You must once again wear a mask indoors in Illinois: Pritzker announces statewide mask mandate

"Wearing a mask continues to be one of the simplest, cheapest ways to reduce the spread of Covid-19."

(Maxime/Unsplash)

During today's press conference, Illinois Director of Public Health, Dr. Ngozi Ezike said, "Wearing a mask continues to be one of the simplest, cheapest ways to reduce the spread of Covid-19."

As expected on Thursday morning, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced a public indoor mask mandate for everyone over age two starting on Monday, and vaccine requirements for all school employees in P-12 and higher education beginning on September 5.

Citing rising cases due to the more contagious delta variant, Pritzker warned the public that hospitals in Illinois are struggling to keep up with the current surge.

Vaccinations required for teachers and staff

Stating, "this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated" Pritzker announced that effective September 5th, all teachers and staff for Kindergarten through 12th-grade and higher education will be required to be vaccinated for Covid or will be tested weekly. "95% of our deaths are among unvaccinated people," Pritzker said.

Mask mandates required indoors

Aside from vaccinations, Pritzker said that masks are a tool to prevent illness. Beginning Monday, Illinois will require indoor masks to be worn in public spaces by everyone over the age of two regardless of vaccine status.

Illinois hospitals are filling up with Covid patients

Dr. Ezike announced that 2,184 individuals are reported to currently be in the hospital with Covid.

Out of these, 489 are in ICU beds, and 241 are on ventilators. Dr. Ezike said the last time we have seen this number of hospitalizations for Covid was in May.

Dr. Ezike warned that some Illinois regions are on course to run out of ICU beds shortly. In Region 5, on Tuesday, there was only one ICU bed available for the entire region.

If cases continue this current trend, she says Region 4 could be out of ICU beds by next week. And Regions 3 and 6 could run out of ICU beds by mid-September.

Dr. Ezike said, "These hospitalizations are preventable, and vaccination is our tool."

ICU admissions are up for Chicago-area kids

Children's hospitals are seeing an uptick not just due to Covid, but other illnesses, such as RSV.

Lurie's Children's Hospital in Chicago has seen "unusually high inpatient volumes." And Advocate Children's Hospital announced that their two locations are admitting one to two children per day with Covid.

Cook County's mask mandate began on Monday

Cook County, including Chicago, started requiring masks indoors on Monday. There are some exceptions where patrons can remove their masks while eating or drinking at bars and restaurants.

Restaurant and bar owners are hoping limited capacity restrictions do not come back into play. Sam Sanchez with the Illinois Restaurant Association told ABC7 Chicago, "There's a lot of restaurants, even myself, will close temporarily if there's a restriction on occupancy."

As of today, no further mitigations, including capacity limits for businesses, have been mentioned.

Schools and daycares already have mask mandates

On August 4, Gov. Pritzker announced mask mandates for daycares, P-12 schools, and long-term care facilities.

Schools caught not enforcing the mask requirements have faced the consequences. Currently, 51 Illinois schools have been put on probation for defying the mask orders. These schools are in jeopardy of losing state funding and the ability to participate in state playoff games this fall.

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