CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- City and state officials are talking about what it’s going to take for their indoor mask requirements to be lifted. Is it possible that we can get there in time for the holidays?
It is a big “if.” Governor Pritzker said he and state officials would like to see the indoor mask mandate be able to be lifted by Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that it all depends what the numbers are. Governor Pritzker is not spelling out what kind of metrics he’d like to see before he’ll lift the state’s indoor mask mandate, but said the Illinois Department of Public Health continues to look at the numbers.
Meanwhile, there's more concrete information from the city. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said she’d like to see the number of COVID cases per day drop below 200 in Chicago, and right now, they’re over 300 per day.
"We are still over 300 cases per day, right now, so I don’t anticipate that to be imminent. And, I’m a little concerned that when we look at the Upper Midwest, Minnesota is very much on the way up, Michigan is very much on the way up, and Wisconsin is also starting to be more on the way up," Dr. Arwady said.
"I know there’s a lot of interest in not needing to wear the masks. I, of course, would love to be in the place where we would not need to wear the masks. As you noted, if we were to get below 200 cases per day, and stay there, which is where we were over the summer, I have been talking with IDPH in taking that regional approach and being able to remove that as an indoor mask requirement."
Dr. Arwady said the key is to get more people vaccinated., and added that people who want to be fully vaccinated in time for Thanksgiving should get their first COVID shot right now.
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