Mask Mandate In Illinois Medical Facilities To Remain For Now: Report
ILLINOIS — As Illinois residents adjust to loosened mask requirements on public transportation, in airports and on airplanes, they shouldn’t expect to see any changes at medical facilities, state officials have said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker lifted a statewide mask mandate last week after a federal judge in Florida ruled that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention had overstepped its bounds in extending the federal mask requirement for public travel.
However, after the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and the Department of Transportation lifted requirements for face coverings, a spokesperson for the governor’s office said requirements at medical offices and long-term care facilities will not be lifted “at the moment,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Mask requirements will remain in place for hospitals and at doctor and dentist offices, along with dialysis centers, nursing homes and other medical facilities. The health department, in line with guidance from the CDC, had put restrictions in place at the start of the pandemic, and they have remained in place and require visitors and patients to keep a mask over their nose and mouth at all times.
Some states, such as Texas and Iowa, have started to roll back requirements for face coverings in those places.
On Friday, state health officials announced that COVID-19 cases across the state continue to increase. After the health department announced a 30 percent jump in cases since April 8, officials said that there were 19,551 new cases in the following week across the state along with 58 new COVID-19-related deaths.
Four Illinois counties, including DuPage County, were moved into the medium community level for cases after the majority of the state had been registered in the low transmission rate the previous weeks.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said that 613 people across the state were hospitalized with COVID-19 and that 83 patients were in intensive care, with 26 on ventilators. The state’s preliminary caseload was 153 cases per 100,000 residents.
Illinois residents continue to have mixed feelings about masks, according to a recent Patch poll. About 54 percent of the more than 4,000 respondents to the poll said they will continue to wear masks on public transportation despite the lifting of the face covering requirement by state officials.
Hospital officials told the Tribune they are fine with the mask mandate for medical facilities remaining in place to the number of immunocompromised people that are in those environments. The immunocompromised remain at higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
State health officials said Friday that 76 percent of Illinois residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, while 68 percent of Illinoisans are fully vaccinated and 51 percent have received a booster.
This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch
