NO MORE MASKS: Gov. JB Pritzker announced Friday night he's ending the mask mandate for Illinois schools.
"I’m gratified that the Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s restraining order, meaning that if a school mask mandate needs to go into effect in the future, we continue to have that authority.
An Illinois Supreme Court order issued late Friday found that a Springfield judge’s Feb. 4 order preventing statewide enforcement of the mask mandate should be vacated because a lower appellate court recently found the case to be moot. It wasn’t clear whether schools could still impose their own mask mandates, but Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudeyyah said last week at the time of the appeal that Pritzker "is encouraged that the court made it clear that school districts can continue to keep their own mitigations in place.
The agency is still advising that people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That's the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans reside.The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules.