly.
The state on Tuesday reported 1,669 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, bringing the average number of daily cases to 1,426 over the past week. That’s the highest seven-day average since May 20 and up from an average of 294 daily cases on July 1.
Hospitalizations also continue to rise statewide, along with the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units and on ventilators.
The state averaged 17,776 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered per day during the week ending Monday, near the lowest level since shots became widely available earlier this year.
