New Emergency Mask Rules Proposed For Businesses, Schools

CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Public Health will file new emergency rules for enforcing the state's mask mandate on businesses, schools and other institutions, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday. The proposed rules do not apply to individuals.

Businesses that refuse to comply with public health guidance to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus can be subject to a class A misdemeanor and a fine of up to $2,500. The governor said the rules do not apply to individuals and are aimed at giving local health departments more opportunities to warn operators before issuing penalties.

Under the new rules, a written notice would be followed by an order to vacate the premises for those who do not comply voluntarily. Pre-pandemic laws only allowed law enforcement and public health officials to take stricter steps, like revoking licenses, according to the governor's office.

Illinois on Friday saw more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time since late May, and the statewide positivity rate rose to 4.1 percent.

Pritzker's administration filed a similar emergency rule in May before a brief special legislative session in Springfield that would have made it a misdemeanor for business owners to violate his administration's public health orders amid the pandemic.

But the administration withdrew the proposal following pushback during its consideration by the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR. Eight votes on the 12-lawmaker committee, divided equally among Democrats and Republicans, are needed to override an administrative rule. The committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

"We withdrew it because the legislature said they would take it up in session. They didn't do that," Pritzker told reporters Friday. "Now is the time. This is a make or break moment for the state of Illinois, for making sure that people are doing everything they can to mitigate, to reduce the spread."

Pritzker said the new rule was altered following discussions with members of the committee to focus on warnings before business owners are fined.

"This new rule provides multiple opportunities for compliance before any penalty is issued," he said. "These rules for scaled penalties that are significantly less harmful to businesses than those currently available for enforcement, are the right direction."

Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia said bars and restaurants are more vigilant than ever about health and hygiene, but new rules would help drive home the need for face covering and extra safety precautions.

"The stakes are high, because it would be catastrophic to shut down our economy again," Toia said. "It would be the death of the hospitality industry here in Illinois."

Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO union federation, urged the dozen state lawmakers who sit on the JCAR to approve the new emergency rules.

"Workers have been on the pandemic's front line to ensure all Illinois citizens receieve essential services they need and deserve. These workers are going to work at great significant personal risk to themselves and their families," Drea said. "Businesses who do not enforce rules and customers who refuse to wear face coverings are putting workers in real danger."

The chiefs of Illinois' two largest teachers unions also joined Pritzker at Friday morning's press conference in Chicago. They suggested the new rules would give public health departments more authority to ensure mask rules are followed by school districts.

The governor did not specify whether the fines, which range from $75 to $2,500, would apply to public school districts. Pritzker's office did not release a copy of the proposed rules. Patch has requested it, and more information will be added here if it is received.

"This gives the county public health authorities the ability to go in and consult with the schools to give them better enforcement mechanisms, or at least give them ideas, about how they might make sure schools are safer," Pritzker said.

"There are some areas of the state where there are school boards that are thinking that they want to open without masks. There are parents that are encouraging school boards in some areas of the state to open without masks," he said. "That is against the rules in the state of Illinois, and we now are giving the authority to county public health boards and county public health administrators to work with schools on improving those mitigations that they should have in place."

Earlier: Emergency Rule Threatening Owners Of Open Businesses Withdrawn

This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch