Here’s what we know so far about Illinois’ new statewide, indoor mask requirement

Illinois is reinstating its statewide indoor mask mandate on Monday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Thursday.

The mask mandate will apply to everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status. It will not require masks outdoors, but state officials strongly encourage people to wear a face covering in crowded outdoor settings like festivals or concerts or any activities that require close contact with unvaccinated people.

“Illinois will join several other states that have reinstituted statewide indoor mask requirements regardless of vaccination status,” Pritzker said at a press conference Thursday. “Masks work, period.”

According to Pritzker’s executive order, masks will be required in indoor public places but can be taken off briefly to eat or drink and in workplaces where workers can stay at least six feet apart.

A representative from the Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday said they have not received any guidance on what specific indoor settings Pritzker’s mask mandate applies to. The agency hopes to have more information Friday or Monday.

Neither the St. Clair County Health Department or St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency have been provided such details.

COVID cases have risen in the later part of this summer, thanks to the highly contagious delta variant. On Friday, Illinois saw 4,904 new cases reported, the highest in seven months.

Meanwhile, in the metro-east, all seven counties are now on the state Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 warning list.

Illinois’ public health officials reported this week the seven counties in Region 4 had met or exceeded warning levels on the metrics used to track the spread of COVID-19. Those counties include St. Clair, Madison, Randolph, Clinton, Monroe, Bond and Washington.

Counties that are on the warning list are “flagged and aggressively investigated and reported” to Pritzker’s team to see if additional restrictions or intervention is necessary.

Currently, 37 Illinois counties and Chicago are at warning levels, due mostly to dwindling ICU bed availability. According to NBC Chicago, all Illinois counties, except one, are seeing a high community transmission rate of COVID-19.

The warning list, which is updated weekly, is based on several indicators that measure the health burden of COVID-19 on Illinois counties. A county reaches warning status when it hits certain criteria such as ICU bed availability, total hospitalizations due to COVID-19, case clusters, the number of new cases per 100,000 people, the number of COVID-19 tests performed, and COVID deaths.

The state health department reported Region 4 as a whole had less than 17.3% of its total intensive care unit beds at hospitals available to new patients.

Pritzker said Thursday the large majority of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in Illinois are of people who are unvaccinated, and the majority of cases and hospitalizations are coming from the southern and east-central portion of the state, where less than half of the population is vaccinated against the virus.

“This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” he said, adding that people who are refusing to be vaccinated are prolonging the pandemic. “These are preventable deaths and beyond the tragedy losing lives for no reason, this also means inflicting serious damage on communities.”

From January to July, Pritzker said, 98% of new cases are among the unvaccinated, 96% of COVID-19 hospitalizations are individuals who are unvaccinated and 95% of COVID-19 deaths have been people who were unvaccinated.

Currently, 52.74% of Illinoians, or 6,719,139 people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In the metro-east, as of Wednesday, 303,739 of the total 660,223 people who live in St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Washington, Bond, Monroe and Randolph counties had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

New vaccination requirements for preschool to 12th-grade school teachers and staff members, higher education students and personnel and healthcare workers were also announced, expected to go into effect Sept. 5. People who don’t get vaccinated in those settings will be required to be tested for COVID-19 at least once a week.

Pritzker urged those who haven’t been vaccinated to do so, calling it the “key” to ending the pandemic and returning to normal life.

“I’m hoping more Illinoisans on the fence about getting vaccinated will do so as soon as possible,” Pritzker said. “Remember, these vaccines are doing what they’re designed to do — essentially eliminate the risk of hospitalization and death.

Staff writer Garen Vartanian contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Here’s what we know so far about Illinois’ new statewide, indoor mask requirement."