CHICAGO — Chicago’s public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady suggested Tuesday that the end of the city’s indoor mask mandate could align with the lifting of Illinois’ requirement on Feb. 28 after all, even if the city’s COVID-19 metrics haven’t been at a lower level for long enough.
Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced he will lift his mask requirement for most indoor public places at the end of the month should the state’s most recent and largest coronavirus surge continue to subside. Under the statewide rules, the face coverings will still be required at schools, health care settings and public transportation, though the school mask mandate has been upended by a recent court ruling that temporarily suspended the rule for children of families who sued.
In response to the governor’s decision, Chicago health officials said later that day they too will be able to remove the city’s mask requirement for indoor settings if current trends continue.
The city had said lifting the mandate will require three out of four COVID-19 metrics to fall to the lowest or second-lowest category of risk — and remain there for two consecutive weeks. As of Tuesday, the 2% positivity rate met the “lower transmission” category, while capacities for intensive care-unit beds and non-ICU beds were at a “substantial transmission” level. The caseload of positive tests remained “high transmission” at an average of 431 per day.
As of Tuesday the city was not on track to meet and retain those metrics in time to match the Feb. 28 date.
But all the metrics are on their way down, and Arwady said in a Tuesday news conference she remains “optimistic” that enough of them will move into the lower risk category within days. If that happens, waiting for the metrics to stay put for two weeks might not be necessary.
“It can be confusing if there’s a difference of a few days,” Arwady said about matching the city and state’s dates for removing the mandate. “We’re going to see where we are next week and make a decision sort of either way there.”
In hinting at aligning with the state and ending the mandate on Feb. 28, Arwady said there would be no compromise on the threshold of three of the four metrics reaching lower transmission. And those categories must still stay there for at least a week before the mandate is removed, she said.
“If we are not able to move on the 28th, I think it would probably be not very long after that, but if it’s a difference of just a few days I don’t think It’s worth the potential confusion to the public,” Arwady said. “We’ve got to hit the data points.”
Although the city issues its own mask mandate, the state’s requirement supersedes the municipal order and must be lifted first.
The city has said the proof-of-vaccination mandate at restaurants, bars and other indoor settings could also be removed soon as COVID-19 wanes, although officials have not been as specific.
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